Public Relations Blog - GroundFloor Media

Never Do This: Ghost Comment

2012-02-02T09:35:00.001-07:00

There are very few actions or tactics in the world of social media that fall under the categories of “always” or “never.”

Different social media platforms and audiences require different engagement efforts, different responses and different sensitivities. Across the board standards are few and far between. But the other day, one was brought up during a lunch conversation: ghost commenting.

Ghost commenting is using an alternative identity to post online comments, questions or responses that you wouldn’t post under your own name. It’s also completely discoverable, shady, disingenuous, the opposite of transparent and just plain wrong. The minuses far outweigh the pluses.

Probably the most infamous case of ghost-commenting-gone-bad was in 2007 when Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was outed for making comments and posts on Yahoo! Finance forums about the then-potential merger of Whole Foods and Wild Oats. I admire Mr. Mackey for many of the leadership qualities he has shown at the helm Whole Foods, but several self-flattering posts under the guise of “Rahodeb” later, and who knows what to really think of him?

The sad part is how often ghost comments occur. Typically, the more frequent anonymous posts are made surrounding a controversial or emotional topic, which also happens to be the worst time to get involved in a disingenuous manner. And yet, political stories tend to receive the most pseudo-name comments. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see who is behind those comments?

The fact is everything online is discoverable. If someone really wanted to find out who made what comment, they could. The next time your company/organization/party/candidate is being taken to task on a forum or an online story, think about whether or not one comment (no matter how small) is worth risking your professional credibility.

The intelligent comments and posts find a way to effectively get a point across with a real person standing behind the opinion. You will need, however, to grow a thick skin since the ghost commenters can take anyone to task because they effectively have immunity from taking ownership of their comments.

We are seeing dramatic changes in how online forums are handled, with registrations through Facebook accounts and many forums disappearing. Only in rare instances do these forums advance the conversation. At least by being you, you can post comments and feel good about doing the right thing even if everyone else is posting fiction.

What You Need to Know About SOPA and PIPA and Why it Matters to You

2012-01-17T13:55:00.001-07:00

If you’ve been online at all over the past few weeks, odds are you’ve run across stories, comments and posts regarding two pieces of current U.S. legislation: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Both bills revolve around the issue of online piracy and protecting copyrighted materials. SOPA is a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and PIPA was introduced in the U.S. Senate. Generally, numerous media outlets, publishers and lobbyists for the media industry are in support of the bills. Detractors, including a majority of companies and associations in the technology industry, claim that these bills will have a negative, and even long-term detrimental effect, on the Internet’s stability, security and innovation.

Both pieces of legislation are complex and fairly difficult to understand. This Mashable article offers a succinct layman’s explanation of the two bills and where they stand today while this PR Daily article goes a bit more in depth. Currently, SOPA is being held up in the House, but the Senate is planning a vote on PIPA as early as next week. All of this is causing quite a stir online. Multiple prominent online companies - including Wikipedia, Reddit and Mozilla - are planning a 24-hour blackout tomorrow in protest of both SOPA and PIPA.

The subject of online copyright enforcement has been around as long as the Internet and impacts companies of all sizes. The same can be said about innovation, creativity and the sharing of ideas and information online. Where do you stand?

An Emerging Trend for 2012: The Collision of Social Media and Crisis Communication

2012-01-13T11:06:00.005-07:00

The most frequent questions I encountered in 2011 included: what should we do when a detrimental story about our company breaks online? How do you respond to social media posts or comments from angry customers, or even disgruntled employees? Or do you avoid response and consider deleting comments? Worse, how do you stop the spread of misinformation, or blatantly false claims about your CEO, company or its products?

It used to be that the worst-case scenario for a business going through a crisis was a story appearing on an evening network newscast or in the morning paper. Today, the greater risk is what happens to that story, or any unfavorable story for that matter, when it is broadcasted across social networks. In the era of social media, not only does the public have the opportunity to say, report and offer opinions at will, but they are able to do so without any type of factual check and balance. And all of that information lives online in perpetuity, eroding reputations that took years to build.

A quick search for “crisis communication” on Mashable turns up a lengthy list of situations and case studies that played out over the past year: Taco Bell being under fire for the ingredients in its ground beef, the reaction to NetFlix’s price increase, and there were plenty of political figures who had their issues. As you can imagine, the list is quite extensive.

During 2011, GroundFloor Media saw a large increase in the number of clients that were looking for answers to the “what if” social media crisis questions, and even a few clients who experienced the intersection of crisis communications and social media firsthand. We expect this trend to continue in 2012 as more and more individuals, companies and their customers continue to expand and engage in social networks.

In December, GroundFloor Media launched its proprietary Online War Room™ to help prepare businesses and organizations for scenarios that can, and will, occur on social networks. This secure tool allows our Rapid Response and social media teams to work with clients to customize training sessions and mimic online crisis and issues management situations and conversations, in real time. We all know that preparation is key in any crisis situation, and the Online War Room allows our clients to discover what they need to include in their social media response plan, test their existing response plans, refine the processes for reacting and responding to negative sentiment and misinformation, and even put executives more at ease with communicating in the social media space.

In most cases, the first 120 minutes of a crisis can determine the public’s perception of an organization, and social networks exponentially emphasize the need to be prepared for any number of public conversations and crisis-related scenarios. What are your company’s plans to effectively manage its online reputation in 2012?

~ Jim Licko

Navigating the Pinterest Craze

2012-01-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

“I’m obsessed.”

“It’s your fault. I just can’t stop!”

“It is so addicting.”

For the last few weeks I have been receiving text messages, emails and Skype messages with these complaints from friends, family and coworkers. Why? Because I have been encouraging anyone and everyone I know that likes social media and blogging to get on board with Pinterest.

“Pinning” could be the next it verb to coincide with “tweeting,” seeing as how Pinterest is now on the list of the ten most visited social networks according to Mashable—and it is still an invitation only network.

If you have chosen to ignore the Pinterest craze, an easy way to think about the concept is that it’s the modern day equivalent of tearing out photos from magazines and newspapers and saving them all in a “someday” box under your bed. Members of the network can either chose to “repin” or “like” images from the Pinterest site, or a button on your browser that allows you to pin any image, from any website, across the entire Worldwide Web. Images that you pin are then organized by you onto virtual inspiration boards.

For example, if you love to bake then you can pin photos of cakes, cupcakes and muffins and save them all to a baking themed board. At any time you can go back to your boards to remind yourself of décor ideas, recipes, travel destinations, crafts (the list is endless) that caught your eye and pursue your passions accordingly.

I could go on and on about why Pinterest has become a personal obsession, but what I find even more exciting are the opportunities for early adopters to carve out a niche space for brands. Mashable recently published a great piece with five distinct ideas for how brands can think about leveraging Pinterest and are right to point out that smaller brands who have a hard time cutting through the clutter on Facebook might just have the chance to be a little more visible to their fans on Pinterest.

Why and How Nonprofits Should Use Pinterest and How 11 Brands are Reaching Customers on Pinterest are two other smart reads for helping marketers decide if the platform is a fit for 2012 social media strategies.

If you are considering Pinterest but still need a nudge to get started, here are a few ideas to make it work for a brand:

You have at least one Pinterest obsessed employee who would be eager to be the Pinterest ambassador for the brand.
Your brand story lends itself to being told through pictures, or your product inspires people to aspire. For example, Whole Foods pins photos of dream kitchens in which they’d love to cook healthy, wholesome meals while West Elm pins photos of patterns such as chevrons and stripes that inspire their designers to create the items you can buy in their stores.
You are looking for new ways to host contests, promote products and give customers a more intimate look into the culture of your organization. In December 2011, Land's End was among the first to successfully host a national, public contest on the platform--all based on having customers pin pictures of their favorite Land's End products for the chance to win gift cards.
You are willing to tip your hat to what inspires you or your business to succeed by pinning images and pages generated by others, not just your brand or close associates.
Social media giants like Facebook are not moving the needle as much as you would like, and you have the capacity to try new platforms that reach your target audiences.
If you can think outside your own brand box and show people how your brand might influence other areas of their life, Pinterest might be for you. For example, if you own a cupcake shop, pin photos from blogs about planning great parties, or if you sell cars, pin photos of amazing road trip destinations that could be made possible by traveling in one of your vehicles

For more inspiration from brands that are doing a great job on Pinterest, read this article from Mashable which highlights recognizable names like Martha Stewart, Today (as in the show) and the Travel Channel.

Happy pinning!

~Alexis Anderson

A New Perspective

2011-12-19T14:49:00.001-07:00

As part of GroundFloor Media’s 10th anniversary Get Giving initiative, I was a member of the Colfax Crew, the team that was supporting Colfax Community Network (CCN). As a reminder, CCN advocates for and works on behalf of children and families residing in low-income, transient housing (primarily residential motels) along Colfax Avenue by providing information, services and programs to strengthen and improve family and community life.

Before learning about CCN, I never gave too much thought to Colfax Avenue – other than thinking that it wasn’t exactly the prettiest street in town and that I didn’t want to find myself walking down it alone after dark.

I now look at it in a very different light. In fact, the other day I found myself driving down Colfax and paying particular attention to the many motels along the way. What would it be like to call one of those places home? To wake up there every morning? To live in one of those motel rooms with four or five other people, sometimes more?

Or, even worse, to worry every day about your children living in a motel that may be filled with convicted felons and sex offenders who are on parole and have been placed in Colfax motels by the Colorado Department of Corrections. In September 2011, 9News conducted an extensive investigation of sex offenders living in Colfax motels. In many cases, the motel management staff did not disclose the number of sex offenders living in their establishment, or they openly stated to undercover reporters that the motel was safe for children despite some places having more than 20 registered sex offenders living there. Read more about this issue on 9News.com.

On my drive down Colfax, I happened to see a child running down the length of a motel parking lot and couldn’t help but wonder about his life. And I thought of the kids involved in CCN’s after school program – the ones we spent an afternoon with the week before Thanksgiving. They are such amazing kids – full of so much joy and energy and promise. A particular exchange between two of the kids that afternoon especially pained me, though – and I wondered if they were mirroring some of what they see in their daily lives at the motels – aspects of life that no child should be exposed to.

And while I know that our small contribution alone won’t ultimately change these kids’ lives, it helps me to think that maybe we were able to make some sort of difference. Perhaps one of the field trips we sponsored will end up sparking an interest for one of those kids (e.g., an interest in astronomy following a trip to the Museum of Nature & Science) that helps keep them in school and out of trouble, or maybe an article of clothing we donated will help keep one of them warm this winter. Regardless, I am grateful that GroundFloor Media encouraged and allowed us to undertake this project. And I am grateful that caring people such as the employees and volunteers at CCN are working so hard every day to make life better for these kids and their families.

As we wrap up our Get Giving project, and especially as Christmas fast approaches, I feel compelled to make one more “ask” – if you would like to learn more about CCN and/or find out how you can help support the organization, please go to the organization’s website or drop us an email at getgiving@groundfloormedia.com.

~Amanda Brannum

Managing Social Media During the Holidays

2011-12-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks of December become a ghost town in many offices, as employees scatter far and wide to celebrate the holidays with family and friends. Social media management often falls to the wayside as team members focus on year-end reports and 2012 plans instead of Facebook updates and new blog content.

It could dangerous to assume however that just because the social media manager is away from his or her desk that your customers and followers are offline as well. In fact, many people will capitalize on quiet mornings at home during their vacation to catch up with their interests online, including social media content distributed by the companies they follow. Moreover, if you are a retailer or service provider, customers will actually expect to hear from you throughout the season—especially if they are anticipating coupons or exclusive sales for being a social media follower.

To remain relevant during the busy holiday season without over-extending a skeleton staff, below are five tips for staying on task into the New Year.

If your company does not already follow a monthly social media editorial calendar, draft one with daily, pre-written content from Dec. 19 – Jan. 2. This will save whoever is in charge of social media through the holidays any added pressure of being creative when he or she is hearing crickets around the office.
Create an “in case of emergency” social media monitoring and response team. A crisis can bubble up at any time, particularly on social media channels, and depending on the size of your business, you need to have at least two people on call for responding in a timely and effective manner. Dealing with a customer complaint from Dec. 24 on Jan. 4 is no longer considered acceptable, and could cause more harm than good if the issue spreads virally in the interim.
Use the scheduling feature of a social media dashboard like Hootsuite to schedule tweets and Facebook posts on days when no one can publish content personally. However, do be sure that someone will review comments and questions that might come in from fans within a 24-hour period to maintain some sort of responsiveness.
Take advantage of quiet time in the office to review your 2011 social media plan, and dedicate time to executing ideas that have sat on the back burner all year. For example, if you planned to issue at least one Facebook poll but never got around to it, draft and distribute a short poll that is relevant to the holidays and your business. We all tend to get stuck taking care of tactics when we’d rather focus on being strategic – take advantage of the time you have.
Ask an eager employee who enjoys social media to help with creative posts on official office closure days. For example, if a few team members will be meeting on New Year’s Day to go skiing, having them post a photo to wish fans a safe and fun holiday can give your company personality, and show that employees enjoy being together.

The holidays should be a time when we can all unplug and unwind to celebrate a successful year. Just be sure that downtime is balanced with the type of social media content and customer service that will have customers returning to your company for more in the New Year.

Or, at the very least, offer followers a sincere “best wishes” for the holidays and let them know when your company will be closed in order to allow staffers to spend quality time with loved ones. Tell fans what date to expect regular posts to commence and enjoy the downtime!

~Alexis Anderson

Tails are wagging!

2011-12-13T10:05:00.001-07:00

If you read Kristina Reilly’s blog post in October, you learned that the GrrroundFloor Animals at GFM united to support Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign as part of GroundFloor Media’s 10th Anniversary Get Giving project. We reached our goal to donate a minimum of $2,500 and had fun putting together a video featuring all the GFM dogs. Our donation will go toward furthering research in treatment, prevention and hopefully finding a cure for canine cancer some day soon. If you forgot to donate or are looking for a good cause this holiday season to make a donation, visit the GrrroundFloor Animals fundraising donation page.

Beyond the Canine Cancer Campaign, Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) aims to help not only dogs but, all companion animals and wildlife as a national animal charity in Denver’s back yard. We asked Heidi Jeter the Director of Marketing and Communications to tell us more about ways to give and what our efforts mean to the future of animal health. Our team is very passionate about helping our furry family members – you might just run into one of our four-legged friends if you stop by our office impromptu - and hope our efforts lead to finding a cure.

What does GroundFloor Media's donation mean to MAF and the future for canines?

Cancer is the no. 1 cause of death for dogs over the age of 2. The only way to beat this disease is through scientific study. Unfortunately, there is little government funding for animal health studies, so scientists who want to help animals depend on organizations like Morris Animal Foundation for their funding. GroundFloor Media’s donation will help us make a difference in preventing and treating cancer in dogs.

When did the Canine Cancer Campaign start and how can people get involved?

Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign is an unprecedented global effort to prevent, treat and, ultimately, cure cancer in dogs. It launched in 2007 with the goals of learning how to better diagnose, prevent and treat cancer in dogs. The Foundation currently is funding 39 canine cancer studies. Some of the cancers being studied are bladder cancer, lymphoma, bone cancer, mast cell tumors and soft-tissue sarcomas.

There are lots of ways to support the campaign, many of them are listed on our website at www.CureCanineCancer.org, including.

· Donating in memory or honor of a special dog

· Participating in a Morris Animal Foundation K9 Cancer Walk

· Hosting a dog walk to benefit the Canine Cancer Campaign

· Creating a personal Cure Canine Cancer fundraising Web page

· Sharing your survivor stories or memories

We also have some great gift items on our website at http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/make-a-difference/shop-smart.html. These include animal-themed ornaments, wine, pet tags and a lot more. Part of the proceeds from all of these items benefits Morris Animal Foundation.

Are there any connections between canine cancer and human cancer, especially around research?

Cancer is similar in dogs and humans. What researchers learn from dogs may lead to cancer prevention and treatment breakthroughs for humans and vice versa—treatments being used in humans successfully are now being studied for dogs. Different breeds also develop different types of cancer, which indicates strong genetic factors. Learning more about the genetic connections in dogs could help researchers studying human cancers as well.

Tell us about the K9 Cancer Walk? When is it and how can I participate?

The K9 Cancer Walk program raises funds for its Canine Cancer Campaign, which funds prevention and treatment research to help dogs enjoy longer, healthier, cancer-free lives. In 2011, the Foundation hosted five walks nationwide including the first-ever in Denver. The 2012 walk schedule isn’t finalized yet, but people can visit www.K9CancerWalk.org to learn more.

~ Carrie Odberg

Kids on Colfax

2011-12-01T11:56:00.003-07:00

Thanksgiving came a bit early to GroundFloor Media (GFM) this year.

In the weeks leading up to the annual kick-off to the holiday season, Alexis Anderson, Amanda Brannum, Kimmie Greene, Laura Love-Aden and Jennefer Traeger, aka the Colfax Crew, set out to collect personal hygiene products and clothing donations to support the Colfax Community Network (CCN), an organization dedicated to providing information and programs to the children and families residing in low-income and transient housing (primarily residential motels) along Colfax Avenue in Denver.

On Nov. 17, the team filled three cars with donated goods and that was just the beginning.

Once the cars were unloaded, the fun began as the team spent the afternoon volunteering with the kids from the CCN afterschool program. The program strives to create an afternoon of “normalcy” – a break for kids who are likely heading home to unpredictable circumstances.

The kids, ranging in age from 5-11, gathered together to read and share stories about the day before eating homemade snacks and starting homework. Toward the end of our time together, pencils and notebooks were traded in for straw hats and stuffing to build two scarecrows for the CCN garden. The GFM team worked with the kids throughout the afternoon, engaging them about their favorite foods, music and hobbies, as well as helping them with spelling and math.

We felt lucky and proud to spend time with the kids and staff at CCN and urge anyone with two hours to spare to reach out and volunteer their time. The connections are invaluable and remind us in the midst of the mayhem of Black Friday and Cyber Monday about the true meaning of the holidays and giving.

Our involvement with Colfax Community Network is part of the agency’s 10th Anniversary Get Giving campaign. GFM is celebrating 10 years in business by donating a total of $10,000 to four Denver-area nonprofits – $2,500 per organization – Colfax Community Network, Underwearness, Morris Animal Foundation and Dress for Success. In addition to the cash donation, GFM staff divided up into four teams to collect community donations and volunteer time for each organization.

Best Friends Helping Best Friends - Canine Cancer Campaign

2011-11-17T15:39:00.003-07:00

In August our family patriarch passed away. Red (aka Reddrick von Poopenheimer III) was the classiest of dogs. A Hungarian Vizsla, Red was as close to a human as a dog could be. He could open the fridge on his own, sing a tune and give you the slyest of winks. He was woven into our lives like nothing else, and we miss him every day.

It’s in honor of Red and all the other GFM fur babies who bring so much love and slobber into our lives that we’re working to raise money for canine cancer research as part of GroundFloor Media's Get Giving 10th Anniversary campaign.

Morris Animal Foundation's Canine Cancer Campaign is helping scientists worldwide prevent, treat and, ultimately, cure cancer in dogs. We believe that, working together, we can one day cure canine cancer. Research funded through the campaign will help develop prevention strategies, test new treatments, establish tools for cancer researchers and train new scientists specializing in cancer research.

Please donate today to help us create a healthier tomorrow for dogs.

~ Ashley

Knee-Deep in Underwearness

2011-11-14T15:18:00.004-07:00

It’s not every Sunday afternoon that we find ourselves knee-deep in thousands of pairs of kids’ underwear. Now before you go calling the authorities, consider this: according to the Colorado Health Foundation’s most recent Colorado Health Report Card, more than 143,000 children in Colorado live in poverty. Our state ranks 14th in the nation for children living below the poverty line.

What do these things have to do with each other? Well, this holiday season thanks to a start-up charity called Underwearness, thousands of kids will receive new, clean underwear – something most of us take for granted, but for many underprivileged kids it is a rare extravagance. As part of its Get Giving 10th Anniversary campaign, GroundFloor Media’s Underdogs team (Wendy Artman, Carissa McCabe, Amy Moynihan, Claire Mylott and Ramonna Robinson) helped Underwearness founder Koree Khongphand-Buckman purchase and hand-sort thousands of pairs of girls’ and boys’ underwear. Koree started Underwearness out of her home when it came to her attention that some poverty-stricken children do not have underwear — clean or otherwise.

With Koree’s help the Underdogs team literally emptied the aisles at the local Kmart, then proceeded to count, sort by size and gender, and jam-pack boxes to help fulfill orders for several nonprofit organizations around town, including Safehouse Denver.

As we were diligently counting and sorting, what struck us most was the sheer volume of underwear needed by each organization. Safehouse Denver alone needed more than 1,000 pairs of varying sizes of underwear to accommodate the boys and girls it serves. All of us who volunteered that afternoon are mothers ourselves, and it was hard not to think about our own children and how fortunate we are to be able to provide for them. By literally being knee-deep in underwear destined for shelters, our eyes were truly opened to the dire straits of other Colorado families. There is something particularly enlightening about holding another child’s basic needs in your hands that stops you in your tracks.

In an effort to include GFM team members outside Colorado, too, the Underdogs have joined forces with Underwearness to launch a giving campaign in Milwaukee, where Wendy is based. Koree introduced us to a local supporter there, and we are helping to promote a drive with the goal of collecting 5,000 pairs of underwear for local nonprofit Journey House. Journey House will then distribute the underwear to families in need on Milwaukee’s south side.

We couldn’t be more proud to have helped Underwearness on a recent Sunday afternoon and to have expanded our support outside Colorado to the current fundraising drive in Milwaukee. Although our part is just a small drop in the bucket toward satisfying the demand for clean underwear, we walked away with a new appreciation for what a good heart, a great idea and lot of hard work can do. Thank you Koree and the Underwearness team for all you do to give kids dignity!

NOTE: if you’d like to get involved in our effort to support Underwearness in Colorado or in Wisconsin, please contact getgiving@groundfloormedia.com.

The Art & Science of Key Messages (part two)

2011-11-02T15:00:00.013-06:00

(See Oct. 31 post for part one, which covered identifying target audiences)

Limit Key Messages to Three and Back Up with Proof Points

There's no magic to three key messages other than it's usually easier for people to remember items in threes. Coming up with three targeted, memorable messages will help everyone in the organization serve as ambassadors, delivering consistent messages each time they communicate on behalf of the organization. Developing proof points to accompany your messages will help bring your messages to life and make them stand out. This is where you can come up with a "kitchen sink" list of proof points for each message. Examples of proof points may include: awards and recognition, research, statistics, real-life examples, practical applications, etc.

Key messages Should Be One or Two Brief Sentences

Messages that are three or four sentences each will not be memorable or resonate with your target audiences. By writing your messages down, this will help you focus on making sure they're brief, concise and understandable.

Practice Makes Perfect

Once you develop key messages, it's critical to vet them. Practice your messages with people outside your company or organization. Deliver your messages to friends, family, neighbors and complete strangers, asking them to repeat back what they heard to ensure you’re accurately communicating your key messages. If your messages don't easily flow from your tongue and the recipient is having trouble repeating them back, they may need more work.

Train Your Employees, Volunteers

The final step, and one that is often overlooked, is training your spokespeople, employees, volunteers and other ambassadors for your company or organization on how to effectively deliver key messages and proof points when speaking to target audiences. Media train your spokespeople and have them practice delivering key messages in mock interviews. Role playing in groups where employees can team up in twos and practice sharing the messages in different mock settings (cocktail party, business lunch, child's soccer game) is another effective way to learn and become comfortable with the messages.

Uses for Key Messages

Your key messages and proof points should be incorporated into all internal and external communications efforts including media interviews, news releases, speaking opportunities, marketing materials, proposals, social media outreach, employee communications, website, etc. They should be reviewed and updated, especially your proof points, several times each year to ensure they remain relevant and timely.

GroundFloor Media recently worked with several nonprofit organizations, including Youth Opportunity Foundation, Colorado Youth at Risk and Rose Community Foundation, to help them develop key messages and proof points for their respective organizations.

~ Barb Jones

The Colfax Crew Connects with the Colfax Community Network

2011-11-01T11:52:00.000-06:00

The Colfax Crew team has adopted Colfax Community Network (CCN) as its beneficiary for GroundFloor Media’s 10th anniversary Get Giving program. For Amanda Brannum, Laura Love, Jennefer Traeger, Kimmie Greene and myself, all it took was a few words about CCN to make us realize that we wanted to be a part of supporting its mission.

Let’s start with one simple question…

What do you think about when you drive down Colfax Avenue and pass motel after dilapidated motel?

I am willing to bet you don’t think very highly of the people who are inside. The terms drug addict, criminals and prostitutes probably come to mind. There may also be an assumption that the motel dwellers deserve to be there, or that they haven’t worked hard enough to find better housing.

However, what if you learned that those motels actually house hundreds of families with young children—children who do not choose to be born into poverty and spend their entire childhood growing up in those conditions? What would you think if someone told you that the grandparents, parents and children in the residential motels are more of a community—a community of good people who are struggling every day to stay one small step above being homeless?

When the Colfax Crew team learned the truth about those “seedy” Colfax Avenue motels, we knew that we wanted to donate our time and Get Giving donation budget to these families and the CCN staff.

Currently, CCN focuses on the following services for the motel community:

Family Night
Emergency Walk-In Services
Access to Services
After School Program
Summer Camp

CCN is also always looking for volunteers and donations. We encourage you to visit the “Get Involved” section of the website to review available volunteer positions and current wish list items.

In the coming weeks our team is thrilled to be donating time and resources in several areas. We will attend a Family Night gathering to meet motel families and learn first-hand about their struggles and the support CCN provides. We are also sponsoring six field trips for children serviced by CCN in order to expose them to new, positive Denver experiences and hopefully lighten their spirits in the process. And finally, we will collect clothing and hygiene products for the families to help fulfill CCN’s current wish list needs.

We look forward to sharing our experiences with you here on the GFM blog. Click here to read more about our work with CCN, and please email us at getgiving@groundfloormedia.com if you would like to get involved as well!

~Alexis Anderson

The Art & Science of Key Messages (Part One)

2011-10-31T12:31:00.016-06:00

Effective communications is both an art and a science, and to be successful, any marketing communications program must be relevant to your target audiences. At the very heart of the communications program are key messages. For this reason, developing key organizational messages is a critical first step to any communications campaign.

Key messages should speak directly to target audiences’ interests, while effectively impacting the desired behavioral changes. Too often, organizations craft overly complex messages by including "everything and the kitchen sink" that they want to say about the organization. The result is key messages that tend to be too long and difficult to remember. Instead, messages should be clear, concise and direct. “Easier said than done” – true, but not impossible. Following are some quick tips for developing memorable messages for your organization and for training your organization's ambassadors (spokespeople, other employees, volunteers, etc.) to deliver those messages.

Identify Target Audiences
Some important first questions to ask when beginning the message development process: Who are you trying to reach and why? What is it that you want your audience to learn or do as a result of your message?

Key messages are what you want your target audiences to "take away" from your campaign or program. Your organization will have multiple target audiences, but instead of trying to come up with 12 messages for the 12 target audiences you've identified, there's probably an opportunity to combine these audiences into like-minded groups. For example, let's pretend your organization is a food pantry providing food to individuals and families. While the food pantry may identify numerous target audiences, there is a natural way to "group" audiences because of what you want them to do.

Potential targets for a food pantry include:
• Donors – People and businesses that donate money and food to the organization
• Influencers or key stakeholders – Policymakers and community leaders interested in finding ways to reduce the number of families living in poverty
• Clients or customers – Individuals and families who use the services of the food pantry.
In this example, you can begin seeing how your messages are targeted to each of these distinct groups.

Following is an example of a key message directed to donors:
"ABC Food Pantry is a model of efficiency and stability, from its low administrative costs and vast volunteer base, to how it collects and delivers food to people in need." From there, you can insert a proof point to back up the message. "In fact, 93 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to providing services to people who are hungry."

Check back for part two of this blog where I'll cover more on how to develop key messages and proof points.

~ Barb Jones

An inspiring tale of one's quest to become healthier

2011-10-28T09:11:00.000-06:00

Do you ever read a blog that gives you the extra push you need to make something happen? Most recently, I enjoyed a post from our client, Bob Mook, at the Colorado Health Foundation. His post, "To health and back again," focused on his quest to live a healthier life - for him and his family - and offered some key advice: While health-focused organizations like LiveWell Colorado encourage and promote healthy living, "revolution also begins at home – as in your home."

Just like me, Bob's post, might give you the extra push you need to walk, run or venture to the gym this weekend.  

~ Jennifer

Team Impressionistas Takes a Second Look at First Impressions

2011-10-20T09:22:00.008-06:00

Around 55% of another person's perception of you is based on how you look. Fair? No. Human nature? Regrettably so. We’d all like to believe that an employer will choose substance over style during a job interview, but there’s no denying that wardrobe is part of a first impression.

You know the scenario – the golden call for a job interview comes in and, the night before, you’re tearing through your closet trying on every suit you own to decide if it’s “the one.” I’ll admit I’ve probably spent more time prepping my interview outfit than my interview question responses.

But the reality is that not everyone has the luxury of picking and choosing from a closet stocked with professional attire. If you’re a low-income woman on a budget, there’s one place you’re likely to turn for a little wardrobe 9-1-1 – Dress for Success Denver. As part of GFM’s 10^th anniversary Get Giving initiative, the Impressionistas Team is donating money and time to help Dress for Success Denver continue to help women make powerful first impressions in the workforce through updated wardrobes, as well as career training and counseling. And, seeing that it’s the nonprofit’s 5^th anniversary this year, the timing for our partnership couldn’t have been more serendipitous.

The timing is also opportune for you to donate. Are you now working in a more casual or remote environment, yet keeping a stash of just-in-case suits? (This was so me until recently.) Did you lose or gain weight and can’t bring yourself to purge the old-you attire? Label it lazy, hopeful, sentimental or something else, but really… it’s time to put those perfectly good suits to good use.

Here are a few ideas you can do today to help Dress for Success Denver’s disadvantaged women in their journey to economic independence:

Donate… duh. Drop-offs are the second Saturday of the month at Dress for Success Denver, which means the next one is Nov. 12. Mark it on your calendar today. Heck, go a step further and round up suits from your friends and/or officemates. Help them help others.
Don’t donate. What I mean to say is don’t donate anything you wouldn’t wear yourself. These women want to feel chic, professional and confident, so bring only new or nearly new clothes with no stains or tears (that means no 80’s shoulder pads a la Melanie Griffith in “Working Girl”). Current wish list items are: white button-down shirts, black slacks sizes 16-26, camisoles, nice jewelry and handbags.
Financial support. Don’t have suits to spare? Financial donations in any amount help.
Volunteer. Visit the Dress for Success Denver volunteer page to sign up to be a personal shopper, career center counselor or donation day warrior.
Show some Facebook love. Follow Dress for Success Denver on Facebook to learn about their events, their needs, help share their cause with your own networks or just to tell them what a great job they’re doing.

~ Rebecca

GrrrrroundFloor Animals Get Giving to support Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign

2011-10-15T08:35:00.006-06:00

Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign tag line says it all, “Best Friends Helping Best Friends.” It was our team’s love for our best friends that quickly united us to support the Canine Cancer Campaign as part of GroundFloor Media’s 10^th Anniversary Get Giving project. For me the decision was also deeply personal; this past June I lost my best friend Duke to lymphoma.

Duke was a labor of love. We rescued him when he was just shy of his second birthday. We were told that we were his fourth home, but that had nothing to do with behavioral issues rather lack of time to care for a high-energy Weimaraner. We welcomed Duke into our home, and he quickly became my shadow. He was never keen on leaving the house and often had to be bribed to go for a walk. Offering a ride in the car was always met with hesitation and usually required us lifting him reluctantly. Duke was a home body. Sounds great except that it was Duke’s home and he was adamant about not letting others in, making it difficult to entertain or host house guests.

In March, something changed in Duke. At first, the vet optimistically thought it was a minor infection, but he wanted to run additional blood work. A few days later that blood work confirmed the worse –Duke had lymphoma. According to Morris Animal Foundation, 1 in 4 dogs will die of cancer. It is also the leading cause of death in dogs over the age of 2 years, and the risk increases with age. On June 20, my best friend Duke became part of that statistic.

Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign is funding research to help develop prevention strategies, test new treatments, establish tools for cancer researchers and train new scientists specializing in cancer research. Our team hopes that you will support this campaign by helping raise funds to one day cure this disease that affects so many of our "best friends." For every dollar we raise, through its 10^th Anniversary Get Giving program, GroundFloor will match it up to $2,500.00. Please take a moment to visit our giving page and learn more about Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign. Feel free to share the link with friends and family because together we are working to fund a cure.

~ Kristina, team member of GrrrrrroundFloor Animals

10th Anniversary Get Giving: Underwearness

2011-10-11T09:30:00.003-06:00

As part of its 10th Anniversary celebration, GFM has identified four charities to which staff teams will be dedicating time and effort, as well as donating $2,500 to help the cause. In this video meet Koree Kongphand-Buckman, founder of Underwearness. GFM will be supporting Underwearness in the coming months by helping to fulfill and deliver orders around the Denver metro area, as well as raising awareness for Underwearness through some local media outreach. You can learn more about Underwearness at www.underwearness.org.

Celebrating by Giving Back

2011-10-05T10:42:00.013-06:00

As most of you know by now, GroundFloor Media is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. And as you also know, giving back to the community has been an integral part of our agency from Day One. So, it only seemed natural that our celebration should include a community component. The only question was what it would look like…

In the end, we decided to build upon our existing Get Giving program and donate $10,000 ($1,000 for every year the agency has been in operation) to four nonprofit organizations. Our crew divided into four teams, and each team chose a nonprofit to support. The only stipulation was that the organization had to be a 501(c)3 – otherwise, the sky was the limit. Not surprisingly, knowing our crew, women, children and animals rose to the top, and the selected nonprofits were:

Colfax Community Network: advocates for and works on behalf of children and families residing in low-income, transient housing (primarily residential motels) along Colfax Avenue

Dress for Success – Denver: promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing them professional attire, a network of support and career development tools

Morris Animal Foundation: advances health and welfare research that protects, treats and cures companion animals, horses and wildlife worldwide

Underwearness: provides new underwear to children in need

Our teams will be jumping in to volunteer with each of these groups, in addition to providing them with $2,500 apiece. We’ll be conducting a clothing and hygiene product drive for Colfax Community Network (CCN), as well as planning a field trip for the kids involved in CCN’s after school program. We’ll be working with Dress for Success – Denver as it celebrates its own fifth anniversary. And we’ll be supporting Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign and helping to deliver underwear to kids in need.

Of course, we’ll be blogging, tweeting and posting to Facebook about our adventures along the way – so be sure to check frequently for updates. And if you’d like to find out how to get involved with any of the above projects and/or organizations, please check out our newly launched 10^th Anniversary Get Giving webpage. We have been so fortunate to be a part of this community for the past 10 years – we are thrilled to be able to give something back as we celebrate this milestone.

~Laura Love-Aden

Stop Taking the "Social" out of Social Media

2011-09-20T13:51:00.003-06:00

Measurement is the “Social Media 2.0” topic of discussion in 2011. From sessions at South by Southwest Interactive titled “Value of a Facebook Fan” to client inquiries about the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) dollar value of social media, metrics and analytics of social media efforts are front and center these days.

The problem is there is no silver bullet for social media measurement just yet. The social aspect itself is what makes measurement so challenging. What and how social media efforts are measured is going to be different for every business and/or business objective. Social networks exist online, but that doesn’t mean they can be tracked in the same ways, or even with the same expectations, as your online advertising or SEO efforts. Don’t forget that social media is “social.”

We all have access to free services like Google Alerts and Twilerts that provide frequent updates on mentions of your brand, but how can you be sure you’re not missing an important conversation? Subscription-based tools like Radian6 and Sysomos* have become the industry standard for aggregating online conversations about your brand and measuring engagement numbers (things like sentiment, share of voice, etc.), but what about those private Facebook conversations or password-protected Yelp reviews that currently aren’t funneled into your results? Similarly, Google Analytics and trackable links like Bit.ly allow us to monitor click-throughs and conversion rates, but how can you know exactly why a person clicked at the time they chose to do so? Was it the post itself that motivated them to click? Or was it a combination of other influences that resulted in a click on that specific post?

I often compare time spent on social networks to time spent at a cocktail party. For me (and most surveys and industry articles agree), it’s extremely annoying when a person talks all about him/herself without actually having a conversation or lively banter with you. And it would be unheard of to have someone walk up to you, hand you a business card, and then turn and walk away. Have a conversation. Get to know the person, what they do, and how they might help your business. Then, take it a step further and introduce people who might benefit each other. That’s the beauty of networking, and that is what should truly be measured as a result of your social media efforts. Social media is first and foremost about connecting with people, building your brand, being a thought leader. The sales leads and CRM will come as a result of making quality connections. It really is about the quality of your connections, not the quantity.

Twitter’s recent announcement that it has started allowing promoted tweets (from brands you don’t even follow) to appear in your feed is a prime example of removing the “social” from social media. I understand the purpose or end goal - Twitter is working to find ways to boost revenue through “guaranteed” or increased visibility and click-throughs. But please, don’t interject yourself in my current conversation, hand me a business card or a coupon, and then leave. You wouldn’t do that at a cocktail party, and you shouldn’t do that on social platforms either. It’s disingenuous, and sure, it might result in a brief spike in web traffic, but what does it say about your brand and the impression you leave with your customers? Treat social media as an opportunity to connect with people, a chance to network and build your brand. Then measure how well you’re doing it.

~ Jim Licko

*GFM subscribes to and frequently uses both Radian6 and Sysomos on behalf of its clients.

A Time to Blog

2011-09-14T10:00:00.000-06:00

Your social media strategy has been set. Pages have been built. And, for the first few months, the “shiny new object” of your organization’s social media practice kept everyone motivated to produce strong content on a daily or weekly basis.

But then work gets in the way—new client proposals, business travel, budget forecasts and plan development for the fiscal year ahead. And more quickly than you even realize, the company’s social media content has gone stale and finding the bandwidth to reprioritize can seem overwhelming.

Below you’ll find a few simple suggestions for keeping the content pipeline full without having to reserve nights and weekends for writing.

Block time to draft multiple blog posts at once. Find a hole on your calendar and block at least an hour to draft posts not only for the upcoming week, but the one after that also. You’ll need to stay nimble enough to quickly develop content when timely issues break, but most industries lend themselves to scores of evergreen content that can be written in advance and updated slightly just before publishing.
Create – and stick to – a social media editorial calendar. This tool works well for blogs, in addition to Facebook posts, Tweets, YouTube videos, Flickr albums and more. Dedicate an hour to mapping out content for the month ahead and you’ll breathe a sigh of relief every Monday when for the most part, the week’s posts have already been written. But do remember that someone still needs to be monitoring for and responding to incoming comments and questions, as well as jumping on relevant trends or any issues that are brewing underneath the surface of the social channels.
Think beyond the written word! Many of us forget that we can also rely on photos and a stellar caption for quick, eye-catching blog posts. “Wordless Wednesday” is a popular movement in the mom/female blogosphere that utilizes just one interesting photograph and a word or phrase for that day’s post—a great option for organizations with strong visuals, such as a consumer product manufacturers or nonprofits (with client consent of course).
Develop a “weekly roundup” schedule. One day each week, such as Friday mornings, recap the company’s top post of the week based on Web traffic or comments along with outbound links to top industry stories/blogs from the same time period. Readers will eventually become accustomed to turning to your organization as a resource on that specific day to help catch them up on what they might have missed during the week.
Secure guest bloggers. Aim to have credible guest bloggers submit content as far in advance as possible – depending on the topic – to fill the coffers on weeks when you or your team cannot dedicate an ounce of bandwidth to social media. For example, you may want to send out a tailored email at the start of each quarter to five or more potential guest bloggers to ascertain their interest in contributing content, providing a few topic ideas and general guidelines for length, accompanying visuals and timing. Be sure also to request that he or she cross-promote your blog on their social media channels once the post is live.

Maintaining a steady blogging cadence is not easy, but by getting ahead of it during the “slower” times, you can avoid losing all momentum when work (and life) gets in the way.

What other tips do you suggest for keeping up a regular blog schedule?

~Alexis

GFM is 10!

2011-08-26T09:56:00.007-06:00

Celebrating 10 years of what matters most ~ our people.

The cupcakes have been delivered. The custom beer has been brewed. A proclamation has arrived from Mayor Hancock declaring Aug. 26, 2011, as GroundFloor Media Day, and Governor Hickenlooper has sent us a congratulatory letter. The team is busy posting videos of our clients singing “Happy Birthday” on YouTube, and there are (unfortunately) pictures of each one of our team members appearing on Facebook from when we were all 10 years old. Although we may be most thankful for the fact that our hairstyles and wardrobes have seen a marked improvement since the 60s, 70s and 80s, what I believe we are truly thankful for is the fact that we actually have a reason to celebrate tonight.

When I started the company a decade ago in my unfinished basement in Boulder, it was truly out of desperation (I had recently moved to Colorado, bought a house, was weeks from getting married and was without a job due to the recent dot-com bust) and a desire to be the type of company that others were not. I realize it doesn’t sound like a well thought out business plan, and trust me, it wasn’t. My business “plan” was outlined on the back of a napkin at a bagel shop in Boulder. It contained three critical points: 1) I wanted to work with people that I truly enjoyed being around; 2) I wanted to offer a flexible, blended work environment; and 3) I wanted to be able to make enough money to give back to the community. Do you thinkHarvard Business Review called? Not so much. Regardless of my lack of planning, I feel proud of the fact that 10 years later, we have not waivered on any of these principles.

I was once told that people start their own business so they can lead a balanced life. I would like to run into this person again so I could gently tell him that there is no such thing as a balanced life. Your life and work will be intertwined, and there will be no distinct line between the two. There is only one thing to do – make every second of every day count. We tend to call it a blended life around here. Last night I answered an urgent call from a client while my husband pushed our toddler in a stroller, I carried our infant in a Baby Bjorn and we juggled holding the leash so our giant Bernese Mountain Dog could go for a walk before it rained. As I hung up (thankful that we managed to make it through the conversation without any screaming or temper tantrums), I was reminded of how fortunate I am to be a part of a culture that embraces (and even celebrates) this insane lifestyle we all lead.

Someone recently asked me which accomplishment I was most proud of during the past 10 years at GroundFloor Media. It wasn’t the awards, financial stability or the innovations we have helped forge in the industry. It was – quite simply – the colleagues, clients and partners we surround ourselves with each and every day.

For each one of you, I am truly grateful.

~ Laura Love-Aden

USA Pro Cycling Challenge Rolls Into Colorado

2011-08-24T12:56:00.006-06:00

As an avid cycling fan with my cowbell in hand, I set out to write about the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, which welcomes 127 of the world’s top cyclists to ride nearly 600 miles across some of Colorado’s most acclaimed mountain passes and scenery. After German cyclist Jens Voigt’s breakthrough success as @thejensie on Twitter, capturing 48,097 followers since his first tweet on July 11 during the Tour de France, I figured online audiences would be hungry for information about this inaugural race that revisits many of the routes traveled during Colorado’s last great stage race, the Coors Classic.

But as I started to catch up on some of the latest online updates, including @schleckfrank of Luxembourg missing his one-year wedding anniversary to race in Colorado, I noted a slightly different story – one with social media lessons for others planning to take their brands online and reach audiences worldwide.

First, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is scheduled at the same time as the Vuelta a España, Spain’s version of the Tour de France. Fielding riders at multiple events at the same time is common in pro cycling; however, for a first-time event, it’s tough to compete with one of the top cycling events in the world as you try to build awareness amongst loyal cycling fans.

But the good news is that all of the podium finishers from this year’s Tour de France opted to head to Colorado instead of Spain, so the scheduling issue isn’t a huge point, just worth noting as Twitter fans have developed an alternative hashtag for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge #notthevuelta. Let’s face it – we all know its better to be known for what you are than what you’re not.

In fact, Twitter fans are using a number of hashtags for this week’s event. The official #uspro is being used by race organizers @usaprochallenge. But several others have cropped up on the first day of the race including #thatraceinCO, #usprocc, #usaprocc and #usapro – the preference of the local Colorado broadcast news media.

Unfortunately, it’s not a good sign when brands and the media covering them are out of sync. As a result, race organizers, sponsors, media and online audiences may loose out on the concentration of information that results from a well-optimized hashtag.

Perhaps some of the confusion is stemming from the fact that race organizers had a hard time pinning down a name for this event, which was first known as the Quizno’s Pro Challenge and was rumored to have gone through a few other options since @lancearmstrong first connected with former Governor Bill Ritter to secure the world-class event for Colorado. Thankfully, online mockery about the name, limited mountain-top finishes and the fact that co-founder Armstrong was in Texas, not Colorado, for the first two days of the event are being overcome by an outstanding field of cyclists and a first-class online experience that includes a fully optimized mobile website featuring the Shack Tracker and Map My Ride virtual cycling challenge to benefit Spokes of Change.

Stage one winner @levileipheimer is joined by a strong field of world-class riders who are using their Twitter feeds, Facebook profiles and blogs to share their experiences in Colorado with cycling fans from around the world. Despite some of the hurdles inevitably faced by a new event of this magnitude, the online chatter is significant and if everyone can figure out the right hashtag, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is bound to be #trending in Denver as the final stage rolls onto Speer Boulevard next Sunday.

GroundFloor Media Teams With Children's Hospital Colorado to Speak Up for Kids

2011-08-04T13:32:00.003-06:00

Did you know that 170,000 Colorado children do not have basic health care? GroundFloor Media's Amanda Brannum recently sat down with Deb Federspiel from Children's Hospital Colorado's Children's Health Advocacy Institute (CHAI) to talk about our partnership, funded by The Colorado Trust, working together to reach mothers and families throughout Colorado to inform, educate and encourage families to speak up for better access to health care in Colorado. Learn more about the program and how you can get involved at www.childrenscolorado.org/speakup

The Colorado Health Foundation Guest Blog

2011-07-29T07:13:00.000-06:00

Alexis Anderson has been with The Colorado Health Foundation, a GroundFloor Media client, at its annual Colorado Health Symposium this week.

Check out her second guest blog, "Discovery Session: The spectrum of health care challenges and the media assigned to tell its stories," to read insights from some of Colorado's most respected health care reporters regarding the challenges they face covering the broadcast spectrum of health care.

The Colorado Health Symposium

2011-07-28T09:04:00.005-06:00

Alexis Anderson is in Keystone working with our client, The Colorado Health Foundation at its annual Colorado Health Symposium. Check out her guest blog "Discovery Session: Motivate People to Take Action and Inspire Behavioral Changes" about the daily challenges of health care social marketers.

~ Kristina

Google+ Warning

2011-07-18T08:23:00.000-06:00

I was thrilled when a former coworker invited me to join Google+. I felt like the cool kid in town. I quickly signed up as there weren’t many steps since I already have Google logins for Gmail, Picasa and Blogger. My personal blog is Lex & Learn, and I’ve been slowly building it and dedicating more time to it since my first post in 2009.

In setting up my Google+ profile, one step I spent a bit of extra time on was the automatic linking of all Picasa photos to my Google+ account. There were a lot of random photos (old apartments, vacation rental home pictures, etc.) that I didn’t want linked to my Google+ profile, so I deleted them. Because this was part of the Google+ signup, I only thought I was deleting them from my new profile—not forever.

I was very wrong, and it appears I am not alone.

Since the signup process didn’t make it clear, I feel the need to send a quick warning to everyone who has or may be getting ready to sign up for Google+ that if you delete Picasa web albums that are also linked to a Blogger account, you will lose every single photo on your blog.

Just take a look at this forum thread from other panicked bloggers like me here. What’s even more frustrating is that I have never used Picasa to upload, edit or store photos for my personal blog. I always use the Blogger uploader tool, and had absolutely no idea that everything was being linked to Picasa – relying on that Google product to store everything.

I’ve searched high and low for a response from Google and so far all I can find is this:

Our team can't undelete your photos, but we'll make it clearer that your Picasa photos themselves are displayed on Google+ and not copied. It's the same backend, so photos you upload in Picasa are visible from Google+, and vice versa.

I realize this isn't helpful for those who've already deleted their photos, but going forward, make backups and make them often. You can download a .ZIP file of your photos and other Google account data using Google Takeout at https://www.google.com/takeout/

This response, of course, included no apology, and no reference to people’s concern that Blogger users are in no way prompted that Google+ and Picasa impact all blog photo storage. And unfortunately, Google feels that it is our fault for not backing up more.

If you aren’t a blogger, you may think being “heartbroken” over this is a tad dramatic. But honestly, when you lose a good part of three years worth of personal work, that is how it feels. Mainly, I want to put a warning out so that anyone and everyone understands this issue with Google+, and to hopefully prevent it from happening to anyone else. Please share this with coworkers, friends and family who keep Blogger blogs and may accidentally delete their photos in the setup process.

And, if you discover a fix or a magical land where deleted Picasa web albums live, please share it!

~Alexis Anderson

Note: Since this happened I have been slowly reposting pictures to my personal blog.

LinkedIn: It’s Not Just for Job Seekers

2011-07-12T07:03:00.006-06:00

Two comments in the past week got me thinking about one of the most under-utilized and frequently forgotten social networking sites: LinkedIn .

“Isn’t LinkedIn just a site for people who are looking for jobs?”

“LinkedIn is the stuffy, suit-wearing, MBA, always-on-his-Blackberry of social media sites.”

The fact is, as of March more than 100 million people have a LinkedIn account. Mashable recently posted an interesting article outlining how individuals are using the site. Some of the findings were expected (24% of entry-level employees are looking for jobs), while others might be somewhat surprising (67% access the site “a few times a week” or more). The underlying point is that LinkedIn really does provide opportunities for you and your business that the Facebooks and YouTubes of the world can’t. Here are a few to consider:

Small businesses: When the big guys have a problem, they’ve typically got money to throw at it. But for those of us who work at or own a small business, how do you quickly find cost-effective ideas for cloud services? How do you get recommendations on the best project management tools? What if you need a template for a social media response policy? LinkedIn provides opportunities through discussions, groups and even one-on-one connections to help small businesses get information in a fairly quick and inexpensive way.

Business to business marketing: There are a lot of good case studies out there and even thorough tutorials from LinkedIn itself for your company page. But many businesses are using LinkedIn to obtain organic information about their clients and prospects. Pay attention to your prospects and their employees. Are they asking questions you can help with? Are they providing information that might be useful for your sales cycle? And do some research on the many LinkedIn apps out there like TripIt, which tracks when users are planning an upcoming trip to your city, or who is in the city you’ll be visiting next week.

Cross-promoting social media platforms: You probably repurpose, link back to and promote select content between Twitter and Facebook. How can you utilize your company page or even your own profile to highlight your latest blog post or new product offering? LinkedIn is an effective way to diversify who is reading about you or your company – not to mention a fairly effective way to boost your SEO efforts.

Reconnecting: If you’re like me, there are probably a few Outlook contacts you haven’t caught up with since finishing that project in 2008, and you’d really like to know where they are now to help you out with your latest project. Facebook might be a little too personal, and maybe they’re nowhere to be found via a Google search. Connections are valuable, and LinkedIn is a professional way to reconnect with long-lost co-workers, project partners, vendors, and even former clients. Connect with them now so they can help you on your next project, and then recommend them. That’s truly the social aspect of LinkedIn.

It might not be the perfect tool for all of your HR/sales/networking needs, but just like any other social networking site, you have to put yourself out there in an intelligent, authentic way to realize the benefits. Don’t just ask questions for your own benefit all of the time. Take some time to answer others’ questions and position yourself as a thought leader. Don’t merely focus on connecting with potential sales leads; seek out that vendor that helped you in a pinch and reconnect with her.

LinkedIn might look like your briefcase-toting neighbor, but there’s a reason he’s so successful.

Mid-Year Update From GroundFloor Media

2011-07-07T13:11:00.004-06:00

We're more than half-way through the year already and the GFM team is going strong as we launch into the second half of 2011. In addition to lots of exciting client activities, we're also preparing to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. Join Ramonna Robinson and Amy Moynihan for a quick overview of where we've been and where we're headed through the remainder of the year!

Calling all #ToughMudder fans

2011-07-01T10:07:00.004-06:00

Do you have what it takes to be a Tough Mudder?

From weekend warriors to competitive athletes, that’s what thousands around the world are asking as they prepare to take on what has been dubbed “the toughest event on the planet.”

And where are they finding answers? The Internet.

Tough Mudders and Mudder wannabees are reaching out in droves to connect with each other via social media to share training tips and stories of the mud, shock, chills and spills that are all part of the military-style obstacle course that offers events year round in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America.

It’s not a competition, it’s about team and team starts from the moment you visit the Tough Mudder website (www.toughmudder.com). The website welcomes you with photos and videos of men and women enduring all that the event has to offer. And to top it off, the grimaces and smiles benefit a good cause – the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization committed to supporting the needs of severely injured service men and women. To date, the Tough Mudder event series has raised more than $1.2 million and counting.

Event organizers are social media savvy. Not only do they encourage fans to follow event news and highlights on Facebook and Twitter, they also created the website and social media properties as a community hub for all things Tough Mudder. Got a video? Upload it. Uncover a new training technique? Post it. Want to get in on the action? Comment on the Live Tough blog – nearly 700,000 fans are reading it.

More than 6,600 people follow the Tough Mudder Twitter feed and the YouTube channel has fielded nearly 550,000 views. On Facebook, 700,000 fans “like” Tough Mudder, and Tough Mudder enlisted and finisher badges on Facebook are becoming a mark of distinction – not just anyone can get one.

It gets addictive. We all like to push ourselves to the limit, and the Tough Mudder provides a turnkey way to keep race day enthusiasm going for the days, weeks and months leading up to and after the big event.

I should know. For the past few months, I’ve experienced the collective fervor firsthand as my husband and his Spider Monkey teammates prepared for Tough Mudder Beaver Creek (note: not sure why they were spiders or monkeys). Their early morning workouts hauling rocks up Chautauqua in Boulder, Colo., were chronicled online and group proclamations about kicking some Tough Mudder butt were tagged with the #ToughMudder hashtag on Twitter for all the world to read.

They got some responses, “rocks…cool,” but more importantly, they tapped into the broader Tough Mudder community, which gave them the extra inspiration to push for the finish line.

Yes, Ironman is grueling and triathletes have been online for years, but the Tough Mudder is taking endurance events to a new level and using social media to reinforce its purpose of encouraging teams of people to get out together and push themselves for a cause.

And the crazy thing is that the spectators are just as nuts about the event as the participants. Nearly 2,000 fans cheered on more than 6,000 participants in Beaver Creek last Saturday. My cowbell announced my arrival at each obstacle as I scampered from one vantage point to the next just in time to snap pictures and post online updates. Family and friends kept tabs on the race from afar and all in all it was a great event – one that I will remember and share with Tough Mudders and Mudder fans for years to come.

Congrats to GFM friends Roger Greene, Jimmy Reilly & Luis Benitez for conquering the Tough Mudder!

GroundFloor Media Teams With USA Swimming Foundation

2011-06-30T12:39:00.004-06:00

GroundFloor Media's own Jim Licko and Alexis Anderson just returned from St. Louis where earlier this week they kicked off the 2011 Make A Splash tour on behalf of client the USA Swimming Foundation. In addition to working with Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones and engaging with amazing kids at the local Mathews Dickey Boys and Girls Club in St. Louis, the team secured fantastic media coverage and are looking forward to future tour stops.

Watch this video for an overview of the story and some highlights from the St. Louis trip!

Managing Tough Situations

2011-06-24T11:32:00.003-06:00

In the midst of one of the busiest weeks in GFM’s 10-year history, I attended what I called an “ill-timed” yoga festival in Boulder. And as it turned out, the timing couldn’t have been better…

The Hanuman Festival celebrates the Hindu deity, Hanuman, who is “…symbolic of the perfect mind, and embodies the highest potential it can achieve,” according to exoticindiaart.com. This reminded me of the teachings I learned as a Heart Math instructor during my days at Swedish Medical Center.

When you’re faced with busy, stressful situations, it all boils down to this: We cannot control what happens around us, but we can control how we react to the things that happen around us. When faced with countless hours of work to do, ever-changing demands and moving deadlines, you can choose to get frustrated, throw a tantrum and complain about the situation OR you can choose to take a deep breath, remember that “we’re not curing cancer here” and find something in the situation to laugh about.

I’m so proud of the team at GFM and how our teammates tend to take the latter approach. Sure, change is frustrating, but why let it ruin your day? I truly believe that we’re honored to work with extremely talented team members and clients, who tend to keep things in perspective and do amazing work.

So, as we helped The Colorado Health Foundation announce that they had signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding to sell their approximately 40 percent equity share of the HCA-HealthONE LLC joint venture to HCA; worked closely with the St. Anthony Hospital team to manage the media relations and social media surrounding their historic move to a new campus; prepared to launch USA Swimming Foundation’s six-city Make a Splash tour; guided a few clients through challenging issues in the media; and kept more than a dozen other clients’ PR programs afloat, it was calming to remember that we couldn’t control the situations, but we could control how we reacted to them.

Next time you feel your blood pressure rising because of the demands of the day, take a deep breath and take control of the situation. You’ll feel a lot better!

Namaste,

Ramonna

Social Media While Under the Knife?

2011-06-21T08:18:00.000-06:00

Where do you draw the line with social media? No Twitter or Facebook after work? No LinkedIn while still in bed in the morning?

I recently found my “line” while getting married and going on our honeymoon. Aside from a few Facebook and Twitter updates during the wedding weekend and honeymoon, I left my phone in the hotel and tried as hard as possible to focus on everything and everyone around us. It was a break from my online world that was very much needed, yet extremely difficult. Many times I found myself digging for my iPhone in my purse to check Twitter only to laugh at myself because I had just left it in the room minutes earlier.

What about social media while under the knife? As long as my hospital gown covered all the important places, I would not balk at doctors sharing educational information that could help medical students and future patients. And I’m not alone. One patient in Ohio apparently felt the same way while preparing to have a new kind of knee surgery.

“Live tweeting during surgery: lessons from a successful debut,” offers an interesting overview of this next phase of social media for the health care industry. Doctors, via three hospital communications employees, relayed tweets as the procedure progressed. UStream was also used to offer followers a live feed of the surgery.

There are certainly a lot of privacy and legal issues to research and follow but by tapping into the hospital’s legal counsel early, the staff was able to plan for emergency scenarios – including stopping the UStream feed if needed – and have the contingency plans pre-approved by hospital counsel.

In the end, Ohio State University Medical Center weighed the pros and cons of this very public approach and recognized the tremendous opportunity that existed for bringing new research, technologies, the doctors’ expertise and a first-person patient account to life in a new way. The organization is certainly not the first in the health care industry to think outside the box when it comes to using social media—in February my colleague Kimmie Greene blogged about work The Fearey Group in Seattle was doing for Swedish Medical Center using Twitter.

Do you think live-streaming content will become mainstream among health care providers? Would you be willing to have your surgical procedure chronicled and broadcast across the Web while under the knife?

~Alexis

The New Voice of Television

2011-06-17T13:45:00.006-06:00

By now, it’s well known that the Internet has wrought a widespread revolution in the news and entertainment industries. Old and young, early adopter or Luddite, the Web is central to, and consistently changing, the way we gather and share information.

In the face of these changes, you often heard critiques that the industry “didn’t adjust quickly enough” or that they “dismissed the Internet as a passing fad” – blame didn’t fall far from the industry itself.

But finally, traditional media is fighting back, supported in part by the iPad, courting the publishing industry and America’s addiction to reality TV.

However, one show currently stands out – NBC’s The Voice. The Voice not only gets that primetime television can no longer live in a vacuum, but the show has also taken the next step by redefining the relationship between television and the Internet.

The Voice is actively engaging audiences via the website, social media and popular entertainment outlets, rather than using the Internet as a central hub for online audiences to view past episodes, vote for their favorite participants or read the latest scuttlebutt about the cast.

Specifically, The Voice is joining a new rank of social media savvy TV shows, such as Glee, The Colbert Report and Tosh.O. The Voice live tweets during each episode of the show and promotes its Twitter feed and hashtag #TheVoice in banner updates across the bottom of the television screen. Taking a page from American Idol, The Voice also encourages fans to download special single releases on iTunes.

During the first week of the show, The Voice hit the top 100 chart on iTunes – Javier Colon's version of the classic Cyndi Lauper tune "Time After Time" shot to #57 only hours after its release. And now that America is voting for The Voice, iTunes is an early barometer of which contestant will make the next round.

Such immediate and direct opportunities to connect with judges and contestants are making The Voice a whole new experience on television. I’ll admit, I enjoy the banter between judges Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine, but more than anything, I watch The Voice as a fan of the media industry. It offers a positive example of traditional and new media working together to create new forms of entertainment.

Today, the Wall Street Journal reported that television remains an effective advertising tool. By 2016, television advertising will capture 38 percent market share while online advertising will continue to increase steadily to 22 percent. Michael Zuna, chief marketing office at Aflac comments, “video is still an unbelievable medium that combines sight, sound and motion in a way that print and other static mediums do not.”

The Voice adds social networking and a new level of interaction to that list. The show is good for television, good for the Internet and good for audiences worldwide.

What’s on Your Plate?

2011-06-09T14:19:00.004-06:00

On June 2, First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled the federal government’s new food icon, MyPlate, to serve as a reminder to help consumers make healthier food choices.

Out goes the food pyramid and in with a new generation icon MyPlate to prompt consumers to think about building a healthy plate at meal times and emphasizes the fruit, vegetable, grains, protein and dairy food groups.

I’ve heard the USDA spent $2 million to create the MyPlate logo and launch the campaign which included an event with the First Lady, a website, blog, video, press release, partnership program, interactive tools, social media outreach and more. The launch has been a huge success. MyPlate has been everywhere. When I scanned my TweetDeck last Thursday and Friday it was like an explosion of chatter from mom groups to foodies to health and wellness organizations. Everyone was talking about the MyPlate and most of the chatter seemed favorable.

And why not? The new visual is simple. One of my favorite broadcast segments covering the new plate was on CBC News. Correspondent Taryn Winter Brill asked kids what they thought of the new plate and got some great answers from “I need to eat more vegetables” to “I know what to put on my plate.” However, it isn’t without its critics. The LA Times ran an opinion piece “My Plate: The Food Pyramid for Dummies” that made me chuckle. “The design illustrating the U.S. Dietary Guidelines seemed so hit-you-over-the-head obvious, I thought they might as well have called the new graphic Eating for Dummies. Clearly, I'm the dummy. While poking around the Web, I've come across several frustrated commentators noting that MyPlate doesn't address nuances (e.g. are potatoes carbs or vegetables?) and leaves too much room for interpretation.” Guess I’m a dummy too.

Businesses have also jumped at the opportunity to capitalize on the new plate. I’d like to send major props to the California Walnuts PR team who put out a press release: Where are the Walnuts on YOUR Plate? just four days after the USDA made the announcement. It is great to see a nimble and forward thinking team pull a release, video, photos, and recipes together that quickly. I’ll be adding walnuts to my grocery list this week.

I look forward to watching this campaign roll out in the coming weeks and how the USDA will measure its success. Thank goodness the food pyramid is gone and I know what foods to put on my plate. What I want to know is when can I get my new place mat?

~ Amy

Social Media as a Customer Service Tool

2011-05-20T09:57:00.000-06:00

Social media can be a powerful platform for customer service. Conversations take place in real-time (or close to it based on your company’s bandwidth) and organizations have the ability to catch issues before they escalate if they are actively monitoring their channels.

Using social media is part of my job, but even more it is part of my daily life as a general consumer. Therefore, I am impressed when a company responds or proactively engages with me on Facebook or Twitter in a transparent, relevant way.

Most recently I was pleasantly surprised by PostNet, a business services retailer offering copying, shipping, and finishing services. On Monday around 11 a.m., I checked in to FedEx Kinkos on Blake Street downtown using FourSquare. I was there to pick up a wedding-related project that had been dropped off two nights prior, and still ended up spending an hour waiting for a few things to be fixed. Needless to say, I was frustrated and shared my discontent via Twitter:

Less than 24 hours later, I was surprised to find the tweet below in my @Mention stream.

What does this tell us? Sure, PostNet seems to have a social media monitoring feed to track competitors like Kinkos. But what is more interesting to me is that they are taking it a step beyond just “watching” to actually reach out to people like me to introduce the company (which I had never heard of) and offer personalized service if I want to give them a try.

Yes, it is an aggressive approach and an organization needs to carefully think through any social media customer service strategy that includes engaging with people who talk about the competition—but in the case of the underdogs, it can be a powerful way to make your voice heard.

What is your brand’s social media strategy for customer service? Or, is there an instance when you were pleased – or upset – by the way a company dealt with your feedback via social media?

~Alexis Anzalone

Get Grounded Program Makes a Difference

2011-05-11T16:45:00.000-06:00

GroundFloor Media's Get Grounded program provides team members an opportunity to actively participate in causes they believe in by offering paid time off or cash grants in exchange for hours volunteered. In this short video, GFM team members Kristina Reilly and Jennifer Wills talk about their community involvement the benefit to the organizations they serve as well as to themselves in the connections they've made and the relationships they've formed.

Wondering how you can build a program like Get Grounded for your company, or how you can integrate community support into your business? Click here for more information about GFM Cares, our cause marketing practice.

For more information about the organizations mentioned in this video, follow these links:
Slow Food Denver
Cooking Matters Colorado
Cancer Cure

National Women's Health Week

2011-05-10T09:38:00.002-06:00

With this past Sunday celebrating Mother’s Day, it is fitting that May 8 – 14, 2011, is National Women’s Health Week. I know from firsthand experience that between juggling kids, home responsibilities and work, my personal needs are often last on the list. And this includes looking after my own health.

National Women's Health Week is being coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health in conjunction with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The hope is that National Women's Health Week will bring together communities, businesses, government, health organizations, and other groups to promote women's health.

Women have different health needs during various stages in their lives, but we all may face health concerns such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, weight management and stress. Yes, stress…and lots of it.

To borrow and adapt a phrase from one of my favorite Madonna songs (Express Yourself), “So come on girls, do you believe in your health? Now we’ve got something to say about it!” Let’s empower women to make their health a top priority this week. It may be time to schedule an annual physical, refine your weekly workout routine or start one, or get to bed early/find time for a nap. Okay, maybe a nap is not realistic, but getting to bed by 10 p.m. could happen with just a little planning.

Here’s what you can do to spread the word:

• Tweet and post on Facebook about the National Women’s Health Week, what you are doing for your own health or how you are encouraging friends to focus on their health: http://1.usa.gov/yOFew

• Use/follow the hashtags: #NWHW and #WomensHealth

Check out the following resources and share with your co-workers:

• A week-long email series covering important women's health issues; and a template to drop in the information and use as flyers.

• A poster promoting important health steps every woman should take as well as providing resources for more information.

Here’s to your health this week and for a lifetime,
~ Amy

GUEST BLOG: Social Media strategies should include branding elements

2011-05-06T09:38:00.000-06:00

GroundFloor Media is proud to have partnered with Stu Swineford of Relish Studio on countless projects during the past 10 years. The Relish team is comprised of true graphic design and branding experts, and together we brainstorm and execute many integrated social media and communications projects for our clients. We are honored to have Stu share his insights on social media branding in GFM’s first-ever guest blog post.

Social media enables businesses to potentially engage a larger audience, but many businesses ignore an important element that could make or break their message cohesion—branding. When undertaking a social media campaign, it is important to focus on both the message and the creative Any time you create a consumer touch-point, an opportunity exists to reinforce and enhance your brand through design and focused attention to logo placement and brand standards.

Logo treatment and placement is the primary graphic element you can use to tie your messaging to your brand, and most of the major social networking platforms allow for logo treatments within their interface (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yelp, etc.). There may be other opportunities to leverage your trademark either in background designs, in line with messaging or elsewhere within each platform, and businesses would be well advised to make use of these brand-centric opportunities. In most of the more popular social sites, logo placement within the interface is restricted to avatar-sized areas for branding so you may want to work with your designer to prepare an icon based on your logo if your standard branding elements do not lend themselves well to this small-format treatment.

Some social media sites allow for extended designs (e.g. Twitter) and treatments of both your logo and color palate (e.g., YouTube and others). We recommend leveraging these opportunities to their fullest in order to create an overall aesthetic that will reiterate to your customers that they are visiting your business property wherever they engage your brand via social media. Platform-specific background designs, color palate treatments and logo placements combine to enhance your brand and capture your audience. Utilizing all branding opportunities will create a professional feel that gives credence to your messaging as well as boost your market presence.

From messaging to digital strategies, GroundFloor Media and Relish Studios can together help ensure that what you say in the realm of social media looks as great as it sounds.

~Stu Swineford
Relish Studio
twitter.com/relishstudio
Facebook.com/RelishStudio

GFM Excited to Announce "On My Own Time" Art Exhibit

2011-05-04T16:57:00.002-06:00

The team at GroundFloor Media has been painting, sculpting and crafting up a storm in preparation for the 2011 Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA) "On My Own Time" employee and family member art exhibit! See here for a video starring our own Kimmie Greene and Carrie Odberg introducing the program and providing a preview of some amazing pieces of art including pottery by GFM team member Wendy Artman and paintings by GFM family member Cathy Lester.

We hope you'll stop by our office between May 9 and May 20 to see our work on display!

We Got Osama Bin Laden, and Twitter Told Us First

2011-05-02T12:22:00.000-06:00

The evening of Sunday, May 1, 2011, will be marked as a great day in our nation’s history. At 10:45 p.m. ET the major news networks broke through regular programming to confirm the news, and just before midnight on the east coast President Obama addressed the nation.

But, for anyone within arms reach of their computer, iPad or mobile device, confirmation came twenty minutes earlier when Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, sent out the following 77 characters:

So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.

I’m connected to my Hootsuite iPhone app at the hip; so it’s ironic that I missed this unfold as I was on a plane to Denver from San Diego. However, as we drove home from the airport I was reading the updates from Twitter out loud as my fiancé was struggling to get a mobile news website to load so that he could read it for himself. Twitter was moving so fast, and the mix of official updates and raw emotion gave me goose bumps—as did the pictures people began posting to Facebook of President Obama addressing the nation. A few tweets that I can’t stop thinking about include:

9/11 widow on my flight. In tears. Comforted by entire cabin. Life altering event to see (@jimformanKING5)

So when Obama said last week he had 'better stuff to do' than talk about his birth certificate... Yeah. (@ewstephe)

As a New Yorker, as an American, thank you to the 2340 coalition soldiers (1400+ American) lost and 11,000+ wounded in the last 10 years. (@anildash)

Happy at the news tonight, but also feeling compelled to tweet variations of "let's remember most Muslims are peaceful & reasonable people." (@kristenhowerton)

In the weeks ahead the traditional news organizations will examine every aspect of the successful mission carried out by the incredibly brave men and women of American’s armed forces. Public relations industry outlets will explore the impact of Osama Bin Laden’s death on social media vs. broadcast and print mediums.

It’s an exciting moment to be an American, and to be a tiny part of the communications industry that will dissect and deliver the news around the world with the click of a mouse.

~Alexis

Tips for Juggling Social Media Content Creation

2011-04-27T09:33:00.000-06:00

So you have a strategic social media plan—maybe you’ve even launched a Facebook page and created a Twitter account. This is an exciting and important step forward for many companies. However, now the question is, “how are we going to create enough content to keep it dynamic?” Below are four tips for keeping you sane, and your followers interested.

Plan Ahead: Yes social media moves quickly, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sit down to plan out evergreen posts for the week, month or quarter ahead. Brainstorm topics with your team and chart out posts with links, statistics, open-ended questions and third-party references to educate your target audience about your product/services and industry as a whole.
Have Ample Backup: People get sick and go on vacation. Those same rules apply to the person(s) overseeing your company’s social media properties. Therefore, it is critical that at least one other person in the organization is trained on how to log on, post content and respond to issues if they arise when the main point of contact for social media isn’t around. This backup person can be internal, or external if you are working with a public relations or marketing agency. You should also familiarize yourself with social media scheduling tools to schedule automated posts when needed – Hootsuite and CoTweet are just two examples of platforms that make it extremely easy to schedule content in advance.
Switch it Up: Social media content does not only mean relying on the written word. At GroundFloor Media, some of our Facebook posts that receive the most attention are often pictures of team members doing something fun (like stalking the cupcake truck) or links to fun happenings around town (such as summer concerts at Red Rock Amphitheatre). Don’t be afraid to show your personality and keep it simple when appropriate!
Monitor and Adjust: There are plenty of free social media monitoring tools (Klout, Social Mention, and Facebook Insights) that make it easier to track the engagement levels of your company and its social media followers. Don’t be afraid to adjust your content creation strategy based on what patterns you start observing. Do Facebook pictures generate lots of comments from your fans? Allocate more resources to capturing fun and unexpected photos on behalf of your company throughout the week. Do your fans use Twitter to ask questions rather than Facebook? Consider using Twitter as more of a customer service platform than a place to push out evergreen content. Bottom line – keep tweaking your content strategy to meet the needs of your audiences.

What other suggestions do you have for making social media content creation manageable?

~Alexis

New Study: Social Media Marketing Spends to Increase

2011-04-20T09:13:00.000-06:00

According to a new study from Mashable and Effie Worldwide, 70 percent of marketers plan to increase their social media spend by 10 percent or more this year. Read the full Mashable article here.

While this is promising news for the communications and advertising world, it immediately made me think, “with more money comes greater responsibility.”

Almost everyone who touches social media is still grappling with how best to measure and quantify the ROI of these programs. Can you put a dollar value on a Facebook fan? What is a Facebook “Like” and a retweet on Twitter really worth? At a Red Door Interactive digital measurement panel I attended last week, Nancy Koons, senior web analyst at Vail Resorts, made a comment that really resonated with me. She said that at Vail Resorts there is an internal acceptance that the numerical data collected from the corporation’s social media usage does not account for the unseen, intangible strategic value of social networking for the brand. For a company of their size, I thought it was exciting and noteworthy that the executives still see the value of social media even though a pie chart may say otherwise.

I believe it is our industry’s responsibility to marry the quantitative with the qualitative in order to help our clients understand how their investment in social media is impacting their brand – be it brand awareness, customer engagement or reputation management. If we collectively fail as an industry to demonstrate success in a manner that resonates with the marketers and executives who are willing to invest in the digital world, we may never have the opportunity to identify just how powerful social media can be for connecting brands with end-users.

TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event

2011-04-19T09:01:00.004-06:00

There has been a lot of TED activity in the Denver area over the past two weeks. On April 7, TEDxMileHigh hosted its first event, gathering more than 1,700 TEDsters at the Ellie Caulkins’ Opera House. From the food we eat to the clothes we wear and the way we think about diversity in our community, “inspired citizenship” was the theme of evening.

MC Alex Bogusky challenged everyone in attendance to draw inspiration from the speakers – who all hailed from Colorado – and take at least one inspired action out into the community.

Specifically, Libby Burky of SAME Café (stop by the Denver café on Colfax Avenue between Vine & Race streets) gave me the most to think about. An acronym for “So All May Eat” and part of the One World Everybody Eats Foundation, SAME Café offers a “pay what you think is fair” model for fresh, organic cuisine. SAME encourages healthy eating for individuals of all backgrounds – if a diner does not have sufficient money to leave, they are encouraged to exchange an hour of service for their meal, often working side-by-side in the kitchen with community volunteers.

As soon as the weather stays warm, the team from GroundFloor Media looks forward to grabbing B-Cycles and heading down to SAME Café for a group lunch. Stay tuned!

However, the power of TED didn’t end there. Last week, the University of Denver hosted the third TEDxDU Salon event of the year, featuring a diverse lineup of student speakers, who personified the fearlessness and intelligence that have become a hallmark of TED.

Andrew Steward delivered a hearth-wrenching talk about his personal battle with mental illness, challenging established beliefs, and reinforcing the value of family. Throughout his battle, Andrew has rarely been alone, but his family has often been ostracized and abandoned throughout the ordeal.

The stigma of mental illness is real and Andrew was raw as he shared his story for the first time outside one-on-one conversations. His fortitude in battling his illness was eclipsed by the strength of character that he demonstrated in getting on stage last night. His goal? Not TED fame – but to encourage us to think differently about mental illness.

Andrew is one of more than a dozen speakers who are scheduled to speak during the TEDxDU annual conference on May 13. The sold-out event will turn the global TED spotlight on Colorado yet again to celebrate “radical collaboration” – to co-create, co-inspire and co-change the world. Check out the live streaming video at TEDxDU.com.

Honestly, I’m relatively new to TED. I often find myself balancing my overall enthusiasm for TED with the need to listen to each speaker with a critical ear. Some are better than others – go figure – but each shares a passion for “ideas worth sharing”. I enjoy being part of a common sense of connection across cities, countries and continents. And, at 10 to 20 minutes per TED Talk, TED makes it easy to find inspiration and carry a small part of its message into my day-to-day world.

Please let us know - what's your favorite TED Talk? Post comments below.

Full disclosure: TEDxDU is a client of GroundFloor Media.

Making Sense of Location-based Marketing for Your Business Needs

2011-04-12T09:16:00.000-06:00

Foursquare, check! Gowalla, check! Facebook Places, Yelp and Scvngr, check (check and check)! It’s exhausting just thinking about all the different platforms that now exist for checking in at various locations, sharing tips and chasing deals – and now imagine this abundance of choices from the perspective of a consumer who is trying to interact with your brand or service.

Jason Dempsey from Moxie Interactive offered some important reminders about successful location-based marketing in his recent “The Introductory Guide to Location-Based Marketing” article for ClickZ.

In addition to agreeing with his “keep it simple” approach, I’d add that it is critical to limit the number of barriers to entry for any sort of deal/contest that requires interaction on one of these platforms. For example, if you have to check in at a store and upload a video of yourself and “like” the store on Facebook in order to be entered to win something, the prize better be worth all that effort. Otherwise, you are probably better off rewarding your tech savvy customers immediately upon check in (mobile = instant gratification) and then also sharing helpful content with them as a secondary perk to keep them coming back for more. For example, I’d love if Anthropologie rewarded me with a discount on a new spring dress after checking in on Foursquare and then gave me a link to a short YouTube video with tips on the different ways to wear the dress all summer long (yes, I am a shopaholic).

Have you tried incorporating location-based platforms into your marketing plan? What worked, what didn’t, and will you try it again? We’d love to hear about your own experiences and/or share links to other articles and blogs about location-based marketing that you find interesting.

~Alexis

The1stMovement Visits GroundFloor Media

2011-04-11T11:44:00.004-06:00

Corey Hayes and Dave Schell from The1stMovement's Denver office visited GroundFloor Media on Friday to talk about how digital - specifically mobile - can work together with public relations to create an integrated and exciting campaign experience for customers. Watch the two-part video series on our YouTube channel to learn more - and let us know what you think!

Part One

Part Two

Are You an Influencer? Am I an Influencer?

2011-04-07T13:19:00.000-06:00

I read about the term “influencer” daily. I probably use the term at least once a day myself. But who is an influencer in 2011 and what does it mean for our traditional and non-traditional PR practice here at GroundFloor Media?

If I knew the exact answer, I bet I’d be rich. Or maybe at least I’d have a book deal.

I personally believe that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all influencer. The person who can move the needle for a national food chain is completely different from the person who can positively impact the way people perceive and talk about a professional services company. The food industry influencer could be a nutritionist, turned blogger, turned author, turned national morning show correspondent. The professional services influencer could be a former analyst who is now on the speaking and networking circuit for his or her industry. And for me, putting the pieces of this influencer puzzle together for our clients is half the fun of influencer relations.

Not everyone with a blog or a Twitter account should automatically be given the powerful title of an influencer. I’m not arguing that at all. There seems to be a new tool every day to help us measure the reach of such influencers – Klout, Radian 6, Sysomos, GroupHigh, and so on. It takes tools like these, and a healthy dose of research combined with a bit of common sense and a little luck, to find the one trait that all influencers should have – a loyal following of people who inherently trust this person and look to them for honesty above all else.

Take Hungry-Girl for example. Lisa Lillien has built an incredible brand and name for herself among women who want to make healthier choices without sacrificing a lot of time, money or energy in their quest to lose weight and get fit. I met Lisa in a professional setting years ago—she had a website, a newsletter and big aspirations. Fast forward a few years and she has multiple books, national tours, countless national TV segments under her belt, and an intensely loyal following that yields incredible results for the brands she gets behind. Was she an influencer when we first met? A lot of people might have argued no. Are they kicking themselves today? You bet.

There is no simple formula (that I know of) for how to approach influencer relations. But that shouldn’t stop you from going after it and making it work for your brand or service. Yesterday’s New York Times food critic is today’s Lisa Lillien. Don’t miss the opportunity to build these relationships before they pass you by!

~Alexis

Tales of Twitter and Houdini

2011-04-06T14:33:00.010-06:00

At first, the news of a poisonous Egyptian cobra going missing from the Reptile House at the Bronx Zoo was concerning to a few, namely the employees. But maybe we all needed a little distraction from the news of unrest in Libya, the ongoing nuclear meltdown in Japan, and the general doom and gloom around the worsening U. S. economy and rising gas prices. After a colleague shared the Twitter feeds with me, I became captivated by a 20-inch snake.

As you have heard by now, it wasn't just any snake -- it was a poisonous Egyptian cobra that could kill in less than 15 minutes.

As the story goes, a zoo employee noticed the poisonous predator was missing from its enclosure in the Reptile House, and zoo officials closed the exhibit on March. 25.

After a weeklong search, the snake was found safe and unhurt inside the Reptile House on March 31.

During its hiatus, some industrious and comedic person began impersonating the snake, tweeting about life in the Big Apple. In less than a week, Bronx Zoo's Cobra had more than 230,000 followers. As we work with our clients to expand their reach among target audiences through social media platforms like Twitter, what we wouldn't give to achieve that kind of reach in such a short period of time.

Some of my favorite tweets:
• On top of the Empire State Building! All the people look like little mice down there. Delicious little mice. #snakeonthetown

• If you see a bag of peanuts inexplicably moving along the ground at Yankee Stadium today. Just ignore it. It's probably nothing.

Soon news of the snake's whereabouts and adventures in New York City were being covered by late night TV personalities Jon Stewart and David Letterman, newspapers and nightly news. That's the power of social media and how a story goes viral and enters mainstream media.

Now that the roaming reptile is safely back in its enclosure in the Reptile House, the zoo is sponsoring a contest to name the snake. In the world of public relations, that's how you maintain momentum and keep a story alive.

-- Barb Jones

GroundFloor Media And PRGN

2011-03-30T11:33:00.007-06:00

GroundFloor Media is part of the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN), a global organization of leading independent public relations agencies. As the exclusive Denver member of PRGN, GFM is represented by Vice President and Managing Partner Ramonna Robinson at the semi-annual PRGN meeting currently taking place in Brussels. Watch this short video to learn more about our partnership with PRGN and to hear about what Ramonna hopes to learn at this conference.

Measuring SXSW

2011-03-30T11:18:00.003-06:00

Social media measurement was one of the recurring session themes at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive conference, and one that GroundFloor Media and our clients are constantly tracking to ensure we able to justify our efforts in the online space. From the value of a Facebook fan to finding out which influencer has the most relevant following, here are some of the highlights from the sessions we attended:

§ Social media is not a sales driver, but it does lead to intent-to-purchase.

§ Of all of the measurement tools and systems available, there is still no silver bullet. Understanding your executive’s or client’s goals and then building your measurement system accordingly is the norm.

§ That said, Bill Parkes of nFusion tells us that while measurement vendors are still evolving, the opportunity exists for agencies to work with their vendors and create tailored measurement systems at little to no extra cost.

§ Some things that panelists mentioned that might not always be top of mind:

o Only 8% of U.S. adults are using Twitter

o Social media ROI has to be measured as a part of the greater communications/marketing ROI, not by itself

o Consumers aren’t online 24/7 – when you post is just as important as what you post

§ Since so many metrics tools are measuring so many different things, there are a lot of inconsistencies. You have to measure the value of fans and influencers based on one tool, otherwise its apples to oranges.

§ Jason Falls (one of my favorite panelists) didn’t mince words: Cost per view is worthless, as is measuring short-term results. Real measurement stats and value are found over time (translation: be patient!)

§ Lots of great discussion in “The Value of a Facebook Fan” panel. One panelist said his cost to acquire a Facebook fan is 46 cents. Another said you have to approach fans as if their value is $0. What you do with the fan once you have them is where the value exists.

§ Focusing on brand analytics through social media is more productive than trying to put a dollar value on your ROI.

So what’s the common theme from all of this? I believe it’s finding out what matters most to your executive team, and then building your strategy and measurement method accordingly using the tools that effectively measure those metrics.

That said, I think the most important thing to remind your executives about social media strategy was summed up by Forrester’s Melissa Parish, “To derive value, you need to provide value.” In order to realize true value in social media we need to treat it like a cocktail party, not a broadcast booth.

- Jim

BlogFrog Visits GroundFloor Media

2011-03-25T13:32:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week Holly Hamann, co-founder of BlogFrog, stopped by GroundFloor Media to chat with Kimmie Greene and some other members of our team about what BlogFrog has been up to.

If you're not familiar with BlogFrog but you have an interest in connecting with female consumers - specifically moms and other niche female audiences - you'll want to watch the quick video below and also read this Forbes blog which gives a great overview of the company. We're thrilled to offer our clients services from partners like Holly and BlogFrog! Thanks, Holly, for sharing some time with our team.

An Unexpected Gift of Art

2011-03-24T11:08:00.003-06:00

Last week I got a double dose of the arts. It was refreshing, invigorating and empowering. The first was from a session at the NACHRI conference called “The Power of Art: Healing Families, Communicating Purpose,” led by Linda Hill and Jennilyn Utkov of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. The second was from the Colorado Business Community for the Arts (CBCA) Business for the Arts Awards Luncheon.

Imagine a hospital as an empty canvas. Then imagine the power of one volunteer with creative vision of pulling together art from workshops, children and professional artists. This one volunteer, Jennilyn, organized the hospital staff, schools, students, parents, donors, and businesses to capture the heart of the community through art.

Jennilyn spoke about many workshop art projects held at the hospital, but my favorite was about a group of children with Down syndrome who collected materials from a nearby field, put them into clay and molded them into a giant mural. For children’s art with schools, she shared a story of a shy child who gained confidence and blossomed at school because his art teacher encouraged him to enter a simple black and white picture he had drawn of two birds into the hospital drawing contest. His drawing was chosen, blown up and framed to hang in a hallway. During the “Juice & Cheese” children’s art reception, this boy dragged his family and teacher down the halls to find his masterpiece—life impacting and priceless. A professional artist created giant murals by rolling up old hospital brochures and blueprints to create a landscape with a heart placed in the middle. These artistic endeavors gave the hospital layers of stories to tell. And on the development side, the hospital saw a 40 percent increase in new donors because they tapped into a new donor base.

The CBCA awards luncheon was a great reminder of the amazing arts community and resources we have throughout our state, including The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Colorado Railroad Museum, University of Denver Lamont School of Music, The Colorado Ballet, and many, many more. In a time where art programs are being slashed across the nation in our schools, it is imperative that the business community continues to support and leverage the arts. CBCA calls businesses to recognize the link between cultural vitality and creative and innovative success. I’d like to congratulate the workspace, philanthropy and John Madden Jr. Leadership nominees and winners for advancing arts and culture in Colorado.

How is your place of business connected to the arts in your community? Maybe it is time to get more involved. It might be easier than you think. Take a walk through your local library. Visit a museum during lunch. Take a group to the symphony. Volunteer or collect art supplies for a school. On Facebook, “like” cultural facilities and programs supporting the arts to keep up with news and events.

GroundFloor Media has two events coming up to connect our team to the arts. The first is a “Cocktails & Canvas” event this Friday. The second is an employee, friends & family art exhibition that will be juried by the CBCA in April. We’ll post photos and share our learnings and inspiration in the coming weeks. If you are involved as an individual, team or business, we want to know. Share your stories with us below or on our Facebook page.

~ Amy

Creating Connections

2011-03-15T11:40:00.005-06:00

You may want to think twice about checking in via social media at your favorite coffee shop or pizza hangout if your doctor has prescribed you a low sugar or low cholesterol diet. In the very near future social media platforms will link to electronic medical records. And that means for better or worse, your doctor and health insurance provider will be watching you.

This is just one topic of conversation that is being discussed this week at the National Association of Children’s Hospitals & Related Institutions “Creating Connections” annual conference in Baltimore. I’m attending with our client, The Children’s Hospital, and have enjoyed meeting other communications professionals and learning more about how they are incorporating social media practices into their hospital communications programs.

I sat in on a session with Kerting Baldwin of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., where she discussed how Web 2.0 has allowed user-generated contest to flourish, but stressed traditional media relations is still fertile ground for those practitioners who can leverage two powerful tools – relationships and technology.

“We need to put heart back into what we do. We’ve lost the art of caring and creating connections,” said Baldwin. She talked about treating media like a customer and when we do, we create an experience, and that experience creates trust and a relationship.

Baldwin also urged us to rely on the power of our social networks to expand our community. A few simple takeaways/reminders from Baldwin included:

• Create a group of loyal ambassadors who can tweet, post and blog about your brand (employees, other agency PIOs, community partners, neighboring businesses, etc.)
• Ask reporters who are covering your stories to tweet and blog about them (hey, they have a Facebook page and Twitter account outside their media accounts too)
• In turn, post their stories in your organization’s social venues, and your own Facebook and Twitter platforms
• Adopt these practices and integrate them into your current
communications plan

She ended the session with a great quote from Hermes, “It is not the strongest of our species that will survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change.”

I may not be ready for FourSquare or to have my doctor know how many Chai lattes I drink in a week, but I am ready to create and enhance current connections for myself and GroundFloor Media’s health & wellness practice. It is a small world after all.

~ Amy

SXSW Weekend Recap

2011-03-14T15:20:00.004-06:00

Its been a crazy few days in Austin, and despite everyone warning me that it would be overwhelming, its still surprising how much goes on at South by Southwest (SXSW). New product launches, bloggers, social media discussions, panels, keynote speakers and tons of swag. It really is an amazing mix of Silicon Valley start ups, thought leadership, communications folks, established online brands, established corporate brands, marketing people, advertising experts, tech geeks (I say that lovingly) and anything and everything social media. As an agency employee who focuses on communications and social media strategy, it's a pretty amazing place to be. I will be recapping some of the specifics from the show after I've had a chance to sort through the ridiculous amount of information and let some of it soak in, but for now, here are a couple of the main items that stand out in my mind so far from SXSW 2011:

Lots of discussion about measurement and metrics – what are the best ways to show clients that social media is moving the needle? No one really seems to have the silver bullet on this topic, but there are a lot of solid methods for proving social media's worth.
Mobile sites vs. Mobile Apps – who is doing what, what is working, is it better to have a mobile site or create an app from scratch? There seem to be a LOT of "app in a box" companies popping up as well, making it much easier for brands to enter that space in the future.
QR Codes – you can't swing an iPad without hitting a QR code down here. Scavenger hunts (see below), branding microsites and quite a few free drink offers!
Video – The advent of Flip cameras and the like have made everyone a producer in today's world. There is a lot of discussion surrounding video strategy and how to actually make videos that provide value to your customer. It's one thing to upload a video, it's another to post a video that will make a difference (see "metrics" above).
Location-based media – FourSquare and Gowalla have gone all out for South by Southwest. I checked in at a few Pepsi-related locations and earned a "Golden Ticket" badge that got me into a private concert on Monday night. There are a lot of fun things happening in the location-based world despite the fact that no one totally has it figured out from the business side yet.

Below is a video to show you a little more about SXSW 2011 – thanks to Doug and Lauren, our friends and clients from Qdoba Mexican Grill for chipping in.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to www.rightnow.com for "The Game" scavenger hunt. Using QR Codes and Twitter hashtags, I ended up winning Sunday's grand prize – a new Nikon D7000 with a lens that will make me the envy of my photo-snapping friends. As the lucky winner, it's easy for me to say, but The Game was a great use of multiple platforms that really fosters the type of engagement we're all working to achieve through social media.

- Jim

TED2011: Only if. If Only.

2011-03-14T13:20:00.002-06:00

As I think back to the final session of TED2011, "Only if. If only," I'm lamenting, "if only I could have gotten my blog up sooner." But, the good news is that the messages remain "ideas worth sharing" and I'm excited to highlight key takeaways.

Joss Stone sings, “Right to be Wrong” and Kathryn Schultz, author of “Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error” took the concept a step further as the opening speaker of the final session of TED2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder.

Schultz is a wrongologist who has dedicated the last five years of her life to the study of why we misunderstand the signs around us. To start, she asked the audience “how it feels to be wrong?”

Dreadful, thumbs down, embarrassing…were a few of the responses, which Shultz cheered as all good responses and then immediately framed as answers to a different question – “how does it feel to realize that you're wrong?”

She pointed out that we all go through our lives conditioned to understand that people who are “wrong” are lazy, irresponsible, dim wits and that those of us who achieve success do so by being “right” more often than not.

However, in order to continue feeling right, we create a reality based on assumptions that everyone around us is either with us or wrong. Those assumptions generally focus in three areas:

Ignorance Assumption: not aware of the facts
Idiocy Assumption: not smart enough to see the error of their ways
Evil Assumption: aware of the facts, but manipulating them to their own benefit

After I stopped laughing at the three levels of wrongness, I quickly picked up on Shultz’s point that this life would be an incredibly boring place if we all saw it the same way – without all the supposed ignorance, idiocy and evil.

So, this crazy wrongess lady (her term, not mine) challenged us all to step outside our tiny, terrified world of rightness and look at the vastness of the universe and say, “maybe I’m wrong.” And that will be OK.

Ten years from now, as we look back on TED2011, many of the theories and discoveries discussed this week will have been forgotten, but I hope this sentiment about the need to reach beyond our comfort zones to accept new ideas and people (including ourselves) in a new way will persist for decades to come.

~ Kimmie

Lessons Learned: how to avoid fake reporters

2011-03-11T11:50:00.006-07:00

Following recent "gotcha" issues faced by NPR and Wisconsin's governor, to name a few, GroundFloor Media's Gil Rudawsky provides some smart tips to ensure that you don't get scooped by someone posing as a reporter.

For more from Gil on this and other crisis issues, visit GFM's crisis blog.

TED: Invention and Consequence

2011-03-07T11:45:00.022-07:00

I recently sat through a session on "Invention and Consequence" as part of GroundFloor Media's participation in the 2011 TED Conference. Numerous presenters really caught my attention – not only because of their incredible minds, but also because of how they used their intelligence to impact the lives of others.

Dennis Hong is the founder and director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech University. He worked to develop the technology for a car that enables a blind person to drive and unveiled the Blind Driver Challenge at this year's Daytona 500 in January. Working with his engineering students and blind engineers from around the country, Hong developed a moving seat called a SpeedStrip that dictated the car's speed. Gloves with small moving motors, DriveGrips, let the driver know how to steer the car. The spinoff technology can be used in the future for sighted drivers to help with fog, darkness and other challenging driving conditions.

Another speaker, Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, talked about how losing his best friend at 18 to a car accident changed his life. He and a team at Google came up with a driverless car and tested it over 140,000 miles throughout California – mountain roads, freeways and the winding, hilly streets of San Francisco. The cars are designed using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the vehicle and simulate the decisions made by a human driver. As Thrun explained, driving accidents are the #1 cause of death in youth, mostly due to human error. Not only could this technology save countless lives, but also don't you think it would make our highways safer if we didn't have to rely exclusively on human decisions?

Last, the CEO of Berkley Bionics, Eythor Bender, provided a demonstration of eLEGS, "a wearable, artificially intelligent, bionic device that enables people with paralysis to stand up and walk again." Berkley Bionics also developed the first practical exoskeleton and the Human Universal Load Carrier or HULC, allowing people to carry up to 200 pounds on their backs over various terrains and long distances. The implications for our men and women in the Armed Services are tremendous. Bender explained how up to 30 percent of American soldiers have chronic back injuries due to the weight of their packs.

I was really in awe of what I heard and saw from these men and women inventors, and I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

~ Barb Jones

TED2011: Deep Mystery

2011-03-07T09:23:00.003-07:00

Last week was a busy week at GroundFloor Media as the team and some invited clients took to the Internet to watch the live webcast of TED2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder. The fourth session, Deep Mystery, was one of the more dense, mind bending sessions and as such it’s taken me a bit to make sense of what to write in this blog.

The session featured:
• Antonio Damasio, neuroscientist
• Felisa Wolfe-Simon, geobiochemist
• Aaron O’Connell, physicist
• Maya Beiser, cellist
• Deb Roy, cognitive scientist

While much of the science 101 was tough to absorb on just one cup of coffee (or five), I greatly appreciated the progression of the conversation, which loosely boiled down to the fact that we are all made up parts and that those parts have both physical and emotional elements that make up our selves. As individuals walking through this world, our selves are not just insulated beings, our environment regularly influences us – just bump us in one direction or heat us up slightly and we will change.

Layer a bit of human interaction onto all of this biology, physics and chemistry and you have the whole person – dynamic and ever changing, which is a good thing.

Case in point, Deb Roy’s young son had every move tracked for the first two years of his life by video surveillance cameras installed in every room of the home. The cameras captured his movements, but also recorded every word he heard and later spoke in his young life. The point? To track his language acquisition and identify patterns not only in how we learn language, but also in how information is communicated and shared.

Extrapolate this household experiment out to the conversations taking place daily via social media and the potential is extraordinary to identify what captures our collective attention and who cares. Roy and his team may have created the best social media monitoring tool ever!

The PR industry may not get our hands on it for a decade or more, but it’s exciting to understand what’s possible with new technology and how the work we are doing today mapping out conversations for our clients is a precursor to something much bigger in the future. A future that connects us all based on our passions and shared interests – with or without the coffee.

- Kimmie

TED: Knowledge Revolution

2011-03-04T14:18:00.003-07:00

I had the opportunity to sit in on the “Knowledge Revolution” session of the 2011 TED Conference earlier this week, and given the panel of speakers, I was definitely humbled and amazed by some incredible accomplishments. From working to rid the world of Polio to debt relief in Nigeria to creating new solutions for our educational system, the work these individuals are involved with and the results they are experiencing speaks for itself.

As I thought about the content of the session that was, frankly, way over my head in many ways, it occurred to me that the common theme between the speakers was building off what we already know, and collaborating to find solutions to amazingly complex problems.

These are not difficult concepts, but they are often overlooked. How many times have we all tried to solve a problem from scratch without researching what is already known about the issue, or without asking someone else for help in finding a solution?

There is power in taking the time to learn from history, to learn from our own successes and failures, to tuck ego and pride away and collaborate with others who have similar goals to solve similar problems, big and small. It is invigorating to think about what can happen (and what is currently happening) when those small steps are taken.

~ Jim

TED: Beauty. Imagination. Enchantment.

2011-03-04T13:02:00.002-07:00

When viewing TED2011 last night, these three words kept running through my head, and I realized when exposed to art, they all lead to one another, but not always in that order.

For two hours last night, I was simply enchanted by the artists who shared a brief insight to their imaginations by displaying the beauty they create. It was inspiring; especially to this fledging artist who found her passion for clay work a little later in life. Not enough room here to tell you all I took away, but here are a few thoughts.

Beatrice Coron, is a papercutter artist who found her calling at nearly 40. After walking on stage draped in the most beautiful cloak cut from a single piece of paper, I washooked. Fascinating me with the simplicity of a silhouette, I was left enchanted by the complexity of the stories she tells in one single strand of paper.

Sarah Kay took my breath away! She was lucky, finding her passion at the age of 14 and harnessing it to become a remarkable performance poet. Not only beautiful, her imagination is bursting from her core and she clearly knows how to look inside herself to discover what matters most. Now 22, she is wise beyond her years advising us to put the things we know to be true into the work we do. So honest and so enchanting.

Kate Hartman is a funny and thoughtful artist and technologist. She creates devices and interfaces for humans, houseplants and glaciers in a playful manner that questions the ways in which we relate and communicate. Her recommendation to discover the act of listening is simple, yet so underrated. I mean, we all have two ears and one mouth right?

I want to thank Shea Hembrey for the laughs. This artist and curator is immensely talented, brilliant and amusing. We should all live by his three H’s – putting Head, Heart, and Hands into our work. And I will always keep this thought in mind: if you can’t find what you like, create it yourself.

And to Jason Mraz – you are A-W-E-S-O-M-E! I didn’t think it was possible to adore you even more but “You #$*&ing did it!” Thanks for the anti-Sesame Street performance. I promise to be better at acknowledging others around me each day.

~ Wendy

TED: Threads of Discovery

2011-03-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

Printers that can “print” human organs in less than 24 hours. Artistic sculptures that are as tall as skyscrapers but as soft and pliable as lace. Solving brain disorders like depression and epilepsy with light. Modular energy packets that reduce households’ energy usage at peak times. Using strands of silk to make everything from biodegradable cups to fiber optics.

Do such wild and fascinating things exist in our world?

Yes, or they will soon thanks to the brilliantly creative and dedicated minds of Fiorenzo Omenetto, Daniel Tammet, Janet Echelman, Ed Boyden, Christina Lampe-Onnerud, Steve Gullans and Anthony Atala—the featured speakers of the TED “Threads of Discovery” session I had the pleasure of listening to yesterday afternoon.

The overarching theme was so simple. What already exists, and may even be considered old, that you can reinvent to do something new? From strands of silk or handmade fishing nets from India, to the concept of a LEGO or our own organ cells, these TED speakers questioned conventional perceptions of items we are already aware of and discovered or invented something entirely new, and in some cases lifesaving.

Parts of the session were well over my head. I never excelled in math, so neuroscience hypotheses are lost on me. Yet TED brings it back to the practical, the understandable, and probably most important, the wondrous.

What is “old” in your life, or your profession, that you can challenge and make new tomorrow?

~Alexis

TED: Radical Collaboration

2011-03-03T12:58:00.003-07:00

What do political unrest, deep-sea creatures, pop-up art and food movements have to do with radical collaboration? During last night’s TED presentation, experts from a variety of movements showed us how communication and collaboration are similar at their core, it’s the medium that differs. Along the way, they touch on connectivity, passion and being heard.

Wael Ghonim, a former Google executive now living in Cairo, reviewed how social media was instrumental in bringing together a country fed up with its existing regime.

“Because of the Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, the truth prevailed,” he said speaking from Cairo. “It connected people from the virtual world with the real world, and overthrew a government.”

Deep-sea explorer Edith Widder showed that even at the bottom of the ocean, creatures communicate via a bioluminescent light show.

“We live on an ocean planet, in which more 99 percent of life lives under the water,” she said. “You don’t have to travel to another planet to see alien life forms. Just visit the bottom of the ocean and turn out the lights.”

Street artist JR, a dynamic French artist who travels around the world and pastes large formal photos in unusual locations, commented that art can’t change the world. But, it can “change the way we see the world and change perceptions, and may end up changing the world.”

The gregarious and somewhat manic Jamie Oliver gave TED an update on the next season of “Food Revolution” in which he takes on the Los Angeles Unified School District.

For him, it’s about communicating with children through food, and getting them to understand that they are what they eat.

~ Gil Rudawsky

Facebook and Social Networks' Role in Egypt's Revolution

2011-03-03T09:52:00.018-07:00

Consider the facts: More than 500 million active users, or one in 13 people on earth, are Facebook users. About 70 percent of Facebook users live outside the United States.

I don't know about you, but I'm riveted by the continued news coverage of what's taking place in the Middle East and I do wonder what role social networks like Facebook will continue to play as we watch unrest continue to spread.

I recently watched a webinar for TED, where Chinese artist Ai Weiwei secretly participated and submitted a short video, in spite of the enormous risks of defying Chinese laws (he had been jailed and tortured for internet communication in the past). He's an artist, but also uses the internet to reach youth throughout his country to expose government corruption and abuses. His story is similar to what recently occurred in Egypt.

I was particularly taken with a recent news story on 60 Minutes regarding Egypt's 18-day revolution. The segment featured a lengthy interview with Google’s regional marketing manager for the Middle East, Wael Ghonim, who was jailed for internet organizing. Ghonim explained how in a country of 85 million people, where one-third are under the age of 30, the revolution was "fought through Twitter and texts, not tanks and guns."

Ghonim turned out to be the anonymous Facebook page administrator called ElShaheed, meaning martyr. He played an important role in communicating information to Egyptian youth and organizing protests online. He soon had more than a half a million Facebook followers.

Ghonim proposes that the biggest strategic mistake that the Egyptian Government made was initially blocking Facebook, which led people out onto the streets, eventually bringing about the successful uprising that overturned the government.

What I find so compelling is that while many of us (me included) use Facebook as a way to share information, reconnect with people and find out who is going to be on Ellen, others in the world are using Facebook as a lifeline for communicating, organizing and expressing freedom from tyranny. And did you read about the Egyptian man who named his baby "Facebook"? It puts things into perspective about the unlimited power of social networks.

~ Barb Jones

TED: Worlds Imagined

2011-03-03T08:41:00.006-07:00

I tuned in for Session 5 of the TED2011 conference yesterday – Worlds Imagined. This was my first TED experience and what an amazing gig. Speakers included:

• Julie Taymor
• Morgan Spurlock
• Bill Ford
• Terrence McArdle + Ben Newhouse
• Indra Nooyi

I wish I could write about all the speakers, but three will have to suffice in this blog.

As a theater buff, I was thrilled to hear Julie Taymor, film, theater and opera director, speak about “being true to what you believe as an artist.” Her latest film is "The Tempest," with Helen Mirren. She's recently produced "The Magic Flute" at the Met, and created "The Lion King" and the new "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" on Broadway, which is a collaboration with U2’s Bono. She spoke about focusing on how the story is told, how the mechanics are just as important as telling the story, and how playing with a medium can change perspective. This will become my new motto for rolling out programs for clients.

Morgan Spurlock, who makes documentary films and TV programs that are personal, political, and, “above all, deeply empathetic,” walked us through his new film about the greatest brands ever sold. His crazy concept of having an entire movie promoting brands and trying to sell this concept to major corporations resonated with this communications professional. It was the smaller brands that decided to take the risk because, Spurlock says, “within that risk is opportunity.” A great reminder that sometimes we need to encourage our clients to not be afraid of taking risks.

On the new technology front, we were introduced to “Bubbles,” a magic window that takes a photo and allows you to swing around 360 degrees. Using a camera on a phone, Terrence McArdle + Ben Newhouse created this interface that blurs the distinction between the digital and the real. By “sharing space” you are able to relive the experience and have a memory surround you. For me, this was just as cool as a 3D chalk art painting that I always throw into brainstorms. Just think of taking your wedding photo, vacation photo, or even a weekend hiking trip picture and being able to swing it around to a 360 view.

And if you really want to be inspired by Worlds Imagined, check out the Let’s Colour Project video of a local community rolling up their sleeves to paint schools, streets, homes, and squares.

~ Amy Moynihan

INSPIRED

2011-03-02T17:24:00.001-07:00

Ramonna Robinson and I tuned in for the second session of the TED2011 conference yesterday – Majestic. Speakers included:

Handspring - Puppeteers
Sunni Brown - Visualizer and gamestorming
Paul Nicklen - Polar photographer
Thomas Heatherwick - Designer
Bobby McFerrin - Musician

We chatted afterwards about overarching themes, and the one that really jumped out for both of us was the idea of taking old ways of thinking, deconstructing them and coming up with whole new approaches in the process. For me, it boiled down to the word “inspiration.” Specific examples included:

Handspring took the concept of a horse and recreated it in the form of a majestic puppet. At the same time, they took the concept of puppet and turned it into an entirely new thing – incredibly convincing and lifelike.
Sunni Brown discussed the topic of doodling. Rather than viewing it as a waste of time, she positioned it as a powerful thinking and learning tool. Here’s to freely doodling during work meetings!
Leopard seals typically have the reputation of being vicious predators. Paul Nicklen spent four days in frigid Arctic waters to test that perception and ended up bonding with a female leopard seal that was bound and determined to take care of him by feeding him penguins.
In designing apartment buildings in Malaysia, Thomas Heatherwick and his team turned typical design principles on their heads. Rather than giving the buildings square bases, they reduced the square-footage on the ground level, added it to the more valuable higher levels of the buildings and opened up space for rainforest regrowth in the process.
Always innovative in his music, Bobby McFerrin turned the audience into his band, pulling audience members up onstage with him as he improvised songs for a good 20 minutes!

It’s amazing what we can do when we let go of old ways of thinking and approach concepts and projects with a fresh, new perspective!

~Amanda Brannum

Connected

2011-03-01T16:18:00.002-07:00

Today marked the start of the TED2011 conference, and this year GroundFloor Media generously signed up for the live webcast of the entire conference to allow team members to audit sessions throughout the week. I am lucky number one – and just watched the opening session: Monumental, which featured a wide range of speakers from a physicist to a media executive to a composer. Their expertise was diverse, but the overarching message was the same – connectivity.

Favorite takeaways:

Janna Levin, physicist: together in this tiny microcosm of time, scientists are working together to understand more about where our planet came from and where we're going. Did you know that black holes make noise when they collide?
Sarah Marquis, explorer: Sarah is rediscovering the connection between humans and nature by walking the world. She starts each trek with questions in her left pocket, and hopes to answer them by the end of her journey. Follow Sarah on Twitter @sarah_marquis.
David Brooks, New York Times columnist: maybe it's because I'm a new mom, but I loved David's message about the power of the unconscious mind, the importance of emotions and the importance of connecting with other humans. I'm interested to read David's latest book, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement.
Eric Whitacre, composter/conductor: I was blown away by Eric's Virtual Choir project. The connections he's made among people across the globe are extraordinary and brought tears to my eyes. Follow Eric on Twitter @ericwhitacre
Wadah Khanfar, media executive: Wadah is the Director General of Al Jazeera and the timing of his presentation was remarkable, given current events in the Middle East. Wadah inspired me to think differently about what’s going on in that part of the world and his message of hope, tolerance, security and friendship inspired me. Amazing stuff.

GFM team members will be posting blogs related to the sessions throughout the week – but in the meantime, see below for the opening comments recorded by Cady Coleman who is currently on the International Space Station. I actually found myself clapping at the end of the opening session even though I was sitting alone in GFM's playroom! Remarkable the connections that can be made thanks to technology!

TED2011 : Cady Coleman @ The International Space Station from TED Blog on Vimeo.

When bad things happen to good brands

2011-02-15T08:15:00.003-07:00

If you kept up with the news over the weekend, you are surely aware of the sudden resignation of Sunflower Markets CEO Michael Gilliland following allegations of child prostitution. As the old saying goes, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only hours to tear it down – and this case is no different. One of GroundFloor Media's crisis experts, Gil Rudawsky, sat down to outline some of the lessons learned from this situation, including some of the following highlights:

Revisit your crisis communication plan
If you don't have a plan – it's a great time to get a crisis communication plan in place
While planning, brainstorm the unimaginable. As you can tell from the headlines in the paper, the unimaginable happens more than you might think.

Connected Thinking, Globally.

2011-02-11T16:10:00.005-07:00

GroundFloor Media (GFM) is one of more than 40 public relations agencies worldwide that are part of the invitation-only Public Relations Global Network (PRGN). Comprised of agency owners and industry veterans, PRGN agencies are selected for being one of the premier agencies in their market and therefore providing the background and intelligence for clients looking to create traction in a particular region or industry.

From Denver across the United States and beyond to its newest members in India and Russia, the benefits of PRGN membership are extensive, including learning from each others’ experiences and providing clients with exclusive access to a wealth of resources, specialized capabilities and local connections. Many of GFM’s national clients have harnessed the power of our PRGN colleagues to quickly reach additional markets across the globe with a consistent approach and messaging.

But enough about “why” PRGN is valuable, it’s much more fun to know about “what” our partners have been up to lately.

On Jan. 26, PRGN distributed the first edition of its newsletter with a focus on providing mini case studies from member agencies. Natalie Price of Seattle public relations agency, The Fearey Group, wrote about a topic that’s near and dear to our hearts here at GFM – social media for the health care industry. The Fearey Group recently worked with Swedish Medical Center, the largest nonprofit health system in the Puget Sound region, to create two new innovative social media campaigns.

The first effort helped to raise awareness for sleep disorders. Swedish’s Sleep Medicine Center hosted the first-ever “sleep up” – an all-night live stream following a patient undergoing sleep disorder testing. The campaign reached more than five million people and gained national media coverage, including online bellwether Mashable.com.
The second program caught more than media attention. Did you see Grey’s Anatomy last week? Yes, surgeons really do live tweet from the operating room and Seattle’s Swedish Medical center was one of the first in the country to do so. The live-tweeted surgery reached more than 83,000 people on Twitter.

The success of these campaigns offers valuable insights for all PRGN partners and our clients. We look forward to bringing this information to you in regular posts about PRGN on our blog.

Click here to subscribe to the PRGN newsletter or stay up-to-date on the latest news and information from across the network at Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Great Story Telling: When it Makes a Difference

2011-02-08T21:56:00.007-07:00

We’ve all had good clients and clients that were not quite the right fit. I believe that a good client is made up of not only the chemistry of the teams but also the sense of partnership in the bigger picture. There is nothing better for an agency than having a passion and mission for telling a client’s story. I’ve been working with GroundFloor Media’s (GFM) health care practice for several years and work with many amazing organizations that are fighting the good fight against obesity. It has been and will continue to be a great story to tell because the risks are enormous and consequences deadly. This issue makes pitching traditional and nontraditional media exciting because I truly believe this story needs to be told and because telling it will hopefully make a difference, start a dialogue, educate one more person, or create/support a movement.

And speaking of movements, I can’t believe today is the anniversary of The First Lady’s groundbreaking Let’s Move! Campaign, focused on childhood obesity. We’ve seen the movement impact schools and communities across the nation and give GFM’s health care clients including LiveWell Colorado, the Colorado Health Foundation (TCHF) and The Children’s Hospital support on the local levels. Nationally, we’ve seen celebrity chefs and Walmart get their game on too. Now there is a challenge sweeping the quick service restaurant industry for healthier kids meal options (see resource link and article below) and thankfully our client Qdoba Mexican Grill has always offered healthy options. Every industry should choose to be positive players in fighting this growing epidemic.

On the local front, we need to remember that more than a quarter of Colorado’s children are overweight or obese. I’d like to call out the Colorado organizations that are renewing their own commitment and collaborative efforts to bring healthy eating and active living strategies to children and families across the state. A group of Colorado organizations including LiveWell Colorado and TCHF, Kaiser Permanente and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), are partnering in an effort stop the obesity epidemic in Colorado. These organizations have engaged hundreds of Colorado communities, schools, families and children to make policy, environmental and behavior changes that address obesity. Every time an article, broadcast segment or blog comes out about these programs we have a sense of pride knowing that just possibly the needle is moving.

I’d also like to highlight one of our non-profit clients that often sits behind-the-scenes that is making big differences in our communities through supporting community gardens, agriburbia, food banks and horticulture programs across the state, Colorado Garden Show, Inc. They do this from proceeds generated from the annual Colorado Garden & Home Show (coming up Feb. 12 – 20, 2011) and the Colorado Fall Home Show. For some this may be an unlikely partner in the fight against obesity.

Last week, the organization awarded a $100,000 grant to Westminster High School and a $25,000 grant to Concerts for Kids. The Westminster High School grant specifically supports the construction of a greenhouse for the school’s horticulture program. The Concerts for Kids grant will support two of the organization’s projects – a community garden and greenhouse at the Serenity Learning Center (for children with autism) in Centennial, Colo., and an organic community vegetable garden at one Denver Public Schools elementary school.

Do you have a client that you are passionate about telling their story? What are you most proud of working on this week?

Resource Articles:
• Eatocrazy on CNN “Walmart Joins Michelle Obamas Let’s Move Campaign”
• Kids Health Eating Focus of Let’s Move Campaign in QSR Magazine “Time to Move”
• LiveWell Colorado in the news
• Colorado Garden Show, Inc. “Garden Show grants $100,000 to Westy Horticulture Program”

GroundFloor Media launches crisis communication blog, formalizes service line

2011-02-04T15:54:00.002-07:00

The news cycle never sleeps, and the bar for what is considered “news” continues to be lowered. One negative article, blog or tweet can snowball, and company reputations that have taken years to build can crumble instantly.

Understanding this changing media landscape, where news can be contained in 140 characters or less, is half the battle. With this emerging dynamic in mind, GroundFloor Media launched a new issues management/crisis communications blog covering topics related to social media, news media, media training and reputation management. So far, we’ve taken a closer look at a variety of topics, including Toyota’s PR plan during the latest recall; Bank of America using Twitter to inform customers of an online outage; how to prevent and prepare your online reputation; and top PR blunders from 2010.

The new blog is the newest component in GroundFloor Media’s crisis communication and issues management service line. Our team’s seasoned professionals have extensive real-world, first-hand experience working with our clients to manage issues such as litigation (e.g., criminal, civil, class action, bankruptcy, etc.), layoffs, ethical and/or data breaches, customer satisfaction issues, internal communications concerns, social media attacks and blunders, natural disasters and school shootings, just to name a few. We also conduct media training, develop crisis plans and social media response plans, conduct table-top crisis simulations, and offer strategic counsel. Find out more.

~Gil Rudawsky

Social Media Monitoring – The Human Touch

2011-01-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

At GroundFloor Media, our GFM Digital practice offers what I believe is an innovative and highly customized approach to social media monitoring. Our Digital Snapshot™ is a proprietary social media discovery and competitive audit tool. Each Digital Snapshot combines measurable data with strategic insight to help clients understand what is being said about their brand, key competitors and most importantly, where opportunities exist to launch or improve a company’s social media presence.

I realize that I have an obvious bias as a GFM employee. But as an avid watcher of all things social media, GFM Digital does approach and deliver this research in a way that sets measurable benchmarks for clients and provides numerous recommendations for how to either create an online program from scratch or vastly improve a client’s engagement level in their current social media efforts.

How is this done? Lots and lots (and LOTS) of reading – what I like to call the “human touch.”

Yes, social media monitoring software has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years. Radian 6, among other offerings, has drastically reduced the amount of time it takes to aggregate keyword-based content. Such platforms have also greatly improved functions such as sentiment/tone categorization, if you are willing to accept a certain margin of error. Going one step further, we can even use software to automatically group conversations by theme, verbs and adjectives, eliminating the tedious task of reading upwards of 5,000 posts or more to determine what the most common conversation topics and consumer actions are for a brand.

But all that data and related graphs are only as good as the people reviewing and presenting the information; social media metrics also need to be reviewed with a keen understanding about your company and industry competitors. The way I see it, new technology simply helps us pull more targeted data in less time. The real labor of social media monitoring and auditing hasn’t changed much – the best research still requires strategic review by a human being in order to provide insight that can positively steer and impact a brand that wants to excel in this space.

And that brings us back to the manual evaluation that GFM Digital delivers for every client that engages in the Digital Snapshot process. We just completed our annual Digital Snapshot for a client that conducts regular qualitative and quantitative reviews of market data, key benchmarks and competitor actions. Our findings were compelling. The good news – our client continues to shape its voice in social media and make progress in engaging target audiences in high-quality online conversations. And the surprising news – their competitors often appeared one way “on paper” and entirely differently once we took a deeper look at the impact that they are having (or not) on social media.

Digital Snapshots can be tedious and often require enlarging an Excel document to 175 percent so that by the 200th tweet, you can still keep analyzing the content and apply it to the social media plan being developed for a client after the research phase. But in the end, the “human touch” and our continually evolving approach to this research process enables us to elevate our conversations with clients about our findings, and hopefully add significant, lasting value to their social media programs.

~Alexis

The Critical Nature of Client Service

2011-01-24T11:13:00.001-07:00

I’ve had several experiences lately – both good and bad – that have reminded me just how critical client/customer service is for companies of all sizes and across all industries. And it really only takes a little movement in either direction to make a big impact.

First, let’s get the bad out of the way… One of the simplest – and yet sometimes the most difficult – client service tools is communication. Communication is absolutely key. I’ve personally been working with a service provider who started out on such a high note in this area. My contact’s responsiveness to my questions – and indeed, his proactivity in keeping me updated – were the primary reasons I chose to work with his group over a competitor. However, the really disappointing part is that once the contract was signed, that communication pipeline all but dried up. I no longer get proactive update calls, and when I do manage to get someone to call me back, s/he is generally rushed and distracted on the phone. I certainly understand that everyone is busy, but the dramatic shift in customer service that I’ve experienced has left a bad taste in my mouth.

On the flip side – I’ve also had the pleasure of experiencing some pretty outstanding client service recently. And in these instances, I’m happy to be more specific. I tried a new (to me) Italian bakery recently – Vincenza’s Italian Bakery. I was desperate to find a last-minute solution for an impromptu dinner party. I looked up Italian bakeries, found Vincenza’s and called to see if they had any carry-out lasagna available. The woman I spoke to was incredibly friendly and helpful. Because it was last-minute, their supplies were limited, but she pulled the last lasagna out of the freezer and put my name on it. She proactively offered to prepare a loaf of garlic bread for me as well. And it was all ready to go when I arrived 20 minutes later. Wow!

On a grander scale, last week GroundFloor Media posted a link on our Facebook page to an article about a beautiful example of customer service exhibited by Southwest Airlines – in which a pilot opted to hold a plane to wait for a grieving grandfather. Yes, it delayed the flight a bit and probably angered some of the passengers – but in the end, the pilot helped make a tragic and painful situation slightly more bearable. And, although not as important in the grand scheme of things, his actions generated a great deal of goodwill for the airline in the process.

Finally, I’d like to cite two more examples of laudable client service – examples that are very relevant to the PR industry. And that is the amazing client service consistently demonstrated by our contacts at BusinessWire (Dylan Frusciano) and Cision (Kris Bates). Both gentlemen are always very friendly, incredibly prompt in responding to calls and e-mails, and they are always willing to go the extra mile to help answer questions, resolve issues, etc.

At GFM, I love that we place so much emphasis on exceptional client service. And it’s really the little things that matter – like client birthdays and quick responses. Or, as Seth Godin puts it, paying attention to those “last five minutes.” That being said, I cannot claim to be perfect – sometimes, stress and the frantic pace of a day get the best of me, and I don’t return a call as quickly as I should, or I fail to send a note of kudos to a client on a job well done. However, improving on that is my New Year’s resolution for 2011. And please – help me out! If I drop the client service ball when working with you, I sincerely want you to let me know!

~Amanda

If you don’t have anything nice to say…

2011-01-21T15:59:00.002-07:00

It never fails – your mother is always right. I remember my mother telling me as a child that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all. In this day and age, it is a childhood scolding that would do us all a bit of good to remember. Over the past few weeks, you can’t turn on the TV, flip through stations on the radio, read the newspaper or a magazine, or participate in water cooler talk without hearing debate about the political tone of our nation. But this tone goes far beyond the political arena and has infiltrated almost all of our non-personal interaction.

For example, this past weekend I sadly watched the defeat of my beloved Patriots to the New York Jets. Feeling a bit sorry for myself, I took a few minutes to catch up on Facebook. What is usually a pretty enjoyable experience of peering into the daily happenings of friends was filled with mean-spirited posts about a simple football rivalry. Granted, I did not want the Jets to win, but I was surprised by the tone of the posts I read. I am not casting judgment on my Facebook friends because I am sure that I have posted things that may have left a bad taste in the mouths of others, but instead it made me think about how easy it is to write something negative or insensitive when you don’t have to look the other person in the eye. This electronic dialog has taken away from the art of debate and turned differences of opinion into personal attacks and down-right vile discourses that have moved from the computer screen into daily interpersonal communications.

The tone seems to get even worse when people are able to post anonymously. In April 2010, the New York Times published an article about news organization rethinking anonymous online comments. The article referenced the 1993 New Yorker cartoon featuring two dogs with the caption “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

My question is - should it matter? There have been too many headlines over the past few years about hateful speech having negative consequences because the “dog” posting the comment or video forgot that the target was an actual human being with feelings and emotions. Whether posting a comment anonymously, through social media or even when having a good old face-to-face difference of opinion, we may all want to remember the wise words of our mothers – if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

~ Kristina

Keep Your Foot on the Gas

2011-01-20T13:55:00.004-07:00

Last week, my inbox alert chimed not once, but twice, with a forwarded message about the recent TED talk by Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook. Yes, a woman is the number two behind Mark Zuckerberg – wow! I think many assume another youngish, Ivy League, tech-savvy male works side-by-side with the Time Magazine 2010 Person of the Year, when in fact it’s Sandberg, mother of two.

So, how does she do it – juggling the demands of one of the highest profile and fastest growing companies in the world with the responsibilities of family life?

This is precisely the reason why she was speaking as part of TEDWomen, which took place this past December in Washington, D.C. The event showcased an amazing number of accomplished women including Deborah Rhodes, who developed a new tool for breast cancer detection, and Beverly Joubert, who lived in the bush with her husband to capture stunning images and footage of lions and leopards in their natural habitat. One more time – WOW!

Sandberg mentions up front that she does not have all the answers, not even for herself, but she does offer up some startling statistics and follows up with three pieces of advice for women who wish to continue advancing their careers.

To begin, a statistic that we’ve often heard and hope isn’t correct – success and likeability are positively correlated for men and negatively for women. The “witchy” executive woman stereotype is proven time and again in studies. Ugg! Also, only 15 percent of C-suite and board of director positions are held by woman, and the numbers have remained flat since 2003. Double ugg!

So how do we begin to move the needle in the right direction? Sandberg shared three recommendations. While she’s doubtful that the current generation of women will experience a significant shift in attitudes and advancement in the workplace, she’s hopeful that the next generation – including the new little girl who was born into the GroundFloor Media family earlier this month – will benefit from all of us thinking and acting a bit differently about our careers.

First, she recommends that women “sit at the table.” All to often, we are comfortable taking a seat on the sidelines and that’s just not helpful for us to be regarded as the leaders and thoughtful contributors that we are.
Second, she suggests, “make your partner a real partner,” referring to the need for women and men to share equally in the responsibilities at home. How can a woman with a full-time job be truly successful in her career if she’s doing more of the housework, childcare, etc.
Third, Sandberg encourages women not to “leave before you leave.” All too often, she has experienced women who are opting out of promotions or big projects as they prepare for maternity leave or a transition out of the work place. She suggests keeping your “foot on the gas” up until the moment when you make the decision to take another path.

Sandberg shared a lot more detail along with these recommendations during her talk, and the importance of her points cannot be overstated. Personally, beginning the New Year and looking to my one-year anniversary with GFM, I feel both grateful and proud to have the opportunity to work and continue to grow in an organization that is bucking national statistics and making a comfortable place for all of us – both male and female – to be successful.

Next month, GFM is looking forward to TED2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder. The agency has planned to participate as a video member of the four-day event, Feb. 28 – Mar. 4, 2011, and we will be sharing highlights and lessons learned through viewing parties and blog entries.

Eyes Wide Shut: Arizona Tragedy

2011-01-13T14:11:00.002-07:00

Like many of you I was shocked and saddened this past weekend to learn of the tragic shooting in Arizona that left six dead and 14 wounded. In reading more about the shooter, it's clear that he had issues that were becoming more and more apparent to those around him, and it's sad to know that despite warning signs and concerns expressed by his fellow students at a local community college, he didn't get help and was still able to carry out the events of this past weekend.

As a PR professional, I've been contemplating how this type of tragedy affects my view on public events. Together with my clients, I've planned events ranging from press announcements in the park with Denver's Mayor to concerts for thousands of attendees at Red Rocks Amphitheater to sending models with body paint out onto a pedestrian mall – and while crisis planning is always on my mind, I have never imagined a scenario anywhere near the events of this past weekend in Arizona.

How could you possibly guess that an unstable individual might choose that day, that time and your event to act out?

The world we live in has certainly changed. Metal detectors at schools, invasive searches at airports, security cameras on the streets… I'm not complaining, because I appreciate the security that these additional safety measures afford, but I sometimes long for the innocence of the early days of my career.

I know that this event won't cause me or my colleagues to stop planning events, but I also know that while security might have been further down the list than messaging against potentially tough questions from the media, it will be making its way closer to the top at my next event planning session.

At the end of the day I choose to believe that most people are good and incidents like this are incredibly isolated, but I also choose to approach things with my eyes opened more widely now. Leaving them shut and longing for the days of innocence is a risk we as PR professionals cannot afford to take.

The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same

2011-01-10T12:02:00.006-07:00

As we kick off a new year, it’s hard not to acknowledge the more things change, the more things stay the same. This old proverb rings true for life and what we do in public relations.

I don’t think that anyone will disagree about the enormous impact social media has had on our society and certainly, the public relations profession. At the same time, the fundamentals of public relations have not changed. Public relations is, and always will be, about building relationships with your target audiences. It’s a two-way street; there must be something in it for both sides. With that said, following are a few personal observations and things to keep in mind as we move into a new year.

Traditional Media Is Not Dead
While we’re all keenly aware of what has happened to traditional media - the shrinking news room, loss in advertising revenues, fewer reporters covering more, etc. - the fact remains that people still pay attention to and read newspapers, subscribe to magazine, watch the news and listen to radio. Mass media still has a huge influence on our society – even though its delivery has evolved and now includes tweets, video and wall posts. And maintaining positive relationships with editors, news directors and reporters is as a critical as ever. Check out this article that provides some interesting statistics on traditional media and its continued reach:

If You Don’t Want to See it in Print (or on TV, or on YouTube, etc.), Don’t Say It
It’s like my mom always said to me when I was having disagreements with my siblings, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. And in today’s day and age where anything and everything you say can be recorded, it’s even more critical. We witnessed many examples of this in 2010. In fact, GFM’s Gil Rudawsky pointed out a few of the more public blunders of 2010 in his blog on Dec. 22, 2010:

This is one of the first lessons any PR professional learns as part of media training – if you don’t want to see it in print, don’t say it or put it in writing.

You’re Only As Good as Your Reputation (and Your Good Reputation Can Disappear in a Flash)
We’ve all seen recent examples of individuals and corporations where reputations are damaged, if not destroyed, overnight - Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, BP, Goldman Sachs, to name a few. At the same time, we’re a country of people who believe in second chances and forgiveness. What are you doing to protect your reputation or the reputation of your clients? Do you have the resources in place to quickly address any issues that could arise and potentially damage your reputation? Do you have a social media crisis plan in place? Having an up-to-date crisis plan that you and your leadership team fully understand and embrace is that insurance policy. It won’t prevent a crisis from happening, but it will help guide you through difficult waters and allow you to emerge on the other side.

What are your thoughts on the topic? Are there other examples of how public relations is evolving, and at the same time, remaining true to its roots? We’d love to hear from you!

~ Barb Jones

Here’s to a Happy, Healthy New Year!

2011-01-04T13:19:00.003-07:00

It’s that time of year again – everyone is writing about New Year’s resolutions and new beginnings and getting fit in the New Year – so I won’t disappoint…

GroundFloor Media (GFM) works with a number of health care and wellness-related clients including The Children’s Hospital, the Colorado Health Foundation, LiveWell Colorado, St. Anthony Central Hospital and USA Cycling, and our team members maintain fairly active lifestyles for such very busy people.

According to LiveWell Colorado’s Worksite Wellness Blueprint, worksite wellness efforts can have numerous benefits, including a healthier workforce, increased morale, higher employee productivity, reduced absenteeism and a reduction in health care costs. I know from personal experience that regular workouts can be the first thing to fall off of the proverbial “to do” list when things get busy at work. However, I also know that when I make a conscious effort to get those workouts in, even when things are really busy, it makes a positive difference in my energy and stress levels.

It is with that spirit in mind that GFM is announcing a new “active lifestyle allowance” for our full-time employees in 2011. Each employee will be allotted a monthly stipend to use toward their own active lifestyle – it may be used to attend yoga classes, buy that monthly membership at the gym, go toward the purchase of a new bike or sign up for a 5K, 10K or even a half marathon. However it is utilized, we hope that it certainly does result in a healthier, happier GFM team.

Small steps like this can make a big difference with regard to workplace wellness. I hope you have an active, healthy 2011, too!

A New Take on Decorating for the Holidays

2010-12-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

When you are blessed with a wonderful job, a healthy and loving family and many non-necessities (e.g., new car, nice clothes, ski trips), it can be extremely easy to get wrapped up in all the glitter and sparkle of the holidays. And let me be clear, I don’t think anything is wrong with the sparkle – I live for Christmas carols, “Miracle on 34th Street” and gingerbread cookies.

However, just a few blocks from my candy cane lane is a place called Tennyson Center for Children, a treatment center and K-12 school for emotionally and crisis-affected children and youth, particularly those suffering from abuse and neglect. GroundFloor Media’s (GFM) president and founder Laura Love-Aden has been personally involved with Tennyson for more than six years and has introduced many GFM colleagues to the center via local leadership programs, GFM’s Get Giving program or pro-bono PR work. Still being somewhat new to GFM this year I hadn’t had the opportunity to visit Tennyson Center before last week when we decorated one of the kids’ cottages, served dinner and handed out stockings.

From the moment I stepped into the cottage I had an overwhelming feeling of excitement about brightening the kids’ night, paired with a lump in my throat because I simply cannot fathom why those innocent and adorable young children have to cope with such tragic family situations – especially during the holidays.

Not many businesses are staffed by owners and employees who are as passionate about embracing a cause and making it a part of their everyday life as the people of GFM. As I watched the children smile in delight over the most basic presents – candy canes, Silly Putty and lip gloss – I became keenly aware that GFM has invited me to be a part of something special. We get to do great work for incredible clients. We celebrate our successes wholeheartedly and learn and grow from our failures. But none of those attributes of GFM compare to the way we give back together – the support we have from our leaders to step outside of our office to go experience real-world situations and try, in our own little way, to make a difference.

One young girl in particular left a major impact on me during my evening at Tennyson. She quietly said, “it’s okay, nobody likes me,” when I tried to negotiate with another child to let her hang the next string of lights. Later in the evening she walked over to me, carefully holding a snowman ornament that we had not donated. She said it was very special to her and let me help her gingerly hang it above her doorway, carefully testing the hook to make sure it wouldn’t fall. I can only wonder who gave it to her, when she got it, and what it means to her this holiday season – you cannot ask those questions of the children at Tennyson Center because you do not know what memories or feelings it will bring up for the child.

Without naming this little girl here, I want to wish her happy holidays and my deepest wishes for her to have a healthy, happy and safe 2011 and beyond.

~Alexis Anzalone

Recap of the PR disasters of 2010

2010-12-22T14:31:00.001-07:00

As the year draws to a close, it’s a good time to review the top 10 PR blunders of 2010 – and there are some doozies. Here are some of the best of the worst with input from Forbes.com and HuffingtonPost

Landing near the top of every list is British Petroleum (BP) CEO Tony Howard. Clearly, “wanting his life back” should have been the least of his worries after countless people along the Gulf had had their lives ruined after the BP oil rig exploded, killing 13 and spilling million of gallons of oil. To top it off, he also commented that the Gulf is “a very big ocean” and later attended a swank regatta days after being questioned by Congress about the spill. So much for getting his life back.

This next one is a bit more controversial, particularly if you are a Miami Heat fan. Up until this year, LeBron James sat on top of the basketball world. He had the poise, skills and savvy to back it up. But then came the media storm surrounding “The Decision” – LeBron’s announcement on live television about his decision to join the Heat. Fans from Cleveland and beyond now have a new player they love to hate – so much for humility.

Oftentimes, in media training with clients, GroundFloor Media warns that the moment they are in the presence of a television camera or reporter that everything is “on the record.” Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and California Senate candidate, learned this the hard way. While doing a sound check for a television interview, a live microphone recorded her commenting about opponent Barbara Boxer’s hair. And the evening news quoted her as saying, “God, what is that hair? So yesterday.”

Toyota was riding the wave of record car sales when news about unintended acceleration on some of its best selling vehicles hit the media. Instead of controlling the issue by providing clear and accurate communications, the company fumbled by passing the buck, and at one point, even blaming drivers. Now Toyota has the honor of being the brand behind the biggest automotive recall since Firestone tires in 2000.

Here’s a rundown of some more of the most memorable “what not to do” PR moments of the past year:

• Messaging, messaging, messaging: U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon, who once ran World Wrestling Entertainment, admitted that she didn't know whether WWE paid any of its employees minimum wage and that she didn’t even know the dollar figure for Connecticut's minimum wage.
• Spin isn’t the best defense: Craigslist standing behind its “Adult Services” category and not owning up to the fact that everyone else in the world knew what it was for. Fumbling through an interview on the topic, Founder Craig Newmark simply stopped talking and ended the interview by walking out of the room.
• Beware of what you say online: Chocolate maker Nestlé showed its thin skin when it went after naysayers on Facebook, which just added fuel to the fire. The company’s Facebook page will never be used as a proactive marketing tool again.
• One bad experience goes viral: Alaska Airlines didn’t win any customers over when one flyer’s ticket was given away because she was one minute late (because she was dealing with a child’s diaper emergency). The family posted the item on a blog, which caught the world’s attention and soon the media started calling. Instead of making it right, the airlines cited rules and procedures. Weeks later, they finally agreed to refund the family, but the damage had already been done.

As we head into 2011, there are a couple of lessons to learn from this year’s PR disasters. First off, social media networks are more and more becoming the median to highlight missteps. And tried and true media training is still a great defense for avoiding making next year’s list. Our team can help create a solid social media response plan and prepare your company for common and not-so-common pitfalls. Plus, we can offer you some good strategic counsel when best intentions fall off the deep end. LeBron, give us a call next time you switch teams.
-- Gil Rudawsky

The Spirit of Giving – A Look Back at 2010

2010-12-17T15:03:00.003-07:00

As I wrote in an earlier post this year (Cause Marketing is Thriving – Thanks to Moms and Millennials), cause marketing is alive and well in the U.S. despite the economic difficulties of the past several years, according to Cone’s 2010 Cause Evolution Study, released this fall. In fact, per the study, 83 percent of consumers want more of the products, services and retailers that they use to benefit causes. Looking back over 2010, while individuals and businesses may not have been able to give as much overall as in previous years due to the economy, the spirit of giving illustrated in Cone’s study has been clearly evident to us at GroundFloor Media.

Our clients continue to seek ways to become more involved in their communities. For example, Westwood College recently donated Netbooks, portable computer carts and interactive white boards to Skyline High School in Dallas in order to help the school meet its technology needs. Westwood IT students are also helping to repair previously donated computers and equipment so that they can be put back into classrooms and student homes.

In addition, Qdoba Mexican Grill continues to support the Starlight Children’s Foundation through the company’s CSR program.

And, at GroundFloor Media we are celebrating the successful launch in 2010 of our Get Giving program. Through this program, we collected and donated hundreds of items to nonprofits including PlatteForum, SafeHouse Denver, Dumb Friends League, Colorado Youth at Risk and Florence Crittenton Services. In addition, thanks to the generosity of partners and clients such as LiveWell Colorado, Westwood College, Young Americans Center for Financial Education, CCT Advertising, Bradley Consulting Group, Motive, BusinessWire Denver, Radius, Relish Studio and Activate, we were recently able to donate 11 large boxes of Christmas wish list items to the families of Denver’s Warren Village through our Get Giving “On the Road” holiday initiative.

Looking more broadly across Colorado, as many of you are no doubt aware, Community First Foundation and FirstBank presented the first annual Colorado Gives Day on Dec. 8. Their goal was to raise $1 million in one day for Colorado nonprofits through online giving. Individuals and businesses across the state literally blew that goal out of the water by donating more than $8 million in one day!

As news stories focusing on bad news continue to abound, it is incredibly encouraging, especially during this holiday season, to know that the drive to do good is so strong in Colorado. We look forward to an even brighter and more generous 2011!

~Amanda Brannum

Maximizing strengths in the workplace

2010-12-16T10:24:00.006-07:00

Have you ever wondered how you and your colleague think differently? Or, how you both can approach and execute the same project in a different way to achieve similar results? Earlier this week, our team participated in an Emergenetics team building workshop lead by one of the founders, Dr. Geil Browning. Talk about interesting stuff!

In case you are not familiar, Emergenetics is a brain-based psychometric assessment that highlights thinking and behavior. GFM team members Ramonna Tooley, Jim Licko and Barb Jones had all participated in the program during Leadership Denver with the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Leadership Foundation. Ramonna was eager to get our entire team in the room to learn about it, and when the opportunity presented itself, she didn’t even think twice.

Most of the team didn’t know what to expect of the all-day off-site meeting. While some of us had anxiety about the “not knowing,” were freaked out when an agenda wasn’t presented at the beginning of the presentation, and were eager for the analytical part of the workshop to end so we could learn about our own profiles, one thing was clear – we were going to learn how to build upon our strengths, preferences and diversity to learn more about each other individually and as a team.

As I sit at my desk today and check the boxes off on my “typical” Jen Wills to do list, I am able to understand why I do some “quirky” things – my personal profile explains it all – and as my husband chuckled to himself while I shared my day and the specifics of my profile, I know he was thinking… “And your profile surprises you, why?”

Bottom line: I walked away with a greater appreciation of my strengths and perspectives, and most importantly those of my colleagues. GroundFloor Media wouldn’t be one of the Denver Business Journal’s Best Places to Work without the unique blend of each team member’s profile. We complement each other, and our clients, to ensure effectiveness in our business. Thanks to all of my colleagues for continually reminding me that it is important (and ok) to step outside of my analytical and structural box to have some spontaneous, laughable fun!

Looking forward to another great year at GFM!

~ Jen Wills

Healthy Choices In Schools: Let’s Debate!

2010-12-08T09:19:00.006-07:00

Last week Congress approved a child nutrition bill that will make a significant investment in the National School Lunch program. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act will increase health choices in school cafeterias across the country. This has ignited a discussion across the country and there are few things more entertaining for media than a debate about schools and food. My favorite headline was from the Boston Herald: “Hold the brownies! Bill could limit bake sales.” The lead-in was spectacular: “Don't touch my brownies! A child nutrition bill on its way to President Barack Obama - and championed by the first lady - gives the government power to limit school bake sales and other fundraisers that health advocates say sometimes replace wholesome meals in the lunchroom …” Here’s another quote: "This could be a real train wreck for school districts," Lucy Gettman of the National School Boards Association said Friday, a day after the House cleared the bill. "The federal government should not be in the business of regulating this kind of activity at the local level."

Now I like my brownies and the occasional bake sale. However, I keep hearing John Stossel, former ABC News anchor and current Fox Business host, ranting, “Give me a break!” over and over in my head. This is a groundbreaking piece of bipartisan legislation that will significantly improve the quality of meals that children receive at school and will play an integral role in our efforts to combat childhood obesity. I give the First Lady and the Let’s Move! initiative three cheers. As a parent, how could I stand by and not support a program that provides children across the country access to nutritious food to learn and grow to fulfill their potential?

Want to know the real train wreck? Obesity rates, especially among children and adolescents, have steadily climbed since the early 1990s. Today, many children eat two of three meals at school. School districts are experiencing dwindling resources and are often challenged to feed a large student population with little funding, yet they are tasked with serving food that is affordable, nutritious and appealing to students. Have you been to a school cafeteria lately? Care to name what is actually on the lunch tray?

Here’s something the media can sink its teeth into: The Hunger-Free Kids Act will help support local programs similar to the EatWell@School cooking competition hosted by LiveWell Colorado. This nine-week healthy cooking competition for Denver Public Schools high schools has challenged students to take on creating healthy school meals, as well as providing cooking and nutrition skills that will last a lifetime. The EatWell@School Cooking Competition with Denver Public Schools high school students seeks to raise awareness of the importance of healthy eating at school. The competition will culminate today with a fundraising luncheon, to honor the student competitors and raise funds for LiveWell Colorado’s ongoing mission of promoting healthy eating and active living. I can’t wait to enjoy Martin Luther King Jr. Early College’s winning meal of parmesan and herb crusted chicken with creamy pesto spaghetti and stuffed tomato. YUM!

Will the Hunger-Free Kids Act make a difference? You betcha’!

~ Amy

WikiLeaks Provides Painful Reminder to Review Plans and Policies

2010-12-07T15:49:00.003-07:00

If you're like me, you've been hearing a lot about WikiLeaks in the past few weeks, but the real background and potential ramifications of the site and its contents have been a bit of a jumble, muted against the background of the holiday hustle and bustle. This article from Fast Company, however, quickly snapped me back to professional reality and provided a timely reminder to review communications plans and policies for the companies that we, as public relations professionals, represent.

According to the article, "...Julian Assange said at least half the treasure trove of documents the organization is holding belong to private corporations..." Sometime early next year, WikiLeaks plans to start adding these materials from private corporations to its site. Naturally, I wondered how WikiLeaks got its hands on its first round of materials, and slapped myself on the forehead when I saw this piece from CBS Sunday Morning about 23-year-old Bradley Manning who basically cut and pasted data he found simply searching documents to which he had access on the job.

As part of any fully-rounded communications planning process, we encourage our clients to try to head off crises like leaked documents by developing clear policies about document access and sharing. Of course, given the intersection of confidential documents and social mediums like Facebook, Twitter and wikis, there are no guarantees. In addition to having a reactive crisis plan, we also recommend the following common-sense steps when it comes to internal and external communications strategies:

Remember that anything in writing can be forwarded, copied, saved or rebroadcast
Confidential communications are best handled in person, not via e-mail
Never say anything in an e-mail that you wouldn't want your boss or competitor to read
Engage legal and communications team counsel early for particularly sensitive issues and documents
If a confidential document must be distributed electronically, be sure to watermark it "Draft" and/or "Confidential" and ensure the recipients understand the importance of keeping the document confidential

As we head into the New Year, it's a great time to learn from WikiLeaks and review your communication policies. At GroundFloor Media we'll be doing so on behalf of our own communications as well as for our clients. Don't let your company be the next victim of WikiLeaks!

The Customer Experience, Branding and Hot Chocolate

2010-12-01T12:18:00.002-07:00

Mid-Season snow conditions by Thanksgiving meant one thing for me and a group of friends this past weekend: turkey in Eagle County. Taking a break between runs at the Dusty Boot (try the mac n’ cheese wedges) a couple of us were discussing all of the special events that ski resorts have planned throughout the season when someone said, “They’ll do anything to get people up here.”

Another friend argued that events like Snow Daze, The World’s Best Chocolate Cookie Competition and Ullr Fest aren’t just a reason to get people to the mountain, but more about providing an experience for the people who were already there. And while I think both opinions are correct, it’s a great argument about customer experience and how brands are truly developed.

Customer experience is really what drives any brand – the look and feel of your product and packaging, the experience customers have with employees, promotions and special events – all of these things. You can’t change it by merely updating your logo or changing your tagline. Your brand is what your customers think about you and your product or service. And while companies can create special events or other ideas to enhance the customer experience, many experiences are going to happen whether you calculated them or not.

The European alpine surroundings and “feel” in Vail (to use one example) are definitely part of its brand, but so are the amount of snow in China Bowl and the often-backed-up lift lines at Chairs 3 & 4. Some of it is controllable, some of it isn’t. That is exactly what I was impressed with over the weekend. The things I experienced that ski resorts can control – amenities, the friendliness and helpfulness of the ski lift staff, hot chocolate at the top of the gondola, the cleanliness of the village, even the crazy special events were top-notch.

My point is that customer experiences and brands can’t be fabricated. They are a result of how a company is run and its commitment to the overall brand experience, not what the company wants its customers to believe. If you want to modify or change your brand, you’ve got to know what your customers currently think about your company, and then make the fundamental changes within your organization to give customers the authentic brand experience you want them to have.

Which ski resort has the best brand? I have three or four favorites, and which one I chose all depends on what type of experience I’m looking for that particular day. It’s great to live in Colorado, isn’t it?

Which Colorado ski resort is your favorite?online surveys

Epiphany Half-Life

2010-11-23T11:26:00.013-07:00

On the heels of the Ragan Communication 2^nd Annual Employee Communications, PR and Social Media Summit, I am officially facing what CIO Magazine recently dubbed the “Epiphany Half-Life” – the time that passes between an inspiring event and the implementation of new ideas.

You feel it as the opening speaker of a conference psyches you up with new campaigns and best practices – yes, Microsoft spent millions on a Cirque de Soleil marketing spectacle to launch Kinect for Xbox 360, but if they sell five million units this holiday season, the risk will have paid off as the company’s biggest Xbox product launch – wow!

Microsoft-sized dreams do feel possible, particularly when you’re away from the office and listening to some of the leading minds in marketing and communications.

Every speaker talked about transparency, honesty and consistency as core to effective employee communications. These attributes are now more important than ever before as social media and the 24/7 news cycle are driving new ways of connecting with people and sharing information. Today, no one can hide, so why try?

Sara Tatchio, global integrated communications manager for Ford Motor Company, shared that CEO Alan Mulally asks his executives to invite an employee guest to staff meetings – brilliant! And to think he didn’t even need to invest in new technology to put that idea into action. It’s actually not a coincidence that he was recently recognized with the Fortune Magazine Businessperson of the Year award; Ford used internal communications channels to rally employees together to vote for him.

But, technology can be helpful, and the conference highlighted a handful of new ways to use familiar tools – such as Dell’s use of Saleforce’s CRM Force.com – into employee communications campaigns.

My former employer deployed Microsoft’s My Site to more than 5,000 employees nearly three years ago – no small undertaking – and it stalled. The lack of employee buy-in was not the fault of the technology, but rather the way we used it. Beyond the initial launch, we never created any incentive for employees to return to the site.

To think we could have done something as simple as hyper linking to employee My Site pages from feature articles on the company’s Intranet. Doing so would have directed eyeballs from more familiar Intranet pages to My Site, while also encouraging employees to keep their My Site content up to date. My Site could have helped a company sometimes struggling with employee morale to create a greater sense of connectedness and shared understanding of everyone’s contributions and expertise. Again, brilliant – thank you Deloitte.

With all these fresh (and doable) ideas ripe in my mind, it’s time to avoid the distractions of the holidays and year-end deadlines to share them with my peers and more importantly, our clients.

The Epiphany Half-Life challenges that if inspiration isn’t “put into practice by the end of the first half-life that it will fade into wistful daydream.”*

I’m of the mind that with 21 pages of notes from the event and closing keynote David Pogue’s Britney Spears-inspired jingle, “Oops, I apped it again,” seared in my brain, I’ll have a good chance of extending the first half-life beyond New Years and well into 2011.

~ Kimmie Greene^*Source: CIO Magazine, “How to Keep Your Team Fired Up,” Bob Lewis, Nov. 1, 2010.

Always Continue to Learn…

2010-11-12T11:36:00.005-07:00

I recently attended the Mayo Clinic and Ragan Communications’ second annual Health Care Public Relations, Marketing and Internal Communications Social Media Summit in Jacksonville, Fla., and it got me thinking about the value of professional development. It’s so easy to get so wrapped up in our day-to-day work and our hectic schedules – and often, taking time out for professional development falls to the bottom of our priority list. It sounds like a lovely idea, but who has the time???

My experience at the Mayo/Ragan conference reminded me of the importance of stepping back and taking the time… the time to learn from renowned leaders in the field, the time to share ideas with industry colleagues, and the time to get re-energized about the work we’re doing.

For me, the conference was extremely valuable in that it served to validate that, as an agency, GroundFloor Media has stayed on the proverbial leading-edge when it comes to counseling our health care clients about social media. At the same time, I learned a variety of new tips, tricks and tools from both the speakers and my fellow attendees as we discussed approaches we’ve taken, issues we’ve faced, etc. And, indeed, I returned to Denver energized and excited to share this expanded knowledge with my co-workers and apply it to strategies for clients.

I am grateful that GroundFloor Media places such an importance on professional development – whether it’s membership in a professional organization or participation in a webinar, a local industry group luncheon, or a multi-day workshop in another city. We are encouraged to identify opportunities that will help us strengthen our expertise – and then to take the time to participate in them and share what we learned during a subsequent internal staff lunch & learn.

In addition to the conference I recently attended, one of my colleagues is currently at a conference focused on internal communications. Three of us will be attending a monthly breakfast for health care communicators next week, and yet another is planning to attend a travel-focused social media conference early in 2011. Many of us are also active members of professional organizations including the Colorado chapter of PRSA, Colorado Healthcare Communicators and the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN). All of these activities are invaluable when it comes to ensuring that we continue to stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in the PR/marketing communications industry.

We’d like to hear from you – what is your perspective on professional development?survey software

~ Amanda Brannum

Multimedia world changing how we communicate

2010-11-05T09:38:00.007-06:00

Here’s further proof that the media landscape is continuing to change, reinforcing that the tried and true traditional news mediums are becoming less of a factor in the communications and PR world.

The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), considered the gold-standard guide to newspaper circulation numbers, reported this week that from April through September 2010, weekday newspaper circulation numbers across the county dropped 5 percent compared to the previous six months.

It’s a grim story for newspapers, but still a slight improvement from the last report, which showed circulation numbers dropping 10 percent. To put it in perspective, consider the falling numbers are coupled with ballooning expenses in everything from newsprint to employee health benefits.

Only The Wall Street Journal showed a distinct increase in numbers, since the ABC began counting paid online subscriptions in its report.

GroundFloor Media offers a couple of best practices that we can takeaway from the ongoing trend:

• Newspaper pitches must be targeted to specific reporters, and include real news. Shrinking news holes means gone are the days of simply blanketing a nominal press release and expecting some pick-up.

• Consider taking advantage of “On the Move” sections. When I was at the Rocky Mountain News, we had reports showing that these announcement sections were one of the most highly read features of the paper, next to the obituaries (which is an announcement of sorts but not one that we hope to use anytime soon).

• Look for strictly online news publications and citizen journalists to pitch, such as AOL’s DailyFinance or MSNBC.com or Examiner.com. They don’t have newsprint or distribution costs and to a certain extent, their content can be endless. Plus, content lives forever online, and will never be used as fish-wrap.

• Social media is doing the job of newspapers. Use the power of the word-of-mouth sensation of the social media world to announce events or client news.

• The paid online newspaper subscription model is expanding, as newspapers try to recoup loses from the print editions. The Grand Junction Sentinel was the first newspaper in the state to begin charging for most of its online content. The model works for the Wall Street Journal, but it might be an uphill battle for local publications.

Plunging newspaper circulation numbers further acknowledges we live in a multichannel world. The good news is more people are getting news; we just need to be smart about how we reach them.

~Gil Rudawsky

What will your legacy be?

2010-11-02T14:23:00.000-06:00

Last week I attended a beautiful funeral service for a good friend’s father. The chapel was standing room only, the flowers, plants and photos of his family were abundant, but the space and décor paled in comparison to the words that were spoken during the 90-minute tribute. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to spend Memorial Day with this family and was well aware (after a competitive afternoon of washer toss, knockout and listening to funny family stories), of the kind of man he was simply by being a witness to the incredible family dynamics he and his wife of 58 years had created. So as much as I dread funeral services, I found myself looking around the packed chapel curious to know more about what kind of person would command such an unbelievable crowd. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

The memorial service began with a tribute by his business partner of 32 years and was followed by a moving speech from his older brother. But what was even more touching was that seven of his grandchildren got up in front of the crowd to speak, as did all five of his children. Their eulogies were personal, poignant and full of the specific life lessons he had imparted on each and every one of them. While their stories were all different, they shared a theme that couldn’t be missed. It was a theme of compassion, acceptance, and kindness to all o fthose he encountered; unbridled love and commitment to his family, and a strong work ethic (he was still happily working at age 78) where his business associates were treated as family.

So I ask myself – in your business and your professional life – does it really matter what awards you win? What titles you hold? What contracts you secure? The size of your paycheck or the year-end revenue you report? At the end of the day – or your day as the case may be – you won’t be remembered for these things. You will be remembered, as was this amazing man, by the friends you keep, the kindness you show, the quality of time you spend with friends and family and the legacy and lessons you leave your children and grandchildren. It really is that simple.