Tag: "Imperial Sugar Company • ISC Newsroom • The News Group Net"

An International Effort on Imperial Sugar's Newsroom

An International Effort on Imperial Sugar’s Newsroom

_MG_8390lIt was a night to remember … Anticipation filled the control room situated above a tanker truck waiting to be loaded at Imperial Sugar Company’s Port Wentworth, Ga refinery.
_MG_8338l The room was packed with employees the evening of July 24, ready for a switch to be thrown that would begin filling trucks with granulated sugar, the first produced at the plant in more than 18 months.
I was there to document the historic moment in photos, and called upon to use a little of my rusty reporting skills becuase my two partners at The News Group Net were in Florida and Switzerland.IMG_845-846-1 - Ver#29122A6

At 10:25 p.m., loading operator Dwayne Frasier, surrounded by Elliot Gibbs and Marvin Knight, hit the start button that began loading the first truck. Two hours later, 48,000 lbs of sugar was successfully loaded, and  the truck cleared the _MG_8348l
refinery gates at 1:20 am.   The story needed to be posted ASAP, and due to the late hour,  my partner David Henderson stepped up to the plate from the mountains of Switzerland.   David mananged to write the story from my notes of the evening activities, while I did an edit on the photos.  The result  were story and photos were posted on the Imperial Sugar online newsroom (www.iscnewsroom.com) by the time people were starting to wake in the eastern U.S.

As a result of the quick posting, local and national media were able to pick up the story, and easily download photos of the event.  For a complete look at my work that evening visit the ISC Newsroom.

The Ideal Online Newsroom

The Ideal Online Newsroom

iscnewsroomThese 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.