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Blogworld is a 3-day conference in Las Vegas where bloggers and social media fans gather to learn, share, meet and drink (well, c’mon, it’s in Vegas). I have been thinking about some of my big takeaways from this year’s event and finally have a chance to share them with you.

Here are the most important social media tips straight from the experts:

1. Laura Fitton (@pistachio) has a heart of gold and her attitude on life and work is one worth sharing (no wonder she has so many followers on Twitter). Loved this nugget from her keynote on Being Awesome:

Learn to be lucky.

Isn’t that simple? I think it’s true. Here are the other bits to that sentiment:

Maximize chance opportunities

Listen to lucky hunches (in other words trust your gut)

Expect good fortune

Turn bad luck to good (what you make out of any experience is really up to you, isn’t it?)

2. One more from Laura (she’s that good)

Think about how you are going to use social media in a crisis. Southwest Airlines has already scripted tweet posts for potential crisis situations. That is being on your A-game. Have you thought about what your potential crises might be and how you would manage on the social networks (hint: silence is not an option).

3. Frank Eliason (@comcastcares) was one of my faves at Blogworld last year and he did not disappoint this year. He pointed out that the social media space is about passion (that was a consistent theme this year).  Companies mess up because they don’t put their most passionate people in social media roles. It doesn’t matter what department they are in, the person who LOVES it will make it succeed for their company.

4. Frank (yup, he’s great) also explained how he got Comcast into social media and told us that he listened through Twitter search, a powerful tool indeed, for two months before jumping into the conversation. Giving the time to listen is critical to social media success.

5. Justin Levy (@justinlevy) shared a nice case study about using social media for a small business (a free-standing restaurant). They had one goal in their efforts – to lift their searchability on Google with key words that people would use to find a restaurant in that area. It worked and the effort resulted in a 20% lift in business that has continued ever since.

6. Has anyone who reads this blog not heard of Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan)? He talked about his move back toward email this past year and its importance in the marketing chain. Email provides targeted communication to those who want to hear from you. Key quote, “You live or die by your database.” Nuff said.

7. Really think about who you are trying to talk to in social networks. That was the mantra of Mari Smith (@marismith), another social media maven. Write it down, find them and talk to them. It’s easy to get distracted in social media, you must focus and follow one course until successful (love the belief that eventually you will be!).

8. If anyone ever doubted that blogs are becoming a business, Richard Jalichandra (@jalichandra) put the kibosh on those silly thoughts. According to Technorati’s Annual State of the Blogosphere the number one change/trend in 2009 was the rise of the professional blogger. People are making money writing blogs and it seems that will grow now that blogs are considered mainstream media.

9. Which led to takeaway number 9, which is that anyone who wants to figure out how to make money with their blog needs to dig deeply into Affiliate Marketing. Kim Rowley (@kimarketing) told us her shoe blog, shoeaholicsanonymous, pays for her mortgage. Look closely at that blog to start figuring out how to monetize your efforts. Here’s a clue – what looks like her blogroll is really a list of affiliate links. Smart lady.

10. We received a whole list of prognostications from Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), which is probably a post for another day, but I couldn’t leave him off the list. So here’s one of his crystal-ball predications – social personalization is on the way. It’s just starting this year but it’s moving fast. Smart companies will start pulling from and using robust identity profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Programs like Facebook Connect and Google Connect will provide personalized content, personalized advertising and experiences.  Sony used Facebook Connect for the release of Zombieland, which not only integrates the user into the story, it also provides a button to enable sharing with FB friends. Owyang says that if you give Sony access to your FB profile, you will have a better experience when you log on to its page; it will make personalized recommendations based on what you share. Kinda scary, but hey no one makes us share this info, we’re all volunteers in this experiment.