If you had asked me two years ago what social media was, I probably would have guessed it was a decked-out kegger party bus of full of fun-loving journalists traveling about the country. But thanks to a great freelance job working for MediaRich, a web development and marketing company owned by our same favorite CEO, Mandi Leman, I was launched in to this wonderland of tweets and unconferences. Slowly but surely this thing called social media finally started to make some sense, but every day is still a learning process.

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to become a social-media-rock-star-in-training by attending a Social Media Workshop hosted by Giovanni Galluci. I am including in this post some high level highlights of things that really stuck with me after the workshop. Hopefully I’ll give you just enough to whet your social media whistle and encourage you to jump at the opportunity to attend one of his workshops.

Meeting Gern Blanston

From the very beginning, I knew it was going to be a great workshop thanks to a quick introduction to Gern Blanston. You can check him out on Twitter and once you figure out why he made it into Giovanni’s workshop, you’ll gain a whole new perspective into this beast we call social media.

Surprise, You Had No Idea Who I Was

While you can and should develop a plan on who and how to target your message, sometimes a person you least expect to have influence can be the catalyst to getting your message to gain momentum. Giovanni presented a couple of great case studies for his client Viewzy, a visual search engine. It seems almost unreal how a simple tweet can get you on CNN, but it happens. So, talk to everyone and assume nothing.

SEO, You Know What it Means. How Do You Do It?

Giovanni took some time to dig in a little to SEO. If you are like me, it’s something you know about and could rattle off vocabulary words like key word saturation and anchor text. But do you really know how they work to get you found by search engines? For those of you who don’t, just remember 5-7% keyword density is optimal, and for those of you who do, a good refresher now and then is always good!

Where to Promote and Wearing a Gray Hat

One of the things that has made Giovanni so successful is his willingness to toe the line and challenge the expected norm. Understanding to what extent some “gray hat” techniques can be used is important if you want to adopt an aggressive online strategy. I won’t give away the secrets he revealed about where that line is when it comes to Facebook promotions and using Linked In, but it was certainly (dare I don my own gray hat) insightful and potentially very useful.

We’re Off to See the Twitter

Twitter is the social media beast I am the most familiar with, after Blellow of course, but I still took away some great tips on how to use it more effectively. Ultimately, Twitter is a powerful tool. If you are willing to squint and blur the edges of what “normal” behavior is, it can be one of the most powerful ways to market your idea, product, or service.

Sow Your Oats

If you want to be searchable and gain some notoriety for what you do, you have to be willing to go out and sow the field with things that are going to lead people back to you. Giovanni gives great advice on how to use blogging and commenting, social media bookmarking, and news aggregation sites like Digg to help you to “plant” your name and product/service in many different places.

Be Seen & Be Heard

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, so if you are not currently using audio, video and imagery as part of your marketing strategy, you should be. But there is more to it than just uploading your video or photos. During this session of the workshop, you learn how to use these sites to their maximum advantage.

Less Work, Same Benefit

Is it possible to exist as a marketing rock star without working your fingers to the bone 24/7? Using some of these marketing methods can be time consuming. You actually have to do the work, but there are some tools out there that can help you do it faster and more efficiently; places like Friend Feed, FeedBurner, and Ping.fm. If you are not already using these tools, you should be. Gio gives great advice on how to use these sites to save you time and effort but still achieve great results.

Other Tools & Measuring Success

And last but not least, there is a whole slew of other software and tools that you can utilize to just be better at this thing we call social media. A couple that I know personally that have made things easier for me are Tweetdeck and Twitterhawk.

And in this business, it can be a little bit harder to step up and put your money where your mouth is. I sat in awe during this session as Giovanni explained his method for putting a value on what social media marketing can mean. He shares an awesome case study of a campaign he worked on with Will Hurley that shows how two days worth of work earned the equivalent of $850k worth of more traditional marketing methods. Holy cow, Batman, I think I see a rockstar!

Here is a link to his site and schedule of upcoming events. You’ll never meet a more humble, down-to-earth guy who is willing to share so many great insights and techniques with you. I left his workshop fired up and motivated and ready to take what I had learned and apply it. So, whether you are just getting started or are a seasoned SM professional, take a day and sit in this workshop.   You could be the next social media rockstar!