Entertainment has taken over our society and we need to get back to education. A fellow twitter friend Jeff Perry w/ One Coach really touched on some good points that i elaborate on.

Listen to CEO Justin R French explain this important concept

Warning: This is kind of a rant- BUT I try to touch on some important things. Please forward this blog post to a friend you may now who needs some motivation or personal development.

Instead of my normal posts on social networking for business and social media consulting, I wanted to briefly mention some thoughts on the recent news announced today on Amazon acquiring Zappos for a whopping $850 million dollars.

First off, I want to post the Core Values that makes Zappos such a great company:

“Zappos Core Values

As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the Zappos core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble”
(pulled from http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values )

Next watch this important and educational leadership video of Jeff Bezos:

Now here is my opinion:
After watching Amazon grow and remain through the .COM bust, one thing is certain: They pride themselves on great customer service and obsess over this fact. They have innovative technology, and have done very well and I think it was a smart strategic move on their part.

Zappos too prides itself on customer service, transparency, and most importantly passion. You always see this demonstrated on a regular basis the passion that flows from top down and bottom up throughout the organization. I have been hearing especially lately from twitter on the amazing culture among employees at the firm and the #1 factor (and most important to me) I believe in why they were acquired because they are one of the top companies embracing social networking and social media (especially twitter and many other social tools) and leveraging these tools better than 95% of other firms to better service customers. Why? Because look at the CEO Tony. He is a model Social CEO who embraces social media so easily because it fits EXACTLY with their core values & will be a model for many other companies to follow.

My predication is that this is only the beginning of whats to come from other firms embracing social media as part of their business, marketing, and corporate strategy cohesively. I have a feeling (and has already started happening in San Diego) our TEAM of consultants will be helping some of these large local firms make this transition into becoming more “social” firms for the benefit of “engaging” customers more instead of just “marketing” to them all the time.

Your thoughts?
Thanks
JustinRFrench
CEO Social Networking San Diego