It Takes a Team to Blog

Many of GroundFloor Media's clients either have a blog or are ready to dip their toes in the blogging waters. We consistently explain to clients that maintaining a blog is similar to maintaining an editorial calendar for a newspaper or your internal newsletter. It takes a team of people to keep a blog relevant, interesting and up-to-date. Seth Godin's blog post, "Death of a personal blog?" makes some great points along those same lines. I hope you enjoy it... http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!
~Ramonna

Too Small to Fail?

Once again, Seth Godin's post strikes a cord. If you are a small business owner or an entrepreneur, it's worth a quick read. In summary, Godin says the secret of 'small is the new big' thinking is that you won't fail and you can't fail and you don't need to worry about a bailout. Not because you're small in headcount or assets, but because you act small. If you act small and think big, you are too small to fail. You won't need a bailout because your business makes sense each and every day. You won't need a bailout because your flat organization (no matter how large it is) knows about problems long before they're too big to deal with. And that's just big thinking.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/too-small-to-fa.html

We're #2!!

This morning, for the third consecutive year, GroundFloor Media, was recognized by the Denver Business Journal as one of the Best Places to Work in Denver in the small company category. In 2007 GroundFloor Media was recognized as the No. 1 place to work in Denver, and now in 2008 we were recognized as No. 2. Despite the turmoil in the marketplace, there is a lot to be thankful for these days. A team that sticks together during these tough times will most certainly come out ahead. Ramonna and I are thankful for the GroundFloor Media team members that make this truly a great place to work!

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/11/24/focus24.html


GroundFloor continues to distinguish itself as a leader
No. 2 small-size company
Denver Business Journal - by Ryan Peacock Special to the Business Journal

Stephen Swofford | Business Journal
At GroundFloor Media, the No. 2 small-size company on the Best Places to Work list, employees participate in the Get Grounded program, which outlines a goal of committing 20 percent of services to nonprofit organizations and pro bono accounts.

This is the third consecutive year Laura Love — who founded public relations firm GroundFloor Media in 2001 — has seen her company being named a “Best Place to Work.”
“It’s so important for us because it’s an employee-driven award, and our people are our biggest assets,” Love said. “We grew very carefully. Most everyone on our team came to us as a referral from somebody else on our team.”

GroundFloor Media is comprised of senior-level talent that’s enabled the firm to achieve substantial success with a client roster that includes CH2M Hill, Qdoba, and the City and County of Denver.

“I think the hardest thing to find in any economy is top talent, and especially when you’re a company like ours who only hires senior-level people,” Love said. “I think we attract the best in the industry because of the work culture and flexibility we offer.”

Balance between personal and professional lives, along with community involvement, are core principles for Love and her employees. They’ve been strong partners with Tennyson Center for Children, providing public relations support. And the firm’s own Get Grounded program has a goal of committing 20 percent of services to nonprofit organizations and pro bono accounts.

There is yoga in the office every Wednesday, and some employees are training together to run a half-marathon in Las Vegas in December.

“For the size of the company that we are, we’re really proud to offer the type of competitive health care benefits that we do,” said Ramonna Tooley, vice president and managing partner.

Employees are encouraged to pursue professional-development opportunities that appeal to them.

An example of this occurred when a few employees were interested in social networking, and Love gave them full support to develop the firm’s capabilities in this area.

“From an employee standpoint, they have taken the program and built it from the ground up, and now it’s a major part of the services we can offer to clients,” she said.

Turnover continues to remain low, hovering at around 6 percent.

“When you look at it, we have broken every rule and done it in a way that works,” Tooley said. “We tend to err on the side of our employees despite what our business advisers tell us sometimes.”

Top PR Moments of the 2008 Election

Now that election fever has finally started to subside, the team at GroundFloor Media thought we’d throw our hat in the commentary ring and list the top public relations moments of the 2008 election, along with the lessons we can learn from each of them. Some are examples of PR greatness and others probably made you cringe, but they’re all worth reliving. Enjoy!

Note: To be fair, these are not listed in any particular ranking order.

Obama’s ill-chosen remarks about bitter working class voters who "cling to guns or religion"
PR Lesson Learned: Test your key messages before saying them in public.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-04-12-obama-comments_N.htm


Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric
PR Lesson Learned: Don’t skip the media prep session.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbg6hF0nShQ


Joe Biden’s prediction that “Obama will be tested by a crisis during his first six months of administration”
PR Lesson Learned: You’re never really off the record.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpiNfuG8YY8


McCain Spokesperson Michael GoldFarb on CNN refusing to name Obama’s so-called anti-semitic associates after repeatedly saying “We all know who we’re talking about”
PR Lesson Learned: Make sure your spokesperson should really be a spokesperson.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JdjZEfxk2w


Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe publicly choosing his family over the election
PR Lesson Learned: If you hire people with the right priorities, you’ll rarely have to worry about cleaning up after them.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/02/obama-campaign-manager-would-choose-baby-over-obama/


Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live
PR Lesson Learned: Being able to laugh at yourself goes a long way with people.
www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/update-palin-rap/773781/


During the final debate, McCain saying to Obama “I am not George Bush. If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run four years ago.”
PR Lesson Learned: A good sound bite can silence even the greatest of spokespeople.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KmJlQcbIDI


Sarah Palin getting booed by Pittsburgh residents after congratulating them on the Phillies’ World Series victory
PR Lesson Learned: Know your audience.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nRR4PmyVKQ


Obama leveraging social media to rally and unite his supporters
PR Lesson Learned: Don’t underestimate the power of social media to help further your cause.

http://adage.com/campaigntrail/post?article_id=126336


Joe Biden bearing his emotions about raising his two young sons after the death of his wife and daughter
PR Lesson Learned: The more you can humanize a story, the better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbrFFHUlSlQ


Any other PR moments that deserve to be immortalized on our blog? Just let us know!

Award-winning Campaigns

I have to take a minute to brag… We were recently awarded the 2008 Grand Gold Leaf Award and 2008 Nonprofit Project of the Year Award from the Colorado Healthcare Communicators for work conducted on behalf of our clients, The Children’s Hospital and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, respectively. I was on the Colorado Healthcare Communicators board for five years and never even saw a Grand Gold Leaf. As one of our clients put it, “The strength and quality of our partnership was on full display at the ceremony with the wonderful acknowledgement by our peer professionals.”

Not only did GroundFloor Media and The Children’s Hospital receive the Grand Gold Leaf Award for the campaign, “The Children’s Hospital Makes 111 Miracles Happen,” but this campaign also received a Gold Leaf Award in the media relations category. This campaign consisted of an aggressive, proactive local and regional media relations strategy during The Children’s Hospital’s move to its new state-of-the-art facility at I-225 and Colfax in September 2007.

For the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Division, we received the Nonprofit Project of the Year Award and a Gold Leaf Award in the new media category for the What If? Colorado social media campaign, which was comprised of both traditional and non-traditional public relations components, including a reality competition.

I’m extremely proud of our team members at GroundFloor Media and have to commend them publicly for continually generating fresh, strategic ideas to help our clients meet their marketing and business objectives!

Film For The Troops

In honor of our armed forces, individuals and companies continue to create programs that give thanks to the men and women who have served – and continue to serve - our country. Today is Veterans Day and it marks the date of an event that ended 90 years ago today: World War I. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, a defeated Germany ended four years of the bloodiest war in human history. As we continue to engage in present day combat, the service men and women may have different faces, but their commitment to our country does not waiver.



The members of our armed forces don’t enjoy the same luxuries we do and often we take even the smallest luxury from granted. There is a program called Films For The Troops that is collecting new and used DVDs for Colorado troops in action as well as wounded American soldiers. Films For The Troops, a program of the Colorado Film & Video Association (CFVA) and the Denver Film Society, and sponsored by Bellco Credit Union, collects DVDs annually and this year hopes to collect 1,000 DVDs to send out right after Thanksgiving to arrive to the Troops in time for the holidays.

If you have new or used DVDs (rated G through R) that could use a new home, please consider donating through Tuesday, Nov. 25. Here are some more details on locations:

Bellco Credit Union will accept DVD donations at all 15 of its Denver metro branches which are located in Aurora, Centennial, Denver, Englewood, Glendale, Lakewood, Littleton, Northglenn, Parker, Westminster and Wheat Ridge. A full list of branch locations, including hours of operation and contact information, can be found at www.bellco.org.


Five American Legion Posts will also collect DVDs. These locations include:
Post 1 - 5400 E. Yale, Denver, CO 80222
Post 178 - 1655 Simms St, Lakewood, CO 80215
Post 32 - 315 S. Bowen, Longmont, CO 80501
Post 22 - 11081 Irma Dr, Northglenn, CO 80223
Post 1992 - 16070 E. Dartmouth Ave., #6, Aurora, CO 80013

A semi-permanent bin has been placed in the box office of the Starz FilmCenter, which is located at 900 Auraria Parkway (9th St. & Auraria Parkway) in Denver, and DVD collection bins onsite at the Festival which runs Nov. 13 - 23.



GroundFloor Media also has a bin at our office: 1923 Market Street in Denver. We welcome you to stop by with a donation if you find yourself in our neck of the woods!



Thanks for your support.