Optimizing social media for business

Twitter pals Ted Nguyen, Diana Wei and Neal Schaffer look forward to reuniting Feb. 2 in Hollywood, Calif.

CBS Radio Host ‘Social: The New Media’ at the Avalon in Hollywood, Calif. on Feb. 2

Join me at a special event Feb. 2 in Hollywood, Calif. for a full day devoted to helping businesses turn marketing and PR into revenue and giving tips on how to build customer loyalty.

I’m conducing a panel discussion with experts in special events and customer engagement — Nic Adler and Paula Berg.

Adler is owner of the Roxy nightclub on the famous Sunset Strip and son of the legendary producer Lou Adler. His work in social media has helped revitalized the social scene on the Sunset Strip and landed him coveted spots with me in the recently released book, “The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing” by Teri Thompson and Beverly Macy.

Nic Adler, Mario Maglieri and Lou Adler at the House of Blues

Paula Berg of Denver is one of my favorite social media personalities who earned her public relations and social media stripes at Southwest Airlines, where she served as the company’s first manager of emerging media and developed  the airlines’ acclaimed online communication and social media strategy.

Here is some additional information about the event from the event website:

Social media leader Paula Berg is wired for customer engagement

As America’s top influential speakers take center stage at Social: The New Media, an all-day conference about social media’s role in

developing small business.

• Streamlining operations with social media
• Building growth strategies
• Building customer loyalty
• Going beyond Facebook & Twitter
• Measuring your results

Experts will break down the basics, present case studies and provide tools to help business owners strategize and monetize using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other powerful social media platforms.

The day’s program will begin with a look at how to build buzz using social media and evolve into a more advanced understanding of how small business owners should adapt their strategy to help generate customer loyalty and revenue.  More than 20 speakers will share their best practices.

The event at the Avalon, 1735 Vine Street in Hollywood, also will feature local food trucks for lunch and a networking cocktail party.

Visit the CBS Social Media site for more information on tickets and availability.

Top Brands Slated to Speak 3rd Annual Gravity Summit at UCLA Event Feb. 22

I will be giving a speech with top brands, entertainment celebrities and organizations for a high-powered social media event Feb. 22 at UCLA.

The list of speakers and participants include: Fast Company, Mashable, Toyota, American Red Cross, MR.Youth and HP, DIRECTV, Visible Technologies, MCHammer, Access Hollywood and more.

Here is some additional information about the social media conference:

Gravity Summit announces the full agenda for the upcoming 3rd Annual Gravity Summit event to take place at UCLA’s Covel Commons on Tuesday, February 22, 2011. The agenda details a full day of learning, informing, and empowering for businesses and individuals implementing social media marketing.

Registration is OPEN http://www.gravitysummit2011.eventbrite.com

A very special THANK YOU to our sponsors: UCLA Extension Business, Management & Legal Programs; City National Bank; Visible Technologies; Flip; Mashable, PitchEngine, Plixi, and Fusicology.

8:30 AM — Registration – Prepare for the day (please be on time) Join us for a scrumptious breakfast and lots of networking.

9:00 AM — Welcome and Opening Remarks – Beverly Macy, CEO Gravity Summit, Co-author, The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing. Beverly’s opening remarks will set the stage the stage for a full ‘immersive’ learning day. Learn how the Summits’ best-in-class speakers; the Excellence in Social Media Awards program; and the afternoon Panel Conversation will help you and your business understand where social media fits in your marketing strategies.

She will then introduce the core concepts of social media and examine where social media is heading. Beverly is co-author of The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing. She also teaches Social Media Marketing for the UCLA Extension and works with Fortune 100 clients to understand how social media can enhance traditional marketing strategies. She will briefly discuss the learning components of the day by providing an overview of the social media landscape, including Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and real time marketing as it stands today.

9:20 AM —- OPENING KEYNOTE – FastCompany and Simon Mainwaring.com, Simon Mainwaring
A mesmerizing speaker, Simon Mainwaring is a branding consultant, author, blogger and speaker. A former Nike creative at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy, he now consults for brands and creative companies that are re-inventing their industries and enabling positive change.

Simon’s clients include almost all major US advertising agencies, as well as production, digital, experiential, eco-conscious, design and purpose-driven companies, as well as direct clients. He is a member of the GMI Digital Advisory Board, AdAge Power150, TED and the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School. Most recently he was a guest of the Brookings Institute at the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha as part of their New Media working group, a speaker at the 2010 Cannes International Advertising Festival and is a Fast Company Expert Blogger.
In 2011 Simon’s first book will be released that presents a new vision for the role of the private sector in social change. A response to Bill Gates’ ‘Creative Capitalism’ speech, it lays out a realistic, practical and actionable plan in which brands and consumers partner using new media to create a sustainable third pillar of change in addition to government and philanthropy.

Simon has received over sixty international awards at the Cannes Advertising Festival, the One Show (U.S.) and the British Design & Art Direction Awards, among others. He studied Law and Fine Arts at Sydney University, lives in Los Angeles.

9:50 AM – MASHABLE – Brian Dresher, Director of Business Development “Delivering Information in Real-Time”
Brian is based in Washington D.C., where he most recently worked for USA Today as Manager of Social Media and Digital Partnerships. He will be discussing the importance of social presence; responding to customers in real-time; and how Mashable creates brand representatives in it’s organizational culture. He will share case studies that demonstrate brands that are delivering real-time info effectively and how that is measured. with social media; Social presence – Clearly, being on all major networks is key.

10:10 AM – ORANGE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, Ted Nguyen, Director of Public Relations
“Transforming Transportation in Real-Time Results”
Ted is a national award-winning PR and social media professional who oversees public communications and media relations activities for the Orange County Transportation Authority. Ted has faced and overcome numerous public relations challenges during his more than 15-year work in communications. Learn directly from Ted how the agency created a social media plan to engage citizens to participate in transportation planning by the effective use of social media. ). In 2007, Ted was honored as the “PR person of the year” by PR News magazine at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

10:30 AM – Networking Break

10:50 – DIRECTV – Charles E. Miller, Director, Digital Care/Social Media Strategy and Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, Chief Strategist Weber Shandwick
“Customer Interaction Transforms Business”
Learn how listening to customer can have far-reaching positive effects from building pre-press buzz that amplifies results to refining customer business practices drown from crowdsourced knowledge to directly affect the bottom line.

Charles will discuss the unique ways DIRECTV accomplished these marketing milestones and Dr. Natalie Petouhoff will discuss the need for a Social ID.

11:10 – AMERICAN RED CROSS, Kristiana Kocis, Director of Philanthropy at American Red Cross, Santa Barbara
“How 1 Tweet Turned into $40 Million in Disaster Aid”
Hear the truly amazing “back-story” of the Haitian Earthquake relief and how the American Red Cross, the US State Department, mobile company Mobile Accord and 1 tweet changed fund-raising forever. This is a story you can’t miss – whether you are involved in the non-profit sector or not. Small amounts really do make a difference and this story proves it.

MC Hammer, an avid Twitter user, will receive special recognition during an awards program

11:30 – Awards Program “Social Media Marketer of the Year”
Presented to MC HAMMER by Jeremy Blacklow, Managing Editor, AccessHollywood.com

Gravity Summit, helmed as the ‘gold standard’ of social media marketing events, is pleased to announce the recipient of the first-ever Social Media Marketer of the Year Award. This award was created to recognize the superior understanding and innovative use of social media marketing tools by well known brands, businesses or individuals.

As a legendary icon in pop culture, MC Hammer was considered a forefather and innovator of pop rap and dance and has an impressive string of hits including, “Too Legit to Quit” and “U Can’t Touch This.” As a Twitter and social media ’star’ with close to 2M followers, MC Hammer attributes his popularity resurgence to his savvy use of these new tools. He says his knowledge and use of emerging technology comes from “being located in Silicon Valley, wanting to see video on the internet and being connected and getting an early understanding of the applications and the solutions.”

As a Twitter and social media ’star’ with close to 2M followers, MC Hammer attributes his popularity resurgence to his savvy use of these new tools. He says his knowledge and use of emerging technology comes from “being located in Silicon Valley, wanting to see video on the internet and being connected and getting an early understanding of the applications and the solutions.”

12:15 – Networking Lunch – Please visit vendor exhibits in the Promenade

1:15 – MR Youth, Microsoft Vishal Sapra, Sr. Director Brand Development Previous winner of Mashable’s Social Media Agency Mr Youth, a NYC based agency, is committed to decoding the mystery of the new consumer and creating real conversations between brands and people.

1:35 SOCIAL BRANDING, Nic Adler (Ower of The Roxy Theater on Sunset), Kyra Reed, Markyr Media
This session focuses on how social media is evolving into Social Branding. Learn what it
takes to be a Social Brand and how that will contribute to your bottom line.

2:00 Afternoon Panel – Real-Time Conversations, Moderator TBA Teri Thompson, Co-author The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing; Andrew Orci, ORCI Agency MC Hammer, Patrick Srail, Content Director, MySpace

2:45 PM – Networking Break

3:00 PM- TOYOTA, Denise Morrissey, Social Goes Mobile
Toyota just successfully launched Entune and Denise will discuss the product launch and positioning. Entune™ is a revolutionary in-car experience that keeps you and your Toyota connected. It’s never been easier. Just download the Entune™ mobile app to applicable phones, and you can access a variety of in-car applications from your phone. You can control the applications by using the touch screen or voice commands (Bing only at launch). Entune™ will be available as an option on select models this year.

3:20 PM- VISIBLE TECHNOLOGIES Eric Forst
FedEx Use Case: Fostering 88,000 Goodwill Twitter Exposures and 20,000 Retweets by Harnessing Social Intelligence
Delivering good service through social channels can extend well beyond your community in ways you may not imagine. Eric will describe how FedEx does a great job of using a social network such as Twitter to service customers can garner not only goodwill with that customer and your Twitter community but can extend far beyond – in this case one positive experience lead to 88 thousand Twitter exposures and 20 thousand retweets.

3:40 – FLEISHMAN HILLARD, Justin Goldsborough, Digital Strategist “Benefits of Educating Clients on Social Media and Real-Time Marketing”
This session discusses the importance of client education on what social media is and how it’s implemented effectively across industries. FH, a global public relations firm offers “Social Media 101 to clients on trends they see and how it relates to brands. Companies are looking for leadership in this area and Justin will discuss in detail how FH is making that happen.

4:10 – Closing Remarks
Thank you to our Speakers and to the Gravity Summit Attendees!

4:30 – Adjourn

5:30 PM – TWEETUP/COCKTAIL PARTY JOIN US at the W in Westwood

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