Moving is a stressful experience, especially when one spouse (me) had to be on the road working during packing and preparation.  My poor wife Adrienne, was left to find a mover, new appliances and of course the important cable and internet provider.

Through a friend at work, Adrienne was able to find Travis the mover.   Travis is a great guy with a good crew and very resonably priced.  They did a fantastic job on the move, but as my son Alex likes to say, “he is just a little ‘time challenged’.”  I would recommend Travis, but only to those with a non-military sense of time.

The real trouble arouse with buying a new refrigerator.   Adrienne found a counter depth Samsung model that would fit the home.  She researched price and decided to go with Aus-Tex Appliance.

Boy, was that a mistake on both counts.   Aus-Tex did have a good price, but they delivered a new refrigerator without checking to see if it had all its parts.   When confronted with the fact they delivered, the owner, “Billy Boy”, told me in no uncertain terms “tough shit, it wasn’t his problem and to call Samsung.”

Upon calling Samsung customer service (10 times) to try and get the problem resolved, they finally figured out they would have to send me the part for me to install myself.   Some kind of customer service and a $2200 refrig.  My advice to all, is stay away from “Billy Boy” at Aus-Tex and Samsung appliance.

This brings up ATT U-Verse.

For the past 1o years we have been customers of Time Warner.  They are expensive but reliable and show up on time. Adrienne and I wanted to get digital service for our televisions, and the AT&T price seems reasonable.  We signed up for an install date two weeks before our move.

Every few days we would get an email from AT&T saying they were looking forward to providing us service.   Even the night before the email came saying our installation was scheduled for the next day.   Well the next day came, the slot for them to arrive came, and it went and no AT&T.   After calling, a customer service rep said that there was a network problem and all installers were waiting for it to be fixed.

At 4:30 the day of the installation, six hours after the appointment time, an installer reaches our front door.  I tell him what has to be done, and he looks at me and says this is an all day job and needs to be scheduled for the morning.   At which point I told it  was, and because of the system being down he was late.   The installer looks at me and says “the system isn’t down, we are just overbooked.”   I went to the phone and called Time Warner.

Two days later AT&T calls me up and asks when they can reschedule my installation.   My response is cannot be repeated in polite company.

Oh well, what is a move without some problems.   I just hope we get the part from Samsung sometime this year!

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These days, it seems pretty obvious that any smart company has to prominently position its expertise/experience to:

• Be clearly heard and stand out in all of the right ways.
• Best “manage the conversation” around its image and reputation.
• Be timely and relevant.

The hard part is expressing its corporate voice above the noise of the marketplace, where often people much less qualified – but far more vocal – pump out their opinions into mainstream and social media. The sheer speed, volume and rapid dissemination of information – right or wrong – can inundate communications and sway public opinion. A company’s “Google-ability” – and the news that appears about it on page one of any search engine – often can determine its believability. To have a meaningful conversation online, a company needs to:

• Articulate clear points of view on the things that it cares about the most.
• Identify its own experts and champions to tell compelling stories to advance its case and strengthen its market position.
• Create ever-evolving public platforms/forums where it can consistently and frequently showcase its views – along with other respected industry experts and thought leaders.
• Create a forum for sharing comments, generating a conversation and listening.

The team at The News Group Net, of which I am a member, recently created the ISC Newsroom. It is intended to position the Imperial Sugar Company as an authoritative voice in the sugar industry – U.S., Mexico and elsewhere. Meant to be a one-stop shop for the best thinking and views on sugar and all of the issues/market forces that surround it. We think it is one of the best online newsrooms around.



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My good friend and parter David Henderson was on top of this story from the very beginning.   This is a tragedy that should have never of happened.

From the blog of David Henderson -

Much of the world has kept track of events in Iran following the questionable outcome of elections there on June 12 via Twitter. With severe restrictions by the regime in Iran on media coverage and apathy by the news media in the West, Twitter has served to redefine how many of us view the concept of media in the Internet era.

It is no longer about some editor or TV producer making decisions for us but rather we are sharing information and drawing our own conclusions.

Nothing has been more profound, in my opinion, than watching video of a young woman named Neda Salehi Aghasoltan die on the streets of Tehran yesterday.

She was a student of philosophies at Tehran University. According to reports, she was shot by a police sniper while standing with her university professor, watching protesters.

The video is haunting, especially her last moment alive when she looked at the camera as if to seek our help. At least that was what I saw in her eyes.

The story of Neda is being heard around the world today, carried first – with a few exceptions – not by the sleepy, slow-moving traditional news media but by people, sharing on Twitter and online.

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For a preview of the next generation of interactive online newsrooms, check this out. The newsroom officially debuts this Saturday. http://www.iscnewsroom.com

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