Celebrating Downtown Denver (Black-Tie Style)

Jeff Arnold (SlimGenics), Ramonna Robinson (GFM), and Dalyn Wertz (SlimGenics)

It’s not often you get invited to a black-tie affair in Denver, so when we received the invitation to the Downtown Denver Partnership 51st Annual Awards Dinner this week, we couldn’t pass it up.

Along with our friends and colleagues from LiveWell Colorado, Bellco, Jeremy Bloom's Wish of a Lifetime and SlimGenics, we arrived at the Hyatt Regency Denver – Colorado Convention Center in our best garb to congratulate the six winners of the Downtown Denver awards this year:

• The Clyfford Still Museum, for fulfilling the selection of Denver as the beneficiary of the Still estate

• The 14th Street project, for completing an extensive streetscape leveraging a public/private partnership

• 1099 Osage, for maintaining the economic and cultural diversity of the La Alma-Lincoln Park neighborhood

• The History Colorado Center, for building a state-of-the-art museum on an underused block

• Denver Pavilions, for securing the first H&M flagship store in Colorado

• USA Pro Cycling Challenge, for the last stage of one of the largest cycling events in U.S. history

It was a fantastic night catching up with so many individuals dedicated to making Denver a more culturally rich, prosperous and welcoming community, and we left inspired and grateful to live in the Mile High City.

Did we mention the petite chocolate s’mores cake dessert was absolutely to die for?

Wednesday Social Media Headlines from Google+ and Facebook

Sometimes we just can’t wait until Friday to share big social media headlines from the week. Today our office has been buzzing about the launch of Google+ Local Pages and a new monetization and reach paid strategy from Facebook that offers admins the chance to pay money to have a post pushed to more people.

• Official Google Blog - Local—now with a dash of Zagat and a sprinkle of Google+
• TIME Techland - Facebook Now Letting Users Pay to Promote Their Posts

Google+ may continue to feel like a ghost town, but the folks behind it will not back down to the critics. With the launch of Google+ Local, SEO teams are clearing their schedules to make sure keyword and optimization strategies take into account this powerful new aggregation tool. Business owners must, more than ever, pay close attention to consumer-driven reviews as Zagat is deeply integrated with the rank and scoring of local businesses, in addition to reviews from people in your circles.

Back in February, TechCrunch reported that only 16 percent of posts reach Facebook brand page followers. Ouch. Now TIME Techland is reporting (and we’ve seen the rollout on several pages we’re admins for, but not all) that you can pay a fee to have your status update post reach more people. For example, as an admin on the GroundFloor Media page, I can pay $5 to reach 500 of our 930 followers or $10 to reach 600 fans. A screenshot of this option is below.

It’s hard to tell this early in the game what investment in Facebook’s paid promotion option brands should be making, and what the ROI will be for those payments. But admins of brand pages should keep a close eye on the news from Facebook over the next few days, especially if they have a big promotional push coming up and limited budget to spread the word through other more traditional social advertising channels.

What else are you reading about these two announcements?

~Alexis

What We're Reading - Week of May 21, 2012

This week's "What We're Reading" is all about utility. It's not just enough to have a social network where you can converse with your friends. Now, these online channels are coming out with much-needed extensions to their basic services to allow users to connect in much more visual ways, like Facebook's new camera app and Google+'s push to engage photographers with their high quality image sharing app. Will these apps take-off and find their way to the "Top Ten" lists of super users? Only time will tell, but here at GFM, any updates to photosharing tools is much appreciated as we head into summer vacations where lots of pics will be taken and shared with family and friends through our social networks. Blogger Outreach Social Media Explorer: 5 Ways To Measure Blog Outreach ROI There's a common perception that the ROI of blog outreach is hard to track, but in fact - it's easier than many think. Here are five great strategies to measure blog outreach ROI and it starts with what GFM holds as a critical first step: setting upfront ROI goals. Facebook Inside Facebook: Facebook to increase profile picture size for pages Facebook increased the size of profile pictures for business and fan profiles. If your page has a distinct image for the profile photo, not much will change for your account, but page owners that incorporate the profile picture into the cover photo should be aware that the change could affect their designs. The Verge: Facebook Camera for iPhone As if Facebook hasn't been in the news enough this past week, the company has also recently announced the new app, Facebook Camera for iPhone. The app is getting fantastic reviews and it's not surprising why - we couldn't be happier that there's finally a simple way to take, tag and upload a huge batch of photos all at once (and not painfully one-by-one as it used to be). Google+ Venture Beat: Google Wants to Be Your New Flickr Google+ is now targeting photographers with its new iPhone app that allows for full-size images. One huge perk is that the lightbox showcasing images does not currently display distracting ads. Knowing that 96 percent of Google's revenue comes from advertising, who knows how long this break from ads will last and if the app will finally give Google+ the leg-up it needs. QR Codes Ragan: QR Codes Help Commuters Find Dinnertime Recipes We're an office full of foodies with many of us constantly searching for the next great recipe. That's why Allrecipes new campaign that uses QR code ads that people can scan with their phones to get recipes for dinner is making us ask, "Why didn't we think of that?" Right now, the campaign is only running in LA, but we predict this could take off into other markets come summer.

What We're Reading - Week of May 14, 2012

The theme of this week's "What We're Reading" email is something we talk about nearly every day at GFM: being human. It sounds simple, but many brands seem to miss the boat, or try to find ways around the human aspect of social media, and it's typically easy for your customers to see through it. From Google rolling out new ways to help you find what you're looking for, to creative uses of Facebook Timeline and tips for commenting and responding in a crisis - authenticity, transparency, understanding your audience and speaking with them (not at them) are how brands find consistent success with social media. New Google Features GoogleBlog: Introducing the New Knowledge Graph Google has always been about finding ways to deliver exactly what you're looking for, and it looks like they've taken another step in that direction with "Knowledge Graph." The video included in the link above describes the new feature well - and we like what we're seeing (and finding). Facebook Mashable: Facebook Timeline: 9 Best Practices for Brands Taking advantage of new customization opportunities, capitalizing on the cover photo and telling your company's story through milestones are just a few ways you can power-up your brand's Facebook page. Unlike some, GFM actually enjoys Facebook's move to Timeline - and these 9 best practices are exactly why we "like" it. Analytics and ROI SmartBlog: The Value of Social Media Customers Everyone in the digital marketing industry would love to be able to put an accurate price tag on things such as "likes," @replies and repins. This blog post is specific to the food and beverage industry - but we enjoy the process and thought that went into monetizing users on various platforms (note the "What is Social Data Worth" link within this post as well). Social Strategy Ragan's: 10 Surefire Ways to Fail at Twitter Sure, this blog is written specific to Twitter, but we believe a majority of these tips should be the driving force behind your entire social approach. Social media isn't a plug and play channel for marketing and communications. It takes time, thought, strategy, and most important: a human voice who converses with (not at) the larger community. ~ GFM Social Media team

A Great Day with Colfax Community Network

As part of GFM's Get Giving initiative, the GFM team recently got to spend the afternoon volunteering with Colfax Community Network (CCN) - which advocates for and works on behalf of children and families residing in low-income, transient housing (primarily residential motels) along Colfax Avenue. We spent the afternoon with the kids in CCN's after school program - helping with homework, playing in the park, enjoying snack time and sharing what we are grateful for in the Gratitude Circle. In this video, GFM's Amanda Brannum and Carrie Odberg share highlights from the day. If you like what you hear, CCN is always in need of volunteers - to learn more, check out their website and/or Facebook page.

What We're Reading - Week of May 7, 2012

LinkedIn

PR Daily: Five Little Known, Powerful LinkedIn Tools

LinkedIn continues to grow its user base at an incredible rate. But beyond keeping your personal profile up-to-date, how can you make it work for your business? This article outlines a few tools that make LinkedIn 277 percent more efficient at lead generation than Facebook or Twitter.

Analytics

Poynter: Best Times to Post Links to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr

We all want to make sure we're getting the most out of our social conversations and content, and thanks to the data included in this article from Bitly (a URL shortener/digital analytics company), we now have some pretty sound data about the best times of the week and day to post information that will be seen.

Issues Management

Dell Blogs: 10 Tips for Commenting and Responding to Customers Online (Infographic)

GFM regularly counsels a variety of clients on crisis and issues management situations, particularly as it relates to navigating an online crisis - where customers, employees, competitors and media have the ability to say just about whatever they want publicly. Dell knows customer service, and we love the simple breakdown of how, and when to respond in this infographic.

Blogging

PR Daily: 12 Things to do After You Write a Blog Post

You've got your company blog's editorial calendar and you're staying on top of your weekly posts, now what? How do you ensure that the content gets in front of the right audiences? This article and accompanying infographic offer 12 strategic steps to do just that.

~ GFM Social Media team

What We're Reading - Week of April 30, 2012

Metrics Jen van der Meer: The Cost of Being Human (presentation) We've been back from SXSW for nearly two months, but this presentation by Jen van der Meer, a former Wall St. executive turned analytics guru, has us continuing to applaud. Statistics, logic, reason, pictures of kittens...all to explain how we should be shifting our approach to social media metrics. Facebook Mashable: How automating social media marketing could hurt Facebook Tools to help us automate the process of posting content to social media platforms are becoming more prevalent. At what point do they take the "social" out of social media and start hurting platforms like Facebook? FourSquare Open Forum: Businesses that are driving profits with FourSquare We hear a lot about how location-based networks "don't matter," but don't tell that to these four businesses. FourSquare, a SmartPhone app that allows customers to check in at locations worldwide, and similar platforms have the potential to drive business for certain brands - if you're using them correctly. Pinterest Cision Blog: Tips to help drive traffic to your site Pinterest, a virtual pinboard, only has 7% of the membership that Twitter has, yet it drives nearly as much referral traffic. Cision, a tool used by GFM to monitor media and connect with reporters, explains a few simple steps you can take to drive even more traffic to your site from Pinterest. Social Media Issues Management Open Forum: How to handle a Yelp attack Most people know that you need to respond to negative reviews, but how can you minimize the damage with a well-written response? While this article is specific to the popular online review site Yelp, the principles apply across platforms. ~ GFM's Social Media team

Building Homes – and Dreams – in South Africa

In celebration of the Public Relations Global Network’s (PRGN) 20th anniversary, member agency principals and their guests helped build homes in the township of Witsand, near Cape Town. It’s hard for me to express what a moving experience this was, but I will try…

Through the Niall Mellon Township Trust, we had the opportunity to help build homes for people who are living in shacks. Alongside the local workers, we moved hundreds of cement blocks by hand, dumped countless wheelbarrow loads of sand and concrete mix, mixed dugger (concrete) by hand, learned how to lay bricks and built the exterior walls of several homes, painted window frames and cleaned tools. I’m so thankful to Matsen, the local supervisor on my worksite, who taught me about corner bricks and how apply dugger and place the cement blocks evenly. He was very polite each time he had to say, “No, mam. That’s not quite right,” and re-do my work.

It was incredibly rewarding to see the progress made in just one day! And it was extremely eye opening to tour the neighborhood of shacks right next door to the new homes. Thousands of people are living in these shacks with no indoor bathrooms and using small gas cook stoves that can back up in their homes resulting in asphyxiation and fires. The Niall Mellon Township Trust builds homes throughout the year in the townships of South Africa in order to get people out of shacks and into safe, stable homes. They also run their own skills development program, training people from those townships in a wide range of construction disciplines. It is a truly remarkable program.

At the end of the building day, we had the opportunity to dedicate a “PRGN House” to a young single mother and her three-year-old son. They joy on her face and tears in her eyes said it all. She was so overwhelmed to be moving out of a shack and into a home, and she said she would do everything in her power to never live in a shack again.

The young recipient of the PRGN home, in the arms of Niall Mellon

I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had to visit South African with my PRGN peers, but infinitely more so for the opportunity to make a small difference in our very large international community.