GFM is 10!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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