#SoFresh STL Wrap Up by @wbreaux

Now it's time to say goodbye to all your friends, well twitter followers at least.

Social Fresh 2010 in St. Louis was a wild success in my opinion. Yet, another opportunity to meet up with like minded people and discuss the ever-changing world of social media. Although I'm not a graduate from an Ivy League school on the east coast and no I don't operate a mutli-million dollar start up in Silicon Valley, my GRITS (Girl Rasied in the South) attitude proved well.

I would liken my experience at Social Fresh to my brain being put through a series of rat mazes and finished off with a grueling training session on the hamster wheel. Social Fresh successfully stuffed thousands of hours of research, study and practice into less than 12 hours. From corporate blogging to SEO comprehension and back round again to social media marketing.

I did win a free set of Griffin earphones by racing to the front of the room. I beat out @rshrum75, sorry girl!

My takeaways:

• "Discounts are the must sought after information when your audience visits you in Social Media." Some companies are using coupon downloads as a way to measure success in social media.
• I learned the term "c-suite!" Oh and "CYA" cover you badunkadunk! @ambercadabra
• "I'm the mayor of my pants" @jasonfalls
• 80% of corporate blog traffice comes from 1st time visitors. via JasonFalls with http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/.
• "Social media emerged because marketers got out of hand!" @jasonfalls
• End every blog post with a question/call to action. Heard this more than once!
• "Zombies" @ambercadabra Zombies include: ROI, why should I be in social media, etc. very cool presentation.
• New ROI = earned-spent/# of leads = cost per lead!
• "With blog outreach, quality is better than quantity" @daniellesmithtv
• "Submit your blog info to Digg and other feed sources." Reem Abeidoh
• Shorten your "Contact Us" form and offer something useful for the consumer via Mark Roberge, HubSpot
• You're extremely stupid if you don't take advantage of http://www.websitegrader.com/ and http://www.twittergrader.com/. Both are great tools from HubSpot that gives on point advice to get your website higher search engine results!
• Get the whole low down by following the hastag #sofresh on Twitter. http://www.socialfresh.com/ will have video on their website from the conference on their website n June!

Somethings I'm sad I missed:

• The entire @JayBaer presentation!
• The #SoFresh Pre-Party @EnjoyMosaic
• The #SoFresh After-Party at Millennium Hotels RoofTop
• When Jay Baer said "Linkedin(wbreaux) is who you should know, Facebook (wbreaux) is who you've know in the past, http://www.twitter.com/wbreaux is who you want to know!"

Things I'm Looking Forward to:

• www.socialfresh.com/cruise! I've been saying all year I need a vacation and this will be it! Leaves out NewOrleans on my birthday December 2, 2010! Happy early birthday present Whitney.
• Following new and amazing people on Twitter and being friends with them on Facebook!
• Hope to see some faces at http://www.coastalsocial.com/ 2010 in BatonRouge September 29th! It's time for the DeepSouth to make its presence known in social media world! It's a loosen your tie and roll up your shirtsleeve kinda party. As we say in Louisiana, "we work hard and play harder

Shoutout to #SoFresh sponsors:

Blue Sky Factory (@blueskyfactory)

HubSpot (@hubspot)

Radian 6 (@radian6)
STLTweets (@STLTweets)

People I met at #soFresh that you want to follow:
@cnmoody @JasonFalls @bestofjess @CScottCrider @shawnmcpike @jaybaer @kristingumper @DanielleSmithTV

Check out http://www.coastalsocial.com/ for more info on the GulfSouth regional conference coming to Baton Rouge, Louisiana September 29, 2010.

Are you #sofresh?

WB

Delmar Loop in St. Louis, MO!

Most cities pride themselves in being on the cutting edge of urban development and city planning. But very few do it well. Personally, Baton Rouge is doing a heck of a job but I'm more than slightly bias.

I opted to stay out of the downtown area of St. Louis, where the #SoFresh conference was being held, during my stay and hang out in a cool, hip and cultured side of town known as the Delmar Loop. Recently designated as "One of the 10 Great Streets in America" by American Planning Association, the Delmar Loop area entertains a wide spectrum of people. With 140 speciality shops, including 48 resturats, 10 art galleries, 25 clothing boutiques and much more, the area is buzzing with energy and excitement 24/7.

Instead of walking the street like a lonely tourist, grabbing a bike from Big Shark proved to be the optium way to view the entire area in a really cool way. Honestly, my biking skills have suffered because of my excessive spinning for exercise so I'm sure the Delmar Loop faithfuls found it funny to watch me ride up and down the Blvd.

Some things of special note:

The St. Louis Walk of Fame: All along the sidewalk in the Delmar Loop are informative plaques that highlight the lives and times of people who are from St. Louis or those who have had a significant impact on the city of St. Louis. Some plaques that caught my eye include Chuck Berry, who apparently still plays at the Blueberry Hill at least once a month, Bob Petit, a graduate of my high school Baton Rouge High and Louisiana State University and my St. Louis fav Nelly! Check out more at http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/

Delmar Loop Planet Walk: Tourists and locals can take a 3 billion mile walk from Sun to Neptune along the sidewalks of "The Loop." The sidewalks feature informative markers that give great info about each of the planets! Here's more http://www.loopplanetwalk.com/.

Blueberry Hill Restuarant:  A St. Louis landmark restaurant and music club filled with pop culture memorabilia including the Simpsons, Chuck Berry, the Bealtles, Star Wats and more. Voted #1 restuarant Bar in St. Louis and has the #1 voted Hamburger! http://www.blueberryhill.com/.

Moonrise Hotel:  the signature hotel in "The Delmar Loop" area. Features a rooftop bar and full service restuarant. If you're looking to get a new experience in St. Louis this is the place to do it. Book your next #STL stay at http://www.moonrisehotel.com/.

Bike Shark Bicycle Company:  A great bike shop right on the edge of "The Loop." Excellent service and bike rentals available. More at http://bigshark.com/!

Check out more on "The Loop- Delmar" at http://www.visittheloop.com/!

WB

Great First Day in the 314!

After starting the day at 4:30am in Baton Rouge, I am beyond exhausted. So much for the #sofresh pre-party. But these are the life and times of a Mom, MBA student, communications specialist and social media junkie!

Highlights of the day:
1. Finding out about the MetroLink. After seeing this I am determined to build a rail transportation system for Baton Rouge. To see people of all colors, creeds and socio-economic classes was a truly humbling experience. If it's done here it can be done in Baton Rouge!

2. The Gateway Arch. Walking up to this monumental structure that use see growing up was amazing. It's an obvious stop on any trip to St. Louis.

3. Getting completely lost looking for a BBQ restaurant in downtown St. Louis. I don't know what I was thinking, but I had this thought that St. Louis BBQ was on my agenda. Special thanks to @STLconciergeGuy  for the recommendation in downtown @SmokingJoesBBQ is on the list for tomorrow. SHHH know one tell my trainer!

Here's to a good nights sleep and an early morning workout and then heading out to http://www.socialfresh.com/!

WB

St. Louis Arch "Gateway to the West"

What an incredible way to really kick off my brief stay in St. Louis. The St. Louis Arch is a staple in the minds and hearts of people across the world. The arch sits on the edge of the Mississippi River at the intersection of Missouri and Illinois.


After a 10min ride from the hotel to the Arch Landing terminal of the Metro Link, the St. Louis Arch was in sight. Instead of taking the street route, the riverfront walk provided a more scenic approach to the arch. Here the banks of the Mississippi have no levee. Children are able to play in the "sand" right at the river’s edge. It's crazy to think right on the other side of the river is an entirely different state.

Once you realize where you are and where you are headed, you stumble across a mountain of steps that lead to the base of the St. Louis Arch. The entrance is similar to an airport at least when it comes to security checks. A stop at the ticket counter can grant you access to the top of the arch. ($10 for adults; $5 for children; although I got a $3 discount because it's National Park Week! Here's another hint: if you sign up for the Arch e-newsletter you can earn a free one-hour cruise ride along the Mississippi River. I wasn't able to make it but thought I'd share it with you.)

There can be a little wait in the line for the tram that takes you to the top of the arch, but I was a single passenger rider so I went right in. You're stuffed into a tram car with four other people (that's why some people wait in order to ride with family) for a ten minute ride to the top! The ride was a bit scary at points because you have no clue if this little white car is going to safely deliver you to the top.

The top of the St. Louis Arch was honestly a bit disappointing. Not sure exactly what I expected maybe glass floors and ceiling to floor windows, but instead the top is a series of small rectangle windows that you can look out of. Your view will either be the Mississippi River and the state of Illinois or a view of downtown St. Louis. Probably the coolest view is of Busch Stadium/Cardinals Stadium. I took my signature photo at the top next to the 630ft. Gateway Arch St. Louis sign.

There's plenty to do at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial including giant screen movie's, a documentary film "Monument of the Dream" and the Museum of Westward Expansion. I toured the museum and found a few Louisiana mentions that I couldn't pass up!

Now for lunch and then a nap before the #SoFresh Pre-Party!

St. Louis Is All Within Reach! Sunday PM

Touchdown in St. Louis!

After exiting the plane (Delta review coming soon!), I located the airport welcome center for the St. Louis Tourism Commission. As a fellow CVB affliate I always like to stop for their information first! (FYI, CVBs have the best info in a one-stop shop) During my visit, picked up a copy of their official Visitors Guide (we have one too) and began to ask a bunch of questions. My goal is to maximize one day of touring St. Louis. The Arch and Forest Park are high on the list. But the best piece of info, "instead of taking a $35 cab ride to the hotel, try the MetroLink!" Who would've thunk it! Transportation from the airport to the hotel for 10% of the cost to ride a cab. Not only is the fare cheap, but I'm getting a great view of the entire city on the ride into town.

More to come as I move into the city! Just had to share the info from St. Louis Welcome Counter!

WB