I enjoyed a rare treat last night and attended the Social Media Club of Dallas‘ event featuring Chris Brogan. As you can imagine, it was a who’s who of social media savants and marketing junkies from the MetroPlex. I decided to show up, too, and I’m glad I did, this being my maiden voyage into one of the club’s events. The event was held at the Angelika Theatre, which is always a nice choice.

Call it catharsis, or whatever comes to mind, but I left the event with both some huge, dwell-on-it-for-days takeaways, as well as some stare-in-the-mirror-and-hurl disappointments in myself. Probably not the call-to-action you wanna hang on the flier, but it worked for me, I think. Here’s how I break it all down:

1. It’s amazing how many of us are just trying to figure it out. Maybe it’s just a man thing, but I can’t help but go to an event like this one where there are so many social media and marketing giants and start ranking myself among the crowd. The thoughts kept crossing my mind early on until I finally slapped myself across the chops and repeated the following mantra: “Social media is not a competition.” The event got a lot better after that for me.Seriously, why do we drive ourselves so hard to be the best that it squanders chances like this where we can learn so much from others who are clearly using the tools in super-creative ways?Anyway, I ranked myself low. Very low.
2. The idea of customer managers: Probably the thing that stuck with me most from Chris’ speech was the idea of customer managers instead of product managers. Product managers typically go make a product and then look for someone who should buy it. Customer managers get to know their customer and then find products that make them happy. It’s not a new thought; Seth Godin has been preaching this sermon for years. But to go so far as to change titles and think of it departmentally only makes it more definitive, and it reminded me how much easier marketing becomes when you simply commit to knowing your customer.
3. I’m about all learned up. For the most part, I didn’t learn too much new at this event. I’ve read and talked and listened and thought a lot about all the new tools the web has made available. But it struck me that I’ve done next to nothing with all of this learning. As Chris kept making his point of truly connecting and listening, his bluntness and clarity made me realize that I still don’t do these things very well, even though I know better. I love telling people that it’s important, but there’s not a lot of proof in this pudding.
4. Forget selfish listening. Okay, maybe don’t forget it, but it dawned on me that the real opportunity with Twitter search, for example, isn’t so much in knowing what people are saying about your company, but rather in searching terms that people who could benefit from your company are probably using. And then go find them and connect.
5. Be patient and giving all at the same time. Chris’ book Trust Agents is a New York Times bestseller. He said the formula for getting  a book on the bestseller’s list was to help people out and never ask for anything in return for 11 years, and then ask for one thing once. Pretty profound, and it sums up the other key takeaway of really making sure that what you’re publishing and producing is truly seen as a valuable gift to others. And then keep doing it.
6. I suck at solo networking. I flew solo for this event, which was a mistake. I knew a few people there, but not enough to where it felt right to hang with them all night long. So, I was mingling on my own, trying to spark a few conversations. I called it quits after introducing myself to Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame, basically pulling the Dumb and Dumber equivalent of “Big Gulps, hey? Well, catcha later.” Let’s just say there was an awkward pause after my first sentence, which was also my last. Though I’m definitely at ease once a conversation starts, I gained an even higher appreciation for those who know how to start them.All that said, I did manage to have a great chat with Colin Burns (@CBurnsTCU), a power-Yelper and Chipotle’s leading man in the realm of new media, as well as Doug Caldwell (@Doug_Caldwell), facilitator extaordinairre. I also got to catch up with Tyler Horton (@HortonTyler) from Moroch PR, which is always nice.

All that to say it was a good event, and a great first impression of Social Media Club Dallas. I wish Chris’ speech had been a little longer, but, of course, he could’ve gone another hour and I probably would’ve wished for that.

Big thanks to the sponsors: TripCase, Nomee, Southwest Air, Fairmont Dallas and Firehost.

Any of you who were there, what was your biggest takeaway? Also, how to you get the conversation going when you’re flying solo?