I’m trying to write about the Austin AMA’s recent event Navigating Social Media’s Wild, Wild West: A Practical Guide for Communicators and Marketers for the AMA blog. And, as I go through my notes, I realize I’m in a similar predicament that many in the audience expressed to me before and after the event: There’s so much information, it’s hard to know where to begin.

Many people I met at the event told me how overwhelming the concept of social media has become, partially because there’s such a proliferation of various tools and methodologies, terminology and philosophies. There are so many tools, tips, tricks, and “rules” that even choosing a relatively simple, well-defined task — such as starting a blog — becomes mind-numbingly complicated.

And, as I mentioned, such is my current predicament: I could give you a blow-by-blow account of the event, but the presentation was recorded — in both audio and video — and you’ll be able to access them in their entirety (link coming soon). I could write about other specific bits of the event, but that would make for a really long post. Instead, I will give you my personal take-aways that didn’t make it into my final version for the AMA post.

Take-Away #1 — Social media can make good marketers great and bad marketers worse.

Social media is — in its own way — putting your brand and the value you provide customers under a magnifying glass. All successful social media campaigns have two things in common: authenticity and an experience that encourages people to participate. If you don’t have that, social media will expose you.

Take-Away #2 — It’s not what you sell, it’s what you stand for.

As Dave Evans said, if you are going to create something authentic and an experience that encourages participation, you had better know who you are and what you stand for. It is more important than knowing what you sell.

Take-Away #3 — Never take “online” people for granted

As with any kind of networking, you never know who you are going to meet, and you never know who they know. Case in point: one of the panelists (Giovanni Gallucci) put together a video for a client, which was posted on YouTube and promoted on Twitter. Someone who follows Giovanni on Twitter said it looked cool and he’d put it up on his blog. Giovanni was pleased, but thought little of it. Turns out this “someone” has a blog on CNN.com. When the video was posted on the blog, it took out Giovanni’s web server.

Take-Away #3 — Social media is a means to an end — not an end in-and-of itself.

It’s still important to have real conversations, face-to-face meetings. Social media has a role in making these meetings happen sooner than they might have traditionally. As Erica O’Grady mentioned in her presentation, social media can help accelerate serendipity.

Take-Away #4 — Substance still matters, content is still king

If you don’t have anything to say, anything to share, or are generally not providing a mutual exchange of value, you will find out very quickly in the online world.