Gravity Summit CEO Beverly Macy was recently quoted in Bloomberg on the topic of how brands and companies should engage on Twitter. Social Network Eco-Systems have their challenges & opportunities for businesses; knowing how to best engage can be difficult. Here is short excerpt from the article:

Companies are trying to figure out the best balance, said Beverly Macy, who teaches social media classes at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Are we going to be seen as in your face or are we going to be seen as helpful?” Macy said. “What are the rules of engagement? Companies are grappling with this right now, and they’re sorting it out in different ways.”

You can read the full Bloomberg article here.

Beverly is a treasure trove of knowledge and has been an instructor at the UCLA Extension teaching Social Media for the past 2 years. She will be imparting her knowledge, lessons learned and best practices in a educational fashion at the Gravity Summit Event at Stanford. We hope to see you there. Get your tickets before we sell out.

Gravity Summit has announced a stellar group of corporate communications and social media veterans participating on its Integrating Social Media Into The Corporate Communications Mix panel at their daylong event on May 5th.

The panelists include:
Jeanette Gibson, Director, New Media at Cisco
Ginger Tulley, Director of Marketing at Six Apart
Brandee Barker, Director of Communications at Facebook

The panel will explore the intersection of social media and corporate communications as it relates to media relations, branding management, employee interaction with social media, and executive, crisis and internal communications.

“The collision of new media and corporate communications has been happening for at least 10 years, but no one fully realized the implications until the last few years,” said Steve Farnsworth, panel moderator and a director at the Silicon Valley Brand Forum. “These panelists have earned every scar they have through real world experience. It is very exciting to have them on stage to share their lessons learned. Their insights will help form effective practices for other marketing professionals in this largely uncharted territory.”

The full day event will feature speakers discussing the most efficient techniques used in social media and business. Bob Pearson, former vice president, Communities and Conversations at Dell, is giving the Keynote presentation. Speakers from DirecTV, PitchEngine, Predictify and others will present social media marketing case studies as well. The Silicon Valley Brand Forum will host and moderate a panel discussion in the afternoon: Integrating Social Media into the Corporate Communications Mix.

Gravity Summit events are designed to educate and inform the business community on how to use social media to foster customer engagement, provide internal productivity tools and strengthen brands for businesses and entrepreneurs. Marketing and public relations professionals, small business owners, and advertising, corporate communications and C-level executives from companies all around the San Francisco Bay Area should plan to attend the event.

Gravity Summit at Stanford: Social Media Marketing for Business: May 5, 2009

AGENDA

8:30 AM - Registration

9:00 AM - Welcome and Introductions Co-Hosts: Beverly Macy, Rodney Rumford
Setting the stage for a full day, Beverly and Rodney will introduce
the core concepts of social media, review the speaker agenda and
anticipated takeaways for the day.

9:15 AM - Social Media Marketing Overview, Beverly Macy
Beverly teaches Social Media Marketing at UCLA and works with clients
at all levels to understand how social media tools fit into the
traditional Integrated Marketing plan. To kick off the day, she will
discuss the state of the social media marketing landscape today,
giving best practice examples of how major brands are using Social
Media as a fast, efficient, and relatively low-cost way to get their
message directly to an audience. Learn how companies from all
industries are changing the ways in which they engage with their
customers and associates.

9:45 AM - KEYNOTE: Bob Pearson, Formerly VP, Communities &
Conversations, Dell Inc.
“How Social Media Will Transform the Fortune 500″
Based on his experience as the architect of Dell’s social media
efforts and innovative partnerships with technology partners, such as
Microsoft and Salesforce.com, Bob Pearson will describe the
capabilities of social media to transform how a company interacts with
its employees, learns from customers and, ultimately, how ecommerce
will evolve. He’ll share the real world applications and business case
studies of using Twitter and other social media tools at Dell, as well
as discussing the benefits and lessons learned from these efforts.
Join Bob as he shares his thoughts and insights on where the industry
is going, the role conversational marketing will play and how this
impacts your business today.

10:30 AM - Networking Break

10:45 AM - Using Twitter in Business, Rodney Rumford
“Twitter as a Business Tool”
Rodney is a major force in the Social Media world today. He will
discuss Twitter as a Business Tool; how you choose to use that tool
will be determined by what you want to use it for: ie. news
distribution, customer service, sales, branding, extending product
awareness, product launches, promotion, relationship building, etc.
Hear directly how Twitter is impacting businesses and marketing
campaigns in real time from an expert social media strategist.

11:30 AM - UNION-BULLETIN Alasdair Stewart, City Editor: Alasdair
Stewart, City Editor of the Walla Walla, WA Union-Bulletin
“Social media: The bridge from print to…”
Alasdair is a social media pioneer and is leading a traditional print
journalism staff into a multimedia future. Old-school media groups
have yet to unlock the power of social media. They focus on how tools
like Facebook and Twitter can be used to gather and disseminate news
but ignore the power of these tools to ’sell’ people on the news. At
the same time, these organizations are for many reasons notoriously
averse to marketing. Learn how social media is changing this at a price

12:00 PM - Networking Lunch

1:00 PM - DIRECTV: Charles E. Miller, Director, Social Media Strategy
“Using Social Media Tools to Drive Customer Loyalty and Retention”
Charles will discuss how and why DIRECTV chose to use Social Media to
drive customer loyalty and retention. Learn how putting social media
in your employees’ hands promotes open communications and equips them
with the best possible story to tell about your brand. Hear first hand
why DIRECTV believes that if you’re not joining the online
conversations about your brand, you’re ignoring your customers and
potential brand advocates.

1:45 - PITCHENGINE, Jason Kintzler, Founder and CEO
“How Social Media is Changing the Public Relations Ecosystem”
Jason is a former print and broadcast journalist turned PR expert and
now, savvy entrepreneur. Media delivery methods have changed
dramatically in recent years, but the PR industry has had trouble
keeping pace, until now. With new social web tools and tactics, PR
professionals have the opportunity to take their share of the
corporate marketing pie by being the champions of social media. By
reaching consumers, investors and media directly, brands don’t have to
rely solely on print ad campaigns to tell their story — They can tell
it themselves. It’s public relations in it?s purest form.

2:15 - PREDICTIFY, Michael Agnich, Co-Founder, CTO
“Leveraging the Wisdom of Crowds to Further Engage Target Markets and
Garner Brand Intelligence”
Is crowd wisdom hype or reality? Can it be monetized and, if so, how?
From polls to prediction markets to user-generated content sites, the
space is littered with consumer successes and business failures. Find
out how ‘wisdom-of-crowds’ platforms and sponsored prediction
challenges can help maximize customer engagement. Mike will use the
Doubleday Publishing case study to illustrate how crowd wisdom can
affect the bottom line.

2:45 Break

3:00 - 4:00 PM INDUSTRY PANEL -Moderator: Silicon Valley Brand Forum
“Integrating Social Media into the Marketing Mix”
Social Media is continuing to evolve - 3 out of every 4 US adults
online now are using social tools to connect and network. New,
easy-to-use social web tools are empowering anyone and everyone to
communicate. The communication channels are rapidly changing for
corporations. This disruption is causing some significant changes in
how companies will communicate with their employees and the market.
This panel focuses on how companies are integrating social media into
their marketing activities, what lessons they’ve learned, and how
these efforts have made them better able to serve their employees and
consumers.

4:00 PM - WRAP UP Beverly Macy, Rodney Rumford
“You’ve Learned A lot Today. How To Go Back To the Office and Impress
Your Boss?”
Discussion on how you can establish strategic objectives and ROI
targets for successful social media campaigns. Find out how to get
started in the Social Media world and move in the right direction to
meet your business objectives, plus for those companies with social
media strategies in play, how to further enhance your efforts and
increase results.

4:15 PM - Expert Q&A

4:30 PM - Adjourn

5:30 - FREE Cinco de Mayo TWEETUP Mixer in Palo Alto To Be Announced

DETAILS:
Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Time: 8:30 - 4:30, please arrive early to start on time
Location: Stanford Faculty Center
Stanford Faculty Club Map & Directions:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/facultyclub/cgi-bin/

REGISTER:

Social Media Marketing for Business

DATE: May 5, 2009 8:30 – 4:30

REGISTRATION: FULL DAY, INCLUDES LUNCH: Early Bird $389

LOCATION: STANFORD UNIVERSITY : Stanford Faculty Center

SEMINAR FOCUS: Social Media is a fast, efficient and relatively low-cost way to get your message directly to an audience. Over 100 million-plus videos are downloaded from YouTube each day. There are millions of blogs and millions of profiles on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Is this just hype or has marketing, advertising and corporate communication changed forever.

These new tools - blogs, wikis, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, online video and social networks - all present intriguing opportunities for customer engagement, but can be intimidating.

Who Attends Gravity Summit Events?
Industries: Healthcare, pharmaceutical, communications, real estate, communications, software applications companies, franchise organizations, nutriceuticals, sports marketing, entertainment, music and gaming, financial services, non-profit organizations, advertising and PR, packaged goods and more.

Decision Makers: Senior VP, CEO, President, Physician, Recording Artist, Publisher, VP Business Development, VP Marketing, Director of Client Services, Director Events and Promo, Business Manager, Senior Partner, Director of Membership Development, Managing Director, Director Content Management, SEO Specialist and more.

Join top social media experts Beverly Macy and Rodney Rumford for a full day of information, case studies, special guest speakers, and networking.

In this classroom-like setting, you will learn how to establish strategic objectives and ROI targets for successful social media campaigns. You will know how to get started in the Social Media world and move in the right direction to meet your business objectives.

Speakers invited to participate at the Gravity Summit event represent top brands and have been selected based on industry expertise and will provide unique insights into their social media marketing strategies.

Speakers:
• Charles Miller: DIRECTV Director of Social Media
• Rodney Rumford: Gravity Summit Founder & Chairman, Author of “Twitter as a Business Tool”
• Jason Kintzler: PitchEngine, Founder
• Michael Agnich: Predictify, Founder
• Beverly Macy: Gravity Summit CEO

Attendees will walk away with:

* Best Practices
* Action Items
* Unique Insights
* Case Studies
* Unique Trends Data
* Clearly Defined Objectives
* Access to a Peer Network
* Opportunity to Gain Knowledge with a Private Marketing Mastermind Group

Stanford Faculty Club
439 Lagunita Drive
Stanford, CA 94309

Gravity Summit at Stanford Social Media Marketing for Business Announced

Gravity Summit is pleased to announce the upcoming Gravity Summit Signature event: Social Media Marketing for Business to be held at the exclusive Stanford University Faculty Club on Tuesday, May 5, 2009.

Gravity Summit events are designed to educate and inform and empower marketing professionals, small business owners, advertisers, and C-Level executives, and others, about social media and the exciting new marketing and communications landscape that is evolving daily.

Coming off the huge success of Gravity Summit UCLA on February 25, 2009, co-founders Beverly Macy and Rodney Rumford are pleased to continue the educational focus of their events at Stanford University, the hub of innovation in the Silicon Valley and home to future CEOs of technology companies.

“At the conclusion of the UCLA event, we realized the overwhelming that the need for social media marketing thought leadership in the business community can’t wait , so we moved the date up by one month,” said Beverly Macy, co-founder.

Gravity Summit UCLA was the first Signature Event of 2009. Senior executives and decision makers from over 60 Fortune 500 companies and small businesses attended the event at the UCLA Faculty Club. Speakers from Sprint, Sony Pictures, Yahoo!, and DEI Worldwide presented their Social Media Marketing best practices. Attendees were buzzing about best practices, lessons learned and how they were excited to immediately implement based on the knowledge they gained.

“The goal of Gravity Summit is to help bridge the gap between the new social media marketing tools and the business community, “ said Rodney Rumford, co-founder. “And we continue to educate and share information with our Gravity Summit alumni through an exclusive online social network community where they can continue sharing and building on the relationships that formed at the event with trusted peers and industry thought leaders.”

Due to the exclusivity of the upcoming venue, registration will be extremely limited. Less that 100 registrations will be accepted, no exceptions. New this time, however, will be registration for LIVE online participation. Details will be available shortly. To register for Gravity Summit Stanford go to http://gravitysummitstanford.eventbrite.com