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