A Week in the Life of: Carrie Odberg's Week in Photos

Carrie Odberg, director of first impressions at GFM.

Enjoying the creativity at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.

I love cooking new receipes and this is one of my favorites,
Cauliflower and Chickpea Stew with Couscous.

Book club or wine club? Either way the company is always amazing.

Dylan resting up for his afternoon walk.

My partner in crime. 

Love fresh vegetables from the framers market.

~ Carrie

The Importance of Community Involvement: Reflection on IMPACT Denver, 2012

IMPACT Denver is a six-month leadership and civic engagement program offered by the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation. Several GFM colleagues have completed IMPACT Denver and/or Leadership Denver and raved about the experience, friendships made and community networks broadened.

When my IMPACT journey began in January 2012 our final class day in June seemed so far away. Instead, I blinked and the experience was over.

My biggest takeaway is this: the future of Denver is not as bright as many of us think. Our education system is broken and all Coloradans do not look like the runners, bikers and skiers portrayed in tourism brochures. From appalling literacy issues in schools to miles of food deserts, Denver is at a tipping point.

But there is a silver lining. If even a fraction of my IMPACT Denver classmates stand up and get involved, our community will thrive. I’ve been in public relations since the day I graduated from college but have not previously had the privilege of working and learning alongside professionals from such varied backgrounds of banking, nonprofit, construction, education and law. Even when my clients are from those industries, my contacts at those businesses tend to be in the marketing and PR fields, not the bankers and lawyers themselves.

During every class I was blown away by how differently everyone’s minds worked, yet collectively, our class asked questions and pushed boundaries on the various tough subjects that Denver is facing. We of course couldn’t solve the alarming achievement gap that exists in Colorado in a half-day session, but meaningful and through-provoking conversations took place, and a fire was lit to help drive change.

I’m still searching for the areas of civic engagement that inspire my heart and mind. I am now on the board of Colfax Community Network, a nonprofit that services the families and children who live in the motels along Colfax Ave., but I also have immense interest in health, food access and obesity-related issues. And one day when I have a family, I know improving our school system will become even more relevant and critical in my mind.

Not all businesses or organizations see the value in having employees go through programs like IMPACT. Once a month I was away from my desk and the experience was a financial investment in my professional development. That is why I am so grateful to GFM for knowing that six days out of the office is nothing compared to what I gained professionally – a network of peers that quadrupled in size and a sense of responsibility to improve our city, which is vital to ensuring small businesses like ours succeed. You really can’t put a price on being actively involved in your community.

Thank you, Laura and Ramonna – and my teams, for supporting me on this journey.

~Alexis Anderson is a Senior Communications Director and Social Media Strategist at GroundFloor Media. She loves to participate in GFM's volunteer days and wishes she had more free afternoons to spend with the kids in the after school program at Colfax Community Network.

Social Media: The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of Crisis Communications

We’ve all seen “social media gone wrong” scenarios. Actually, we can’t really avoid them since they pop up on a daily basis. Just this past week we can watch the Viacom/DirecTV debacle play out on social networks and laugh at the staged Nokia After Party tweets from the ESPY’s.

On the flip side, communicating through social platforms can be an extremely efficient and effective means for updating the public in a crisis. During the fast-breaking nature of the recent Waldo Canyon Fire here in Colorado the hashtag “#WaldoCanyonFire” drew 119,000 tweets in just 15 days, reaching more than 54.4 million people.

The beauty of social media is a direct  reflection of the risk of social media – the conversation is open, potentially endless, and you can’t control the spread of information (or misinformation). But there are some fairly simple things you can do to effectively prepare for the good, and the bad, of social conversations:

     1)   Know where the relevant conversations are happening today, not just when a crisis breaks

It’s a good idea to monitor the Internet for your brand and product names, but don’t stop there. Set up Google Alerts, Twitter searches and the like for terms related to your industry and terms that might come up in a potential crisis (e.g., “Colorado fire,” “network scam,” and “@DeseanJackson10” to use examples from above). Broadening your monitoring will help you catch an issues management scenario quickly and interact with a broader community to build your social presence (see #3 below).

     2)   Be flexible with the purpose of your social platforms

If you’ve mainly used Facebook as a means to promote your products and services and Twitter as a customer service tool, what happens when the crisis situation plays out on Facebook instead of Twitter? You need to be ready to respond on the same platforms where the crisis is taking place.

     3)   Build your audience accordingly

There’s no such thing as a “dark” Twitter account. If you don’t have followers, no one will hear what you have to say. Build your presence today, use smart hashtags, and promote your social platforms as a way for your customers to get up-to-date information. The old PR adage still holds true – you can’t buy home insurance when your house is burning.

     4)   Be proactive AND reactive

Social media is a conversation, not a broadcast booth. Post AND respond. No one likes the person who talks about him/herself all of the time.

     5)    Build a social media response plan – today

Every business or organization has a handful of scenarios they’re worried about – customer complaints, product failures, situations that put large groups of people at risk. Whatever those situations are, plan for them. Put a social media response plan in place that prioritizes various conversations, and includes an action and approval process for addressing each priority level.

Jim Licko is a Director of Social Media and Digital Strategy at GroundFloor Media. He helped develop GFM’s Onine War Room™, and frequently uses it to help his clients practice difficult social conversations and develop social media response plans.

A Week in the Life of: Ramonna Robinson's Week in Photos

Ramonna (yep, with two Ns) Robinson, vice president and managing partner at GFM.

My faithful companion, Ri (short for Henry).

I love to hike – and to take photos. This one was taken in Rocky Mountain National Park.

I'm a hippie at heart! I learned to slackline at the Wanderlust Yoga festival at Copper Mountain.

Friends. Wine. Yoga festival. What more do you need?

Bouldering is great exercise – for both the body and mind!

Live music is another favorite pastime. This is MC Yogi at Wanderlust. I'm excited to see JJ Grey & Mofro, Brandi Carlile, Zac Brown Band, Jack White, Dierks Bentley and Mumford & Sons this summer – and to attend Austin City Limits this fall!

~ Ramonna

Let It Be The Day To Celebrate The Beatles

In celebration of Beatles Day today (which marks the band’s triumphant return exactly 48 years ago from their US tour to Liverpool and is regarded as the day that began their rise to fame), we’ve rounded up some of our team’s favorite Beatles songs:

JON:

“Tomorrow Never Knows” -- It was drum & bass music before drum & bass existed. 

LAUREN:

"I've Just Seen a Face" -- It was almost our first dance at our wedding, but it was way too fast for my husband and I to dance to!

JIM:
“Let It Be” -- Anytime I hear that song during a busy day, it always puts things in perspective.

AMANDA:

“Yellow Submarine” -- Because it makes me happy. ; )

CARISSA:

"Two of Us" -- It was the recessional at our wedding!

CARRIE:

“All You Need Is Love” – It’s uplifting and a song of hope.

KRISTINA:

“Blackbird” – I sing it to my children.

BARB:

“Let It Be” – The song is written incredibly well and signals the end of a Beatles era.

Looking for more? Here’s 100 of the greatest Beatles songs according to Rolling Stone that will keep you groovin' until next year's Beatles Day.

If you had to name just one, what would be YOUR favorite Beatles tune?

A Week in the Life of: GFM's 4th of July Photos

So this week's post is not necessarily a documenting a week in pictures, but instead is a compilation of GFM team members 4th of July celebrations. Whether it be strolling with the kiddos in the Wash Park parade, sitting with a coworker at the B-52s/Squeeze concert at Chatfield, taking in fireworks at the City and County building or hitting the Greeley Stampede, the GFM team (and Reuben) celebrated the 4th in style.

~ The GFM team

The Power Behind Social + Traditional Communications

I recently had the privilege of traveling to Alaska with my colleagues David Landis from our PRGN partner agency in San Francisco, Landis Communications, and GFM’s Jim Licko to provide social media training for SouthcentralFoundation, Alaska Breast and Cervical Health Partnership, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and other partner agencies.

The training sessions were well attended and led to great discussions about today’s most popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc.) and their relevance for various organizations, as well as the importance of measuring an organization’s social media efforts. The conversations also made us very aware of the challenges of communicating with indigenous populations throughout a state that is twice as large as Texas and in which small planes and snow machines are the only way to get to many villages.

What we determined is that social media is not THE answer to these challenges, but that it is a great supplement to the various channels of communication available to health providers reaching out to audiences near and far. This is a great point for all of us to remember, regardless of what your products or services might include.

While social media is the newest shiny object, it is not the end-all, be-all and must be part of a comprehensive, strategic communications mix. For example, driving people to your company’s Facebook page via a QR code promoted at a special event can increase traffic to your website – if you provide the right mix of content on your Facebook page to serve those who land there. It could also directly impact the number of people who attend free health screenings or request, in the case of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, free condoms that are shipped anywhere in Alaska upon request.

I’m a big believer in the power of social media, but I also caution all of us not to let more traditional means of communication fall by the wayside while we’re trying to determine the best social media strategies. When you combine traditional communication strategies with your social media strategies your ability to reach a broader audience increases and, in many cases, you’re metrics will be clearer and easier to define. What difficult challenges – like disparate audience or highly dispersed population – have you overcome with an integrated communications campaign? Why did it work?

~ Ramonna Robinson is Vice President and Managing Partner at GroundFloor Media.