GroundFloor Media And PRGN

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.

Connected Thinking, Globally.

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.

Social Media: Let the Legal Team Speak

Ramonna and I recently attended the bi-annual meeting for the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) in New York City. PRGN has a pretty incredible global membership base of leading independent public relations agencies in 80 markets and we were invited to join as the only Colorado-based agency this past April. The majority of the three-day conference was spent sharing best practices and hearing from expert panelists that the NY-based member agencies, CooperKatz , JMC Marketing Communications and PR and Adam Friedman Associates brought together. In addition, there was a very provocative presentation on "Social Media and the Law" that was offered by Gary Kibel of Davis & Gilbert LLP www.dglaw.com that left us continuing to think about how many legal implications are popping up surrounding social media. As agency owners and practitioners, we must remain mindful of our responsibilities regarding the new media programs we create and implement.

We all know to be especially sensitive when marketing to kids under the age of 13 in traditional campaigns, however this sensitivity is further heightened by new social media programs. In addition, while the FTC has already come out with new “affiliate marketing/testimonial” guidelines, we will most likely see a change in a requirement that company-sponsored social media sites offer full disclosure and affiliate social media sites will most likely to have to disclose that they have been paid for their testimonials. As PR professionals, it should go without saying that if we are being compensated to talk about someone’s product, then we need to disclose it during the outreach.

The legal implication list is endless, but in the midst of planning and research, it is becoming increasingly vital to continue to educate your staff and teams about the changing legal issues that affect online and offline PR campaigns. Education is always the first line of defense and will help us all avoid legal problems, know when to raise the red flags and ask questions and keep current on the new court cases that are decided everyday. The increased use of Facebook and Twitter and other social media vehicles are creating new questions that we must be prepared to address.

We are always mindful of the intellectual property issues that PR firms confront, but how many of us stop and work with legal teams prior to creating a viral campaign? It could make the difference between a successful campaign and a lawsuit. I would personally rather celebrate a fabulous campaign.

I look forward to a few more lively debates when we all reconvene in Brussels in April. Until then, here’s to putting a strong legal team behind every solid PR campaign.