I had the opportunity to attend the 3rd Annual Gravity Summit at the campus of UCLA yesterday with fellow members of Social Networking San Diego. In a nutshell, Gravity Summit is a day long event that brings together some of the best minds in social media from various industries. Speakers talk about social media trends, how to use social media tools, and present case studies on some unique social media applications.

Here is a brief recap and a couple of key points I took away:

The Summit started with opening remarks from Beverly Macy, CEO of Gravity Summit, and Teri Thompson, Creative Director of Gravity Summit, who spoke on the topic of “A Social Global Perspective”. One notable statistic I took from Teri’s presentation was that in the past year, there was a 90% increase in conversation on Twitter about companies and corporations. It makes you wonder, what are people saying about your company?

Gravity Summit Attendees

Simon Mainwaring from Fast Company took the stage for the opening keynote. He mentioned that two of consumers’ top concerns are honest and transparent business practices and dealing with companies they can trust. A way to address those concerns is to engage with your customers via social media.

Simon explained how social media is connecting us and accelerating change on multiple levels. He stated that companies need to build social capital as well as financial capital. Companies and brands cannot excel in a society that fails, therefore, it is critical for companies to contribute to social good.

“The best hope for business is the business of hope”

How is your company contributing to social good?

Brian Dresher from Mashable talked about sharing the personality behind your brand, show casing your company’s personality and why you should provide behind-the-scenes access to how your company operates. Sharing your brand’s “personality” is key to building trust with your customers, a point mentioned previously by Simon Mainwaring.

Panel Discussion (from left to right) Beverly Macy, Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, Patrick Srail (MySpace), Andrew Orci (ORCI Agency), Daphne Hart (American Red Cross)

There were speakers representing companies such as Access Hollywood,  American Red Cross, Domino’s Pizza, and Toyota, who talked about how they use social media or how the use of social media has been beneficial to their companies in a multitude of ways, from gaining competitive advantages, better customer engagement, building brand awareness and following, etc.

A memorable presentation was by Ramon De Leon, owner of six Domino’s Pizza restaurants in Chicago who shared how he uses social media to engage with his customers and deliver above and beyond customer satisfaction.

One of the highlights of the show was MC Hammer accepting an award from Gravity Summit for Social Media Marketer of the Year.

Social Networking San Diego CEO Justin French with MC Hammer

My experience at Gravity Summit overall was great. Check below for a full list of the speakers and a link to their Twitter page.

Wesley Quach

Complete list of 3rd Annual Gravity Summit Speakers:

Beverly Macy @beverlymacy
Rodney Rumford @rumford
Teri Thompson @terithompson1
Simon Mainwaring @simonmainwaring
Brian Dresher @bdresher
Ted Nguyen @tednguyen
Daphne Hart @daphnehart
Stewart Neff @stewartneff
Jeremy Blacklow @blacklow1
MC Hammer @mchammer
Ramon De Leon @ramon_deleon
Vishal Sapra @vishalsapra
Justin Goldsborough @jgoldsborough
Shira Lazar @shiralazar
Dr. Natalie Petouhoff @drnatalie
Patrick Srail @patricksrail
Denise Morrissey @denisemorrissey
Charles Miller @chasmiller
Nic Adler @nicadler
Kyra Reed @kyrareed

Are you a social media consultant? Are you involved in a social media mastermind group? Well if you are not, I wanted to share with you a question I get asked a lot lately. I wanted to explain why I feel social media for business is BOTH an art AND a science.

1. Social media is an art because you have to be both strategic, creative, and somewhat tech savvy. I’m not saying you have to be a programmer, BUT you have to know how to be human in a digital world and utilize the online tools. This can be very difficult for some, and require some teaching, which is why I passionately teach at Mira Costa College a Social Media and Internet marketing course that has been rising in popularity. It’s called Introduction to Marketing Your Business Online and you can find out more info by clicking here: social media workshop

2. Social media is a science because it ties very closely in with sociology (which was one of my favorite subjects in my lower division) and studies the human behavior in groups. Hence the rise of social networking, social media, and other human behavioral technologies that continues to advance. Social media requires people to be REAL and if you are not, others will know. The 5 realest people I know in social media are GaryVee, Chris Brogan, Scott Stratten, Brian Solis, and Tony Hsieh of Zappos.

So what do you think? Is social media an art OR a science? I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Enjoy the world Cup!

Justin “Results” French

social media mastermind group

Due to time constraints to blogging everyday, I am starting my Social Media 60 Second MBA Video Series. Its all about results from Justin “Results” French. Have a listen to my new video series and I look forward to your feedback-

Justin

sign up for traffic geyser inbound video marketing system here

Social Media is the critical element for our business to get more exposure in ways not possible 10 years ago. Social Media opens up avenues of potential opportunity (both good and bad), not realized before in the areas of marketing and networking. What is very clear and critical for success in social media is developing a specific strategy before establishing an online presence. One approach that Social Media uses is the stipulation of requiring friends/business associates to become fans to our page and then leveraging them to attract new ones; the more fans we have of our page, the more exposure they have to our business and our message because they are notified every time we update the status of our page. As a result, fans can comment on status updates with hopefully, positive content about what we are doing. The goal of social media then is an online conversation that stimulates and promotes an emotional response towards our message. When that goal is achieved, people take pleasure in the feeling of satisfaction and then with a bit of luck, will pursue a business relationship with us.

But Social Media is not finished at this point, because not only is it a tactic to get our business message advertised in a public manner, but it can also be a way to personalize an ideal that we have about our business. For example; we use our business as a means to assist several at risk groups that rescue and save some specific people in Africa that would otherwise be enslaved or killed. This message focus rises above the day to day business routines and settles on what we believe is actually important in life and that is to make a difference in the world. Social Media allows us the capability to align ourselves with these charity organizations and demonstrate to the community we are more than just ink on paper, we stand for something greater.

Guest Post By:

Kent Wright

Digital Operations Manager

Convergence, a division of SOS Printing, Inc.

A Fellow San Diego Business

listen to this video about how Justin French thinks cal state san marcos has one of the best business programs.

Gotta love that catchy headline right? Ok so yesterday when I logged into my personal Gmail account (I have about 30 Gmail accounts by the way all for a different business purpose because you know I’m all about business and occasionally having fun) and I happen to see a landing page come up introducing me to Google Buzz. I watched a quick video, got versed on it, and began exploring. After you watch the video I would advise you to play around with it a little bit. Do you think Twitter may be worried? My personal opinion is just like Linked-in, Facebook and Twitter. Google buzz will be just another means of me communicating to another online community of those I am connected with. (it just happens to be my contacts in my Gmail account and on my phone- the G1 Android). Buy one here and I’ll teach you how to set up a special proprietary workflow system I have created to streamline email and increase productivity

As the lines become more and more blurry between my professional life and personal life, I started out having two separate accounts but quickly realized how non time efficient this was. I am slowing trying to migrate to just 1 user account per social network, but we will see where that takes me. Right now I am more into twitter and Linked-In (obviously) but it depends on my goals.

What are you thoughts on the new Google Buzz? Should Twitter be afraid? I don’t think so, not for now anyway, BUT who knows what will happen in the next year. The world of social media and social networking for business changes every day. It is so hard to keep up BUT if this is your passion, you never consider it work. Its part of your life. It consumes you. You are addicted. But there are many other worse things you could be addicted to so until then, go get your Buzz on with Google and Tweet it up on Twitter. Cheers,

Justin R French

As businesses constantly struggle to get leads, some companies have embraced Social Networking, SEO, and Social Media to assist with lead generation. This is something we stumbled upon over a year and a half ago and have been helping businesses develop their own online lead generation system or workflow to embrace this cost effective strategy. We have helped numerous companies develop a strategy around creating value for the community, building relationships, all while collecting information to maintain communication about helpful products and services. This enables prospects to do business with them or purchase from them when THEY are ready. This is the less obtrusive approach that is continually being embraced by the companies that are getting ahead.

The 3 model companies using social media for business development include Zappos, Dell, and Whole Foods.

Here is The Top 10 Ways to Use Social Networking and Social Media for Business Development:

1. Be where the People Are

2. Focus on Customer Service

3. Be Helpful

4. Be Courteous

5. Be Kind

6. Demonstrate your product/ service knowledge or expertise

7. Share a current customer’s story that relates

8. Kindly ask for referrals when appropriate

9. Connect with them everywhere to stay on top of mind

10. Online business development makes lead generation fun

Any tips you’d like to offer that we may have forgotten? Also please remember to subscribe to our blog (top right where it says subscribe to our feed) and Re-tweet this post for those in your network that might find these quick tips helpful. I’m sure they would appreciate it.