(TEDActive 2010. February 9-13, 2010, Palm Springs, CA. Credit: TED / Michael Brands)

Maybe it was news of the blizzard onslaught back on the East Coast that made our 20 Social Media Workshop attendees so nonchalant about the chilly air in the high desert this morning. But the weather today was nothing to shrug off, and it was admirable that it was faced with such pluck … and then just awesome that everyone brought such interesting stories to share!

We brought a bushel of our own leads …

• What’s “raising awareness” really worth?
• Social media and the Super Bowl
• Can real viruses teach us how to make content “go viral”?
• The rise of social media is a return to the natural order
• What’s the real effect of the Facebook “Cause”?
• Black holes don’t “lurk”
• How to be a lady online

… and our friends brought even more of their own:

We learned how being a social media rock star has its ups and downs. We learned how Twitter can help you stay one step ahead of your political opponents. We learned about “whuffie.” We learned about the difference between The Beatles’ success after Ed Sullivan and Susan Boyle’s success after Britain’s Got Talent. (We learned a lot about Susan Boyle: she’s authentic; she’s archetypal; she was edited well.) A 10-second, one-act, one-man play taught us about the future of face-to-face conversation. We learned about the 7-38-55 ratio and heard a lesson that drilled home the importance of good writing. And we learned that “anything can happen at launch, including porn.”