The power behind social media has nothing to do with technology. It has everything to do with sharing ideas.

This is what I took away from Brazen Boston. Nothing ground-breaking, nothing I haven’t heard before, but when combined with the experiences I shared with the others there, it’s pretty powerful.

This past week in Boston I saw something pretty awesome. I saw young thought-leaders ready to step into the world of social media, share their ideas and use them to promote meaningful change. I also saw some leaders who have been in the game for years use the power of social media to share some ideas of their own. And they’re changing the way people like me view businesses like theirs.

It all started with the students at Emerson College. Thanks to Carla Blumenthal of Life Before Noon, Ryan Healy, Dan Healy and I had a chance to speak at Emerson about leveraging social media in their personal and professional lives.

One girl was interested in starting a blog about the challenges of being an Asian student studying in America. Another wanted to expand on a blog chronicling her journey of self discovery while raising money for a Cancer walk she was participating in next month.

And I talked with others with similar goals in mind. The underlying theme was that all of their ideas had potential to help people in some way. I heard their ideas and immediately envisioned them making a splash in the blogosphere. And I saw them helping to transform someone’s life.

Yesterday I got an email from Carla thanking us for coming. She said we created a “blogging buzz” amongst her friends and peers. Many of them were ready to give it a shot. I was thrilled to hear this. Because I know that if they stick with it, they’ll get what they want from it—a chance to share their ideas with like-minded people and be a part of the change they wish to see in the world.

And when I think about creating change, I can’t help but think about Workscape, Brazen Boston’s official sponsor. We were lucky enough to be a part of their Workscape Gives Back Roadshow, the company’s way of stepping into their community and giving back while our economy struggles.

A few days prior to Brazen Boston I got a chance to speak with Marc Moschetto, Director, Product Marketing, at Workscape. He told me about some of their social media initiatives.

What I was most impressed by was how they used tools like blogging and Twitter to chronicle their journey. Marc worried that it was all a little self-serving, I say it’s exactly what we need to see from companies right now—proof that there are for-profit organizations out there who really want to give back.

I could really feel the passion behind what they were doing. They weren’t marketing their company via social media, they were sharing their ideas and experiences while helping those in need. All I could think was, “Wow, they really get it.”

Communication through social media is not about selling a product, it’s about sharing ideas and experiences. It’s about making an authentic connection, and the more you put out there to share, the more you will get back in return.

Which brings me to the Brazen bloggers. Meeting them offline to share ideas and learn how to make what we’ve created better, is such a privilege.

At one point in the evening, I sat down with Dan Schawbel at the bar to talk about the future of Brazen. Dan loves to challenge me and he posed some interesting questions and challenges our company will probably have to overcome.

Later on I connected with Susan Johnston and Rebecca Corliss about how Brazen can better organize the mass of ideas our community brings to the site. And I left with some amazing new insights.

Because at the end of the day, what Brazen is really becoming is a factory for new ideas—a place for members of Generation Y (and beyond) to connect and share their visions for the world to come. And after all, that’s what makes ideas so powerful. When they’re shared, they have the capability of changing the world.

The Workscape Roadshow is currently under way. Today, they’re in Philadelphia, PA. Follow the rest of their journey on their blog.

If you’d like to help Workscape give back, consider donating to those less fortunate through their Virtual Foodbank.