Social Media Week is like a week-long Hallmark holiday.  Coincidentally it is around Valentine’s Day. You don’t need “Social Media Week” to use social media just like you don’t need Valentine’s Day to tell someone you love them.

I remember reading a blog post a few years ago that touted the value of post-conference recaps. Now that twitter is used so much to provide real-time commentary, doing a recap can feel a little stale.  However this week, I heard some great discussions, met some cool people, and learned some stuff. I wanted to take note of them, so I am blogging it here.

The Monday afternoon panel, Beyond Blogspot, at Hachette was really good.  Gretchen Rubin and Margaret Roach are very generous with advice. “Ubiquity is the new exclusivity”.  “Admire to Acquire”.

Monday night, I spoke at a panel, Blogging While Black, in Brooklyn.  It was sparsely attended, but my fellow panelists were great. We each talked about our “unique selling proposition”, which should be discussed more often.  Let’s be real. Everyone HUSTLES, just like everyone POOPS. If you are not hustling, you are sitting at home wondering why no one knows how cool you are.

Tuesday morning, I attended the Health Tech Food event hosted by Luminary Labs.  I got there a little late, but I did see Marc Koska speak about his crusade to end the use of dirty syringes. Then the audience broke into groups to come up with ideas to solve real-world problems. It was so exhilarating to work with the group and good to see Suzanne Xie who I first met years ago.

Tuesday evening, I attended the Eats and Apps event at 4Food. Almost every NYC food blogger that I chat with regularly on twitter was there. There were founder/representatives from Food Apps, Gojee, FoodSpotting, Snooth, Gourmet Live, Ratio, Dinevore, Food Network who showcased how their apps work. Thanks Emily, Danielle and Brian for putting on this event.

Wednesday I attended Tina Shoulder’s panel: “Social Media, The New Weight Watcher / Supporting and Building Athletes” held at Jack Rabbit Sports.  It was great to hear how using social media is connecting runners.  I hate running, but hearing about Black Girls Run is making me want to reconsider—when springtime comes.

Friday afternoon I attended two food-related panels. The first one was at lunchtime and was aptly named, “It’s Lunchtime; Now What.”  Two local sites that are new to me were on the panel, NearSay (local news) and Signpost (local deals). Other panelists were from Bizzy, Yelp, Foodspotting, Luke’s Lobster and Disco Sushi.

The second afternoon panel was held at Edelman’s offices which has a great view of the sunset in New Jersey.  The panel included FourSquare, Zagat, Foodspotting, Mermaid Inn and Schnitzel and Things.  Since I had my laptop out for this panel, I tweeted more. Here are my notes:

Mobile payments are the near future. Square and Venmo were mentioned.  I would add PopMoney and Quickbooks.

Jake’s advice to restaurants on foursquare: Be creative, doesn’t always need to be money deals (discounts/freebies).

There’s a challenge in balancing the operational and social media aspects. Both are equally important.” -Oleg of @schnitznthings

“All media is becoming social.” – @sorayadarabi

Social Media Week has grown a lot since it started three years ago. Meeting lots of people and learning new things is fun but exhausting. Next month, I get to do it again when I go to Austin.