Imperial Sugar Company's real-time online newsroom

Imperial Sugar Company’s online newsroom succeeds where many others do not. The site surpasses typical newsrooms and media centers, functioning as a vibrant news portal for the sugar refining industry.

Imperial’s newsroom is guided by journalistic style and dynamic content, which is central to its success.

David Henderson, author of “Making News in the Digital Era” and owner in The News Group Net, a strategic communications and corporate journalism advisory, helped create Imperial’s newsroom. He encourages communicators to return to journalistic roots when developing news for online consumption and insists that newsrooms are not only for the media.

“The core audience for an organization’s newsroom includes shareholders, business partners, customers, donors and volunteers in non-profit instances, employees and, then, the media,” Henderson says. “Static newsrooms are the least-visited part of a Web site because most are just graveyards of old press releases. Your newsroom needs to present the spectrum of all the things that your company is doing within its industry, and hanging press releases there kills credibility.”

It comes down to identifying and understanding the people who care about your company, according to Henderson, who advises clients and practitioners to develop journalistic writing skills. To reach your audience, replace formulaic writing with a style that draws interest.

“Nobody cares what your company does unless you tell them in a way that adds value,” Henderson says.

Newsrooms need to sustain a supply of articles, photos, videos and industry observations. Imperial employs freelance writers and photojournalists who post two or three stories daily. The company understands that its audience seeks credibility and transparency, so stories often cover competitors and include information that challenges the industry, such as an American Heart Association report examining the negative effects of sugar.

Think like a journalist.

Building on the right foundation is also critical. WordPress has evolved into an ideal content management system. Even The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal use it for their blog networks.

Other essentials for your online newsroom include:

• News articles (300-500 words)
• Short videos (HD for B-roll)
• Links to company facts and contacts
• Search capability

Jenny Leonard, editor, Futurity.org

I write often about the current trend in media relations to target pitches more incisively and to fewer places in order to achieve better results. It’s a dynamic shift in style for many professional communicators.

Whether mainstream print and broadcast or online media, journalists and bloggers look for stories, not press releases and traditional PR fluff. But, you’d be amazed by how the value of a story is lost in news releases.

One of the primary reasons for the Imperial Sugar Company’s online newsroom – ISCNewsroom.com – that my consultancy – The News Group Net - created and maintains is to deliver real news. The site is a landmark achievement in corporate America – a working online news resource that delivers timely and relevant stories of interest to everyone from investors to professionals in the sugar industry as opposed to a boring repository for traditional press releases. Launched in June 2009, the ISCNewsroom has quickly become the most popular online site in the sugar industry because of its credibility and informative stories and compelling “eye-candy” images.

Futurity.org

While working recently with the outstanding communications professionals at the University of Rochester and the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University, I learned of another clever site to consolidate news from academia – Futurity.org.

Futurity – edited by Jenny Leonard – has quite literally become the center of its universe by brilliantly aggregating interesting and appealing stories from leading research universities about important issues, including health and medicine, the environment, science and technology, and society and culture. The site is alive with great stories, and it’s popularity is soaring, too.

Why the success? Because Futurity.org focuses on delivering legitimate news stories … real stories. It’s Jenny’s job as editor to make it timely and to maintain a keen focus … and, the site delivers.

Using an exciting online news concept, smart editing, and the under-the-hood power of WordPress, I believe Futurity.org is one of today’s best online news resources in the academic world.

More than that, I greatly respect the authentic and personal dedication of women and men across our country who are professional firefighters and EMS technicians, like a fine young man I know named Matt.

So, this is not a promotion for coffee shops as much as a gesture of giving by all of us. I’d call it “Station Coffee.” And, it’s very simple:

Think of a local fire station or team of EMS specialists that’s touched your life or the life of someone close to you. Maybe they rushed to a fire or false alarm. Maybe they helped you in a car accident. Maybe they simply let your kids have the experience of sitting in a fire engine. We all have those experiences … I’m sure of it.

Now, it’s your turn to do something. Visit your local Starbucks, Caribou or any other coffee shop … and buy one of those large containers of coffee … you know, the kind you might ordinarily take to an office event. Get a bunch of paper cups. Drive over to the local fire or EMS station. Knock on the door and offer your gift with a simple, “Thanks.” That’s it. Nothing more. Just say, Thanks.

Now if Starbucks or Caribou doesn’t jump all over this and see the residual benefits of Station Coffee, in their communities and online … well, I can’t speak for them.

I can tell you this … the idea of Station Coffee can spread like a peaceful glow of goodwill across our country. Give it a try. Post it on Twitter and Facebook. Let me know.

“Younger employees help senior executives unlock social media mystery,” declares a Chicago Tribune headline [via PRNewser]. What is this amazing mystery that has been unlocked? For Edelman—the world’s largest independent PR firm, and one that loves to market itself as a “digital” expert that will help you, the corporation, navigate the wilds of the internet for a large, large fee—the mystery is, “How can we get people to pay us so much for this shit?”

“I am so all over this Delish thing,” Cabot bubbled, punching up delish.com on her computer in her office at Edelman, a Chicago-based public relations firm.

“Oh, you’re doing so well!” Spohn said delightedly, counting the recipes Cabot had collected on the food lovers’ Web site. “Look, you’ve got so much!”

Her pride was as evident as the exchange was notable. Though Cabot, 56, is Edelman’s central region president with more than 30 years in the business, she is the student. Spohn, a 23-year-old account executive on the firm’s digital team, is the teacher.

Hahaha. Do you see what is going on here? Edelman, like many of its peers, is a PR firm that will charge your company a hefty fee for all the digital insight that its 23-year-old account executives can deliver. Because the people in charge aren’t really so good on this “internet” thing. Which would be fine if they were not the same people in charge of convincing you, the client, to spend tens (or hundreds!) of thousands of dollars with Edelman for their expert strategic online influencing services. Their mentoring program for the olds is called “Rotnem” because that’s “mentor” backwards and you must be a backwards-ass fool to pay money to a bunch of 23-year-olds to teach you how to make a Facebook page and shit at an Edelman markup, when you could get them off Craigslist for much, much cheaper.

“Edelman strongly advocates that companies participate with and engage online influencers.” Did you know that Edelman, a massive corporate PR firm, started a blog called “Authenticities“? Edelman, how much do people pay you for your services? Because I am totally going to undercut your prices by one dollar, once the last media outlet finally stops paying employees. Please engage.

[Pic of Edelman's Global Head of Digital Strategy via Flickr]

Reposted from ValleyWag by permission of Hamilton Nolan.

Chris Abraham, President - Abraham & Harrison

I was sitting in a cafe with the respected social media expert and practitioner Chris Abraham recently in Clarendon, just outside Washington, D.C., and we were purposefully people watching. Our reason – nearly everyone who walked by had their eyes down, checking something on an iPhone, Blackberry or some other type of wireless PDA.

People were not looking around or at a friend who may have been walking alongside … they were not look at newsstands or signs or store windows. They were looking down, reading something online.

Our behavior as a society is similar everywhere else. It’s a sign of our times. We are enraptured by the mobile gadget revolution.

Consider these startling statistics from Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics:

• One billion iPhone apps were downloaded by iPhone users in the first 9 months.
• Americans have access to one billion Web pages.
• Newspaper circulation is down 7 million in the last 25 years but unique visitors to online news sources are up 30 million in the last 5 years.
• More video has been viewed at YouTube than on all of the TV networks in the last 60 years.
• Barack Obama raised $55 million in one month during his 2008 campaign … all through online social media.
• Twitter was a primary means of communications between ordinary citizens in Iran during the contested 2009 presidential elections.

And, Google’s research shows:

• 25% of search results for the top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content.
• 34% of the 95 million bloggers in America post opinions about new products and services … and they have influence.
• 78% of consumers online trust peer recommendations.
• Only 14% of Americans trust advertisements.

Here’s the reality:

We no longer search for the news, the news finds us … on our PDAs.

So … where does this leave us as professional communicators? When advising clients, the focus needs to be to listen first, stop selling and get into the online conversation. Share information, news and stories. Become an online resource.

Companies and organizations must act more like storytellers, party planners, aggregators and content providers than traditional advertisers or promoters.

The outcome will mean the difference between a company that stands in the spotlight or a company that’s relegated to the shadows.

“Making News in the Digital Era

“Henderson gets it. He knows the online media world and has interesting things to say. Besides, he’s the dude who got me on Twitter.”

Rainn turned to me earlier this year for tips about how to use Twitter to promote his new spiritually based social media gathering place, SoulPancake.com. Since then, Rainn has attracted a staggering one and a half million followers on Twitter (@RainnWilson) and SoulPancake.com is a big success.

“Making News in the Digital Era” is packed with timely, practical examples and guidance for anyone who wants to make sense of today’s changing media world and generate attention, whether for a small business, major corporation or for themselves.

For executives, business people, communications professionals, not-for-profit executives, brand managers and you, “Making News in the Digital Era” makes sense of the merging online and traditional media and delivers practical ways to communicate effectively in today’s competitive world.

“Making News in the Digital Era“ is available now at bookstores online and everywhere.

Read more, including a free excerpt, at TheDigitalEra.net.

ISBN 978-1440153075. Published September 2009 by iUniverse.

• 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.

This is not big agency bashing but a reality. Today’s PR business has largely morphed into hype and salesmanship, wringing the most amount of billable hours out of clients, promising whatever they want to hear.

So, how can you get your money’s worth?

It’s a subject I have been discussing with several colleagues and journalists, all of whom are known as visionaries in today’s digital online world of media and communications, and it is a subject not limited to this one post.

My friend, David Meerman Scott, took some time out of a European lecture and book tour to email:

Show me your agency’s blogs, Twitter feeds, YouTube videos, Web site, Facebook profiles, and any other social media presence you have. I’m looking for the agency’s stuff, not what they did for clients.

A well-known journalist who writes often about online technology said:

I think we are quickly moving to Web 3.0, where mobile matters more and more. I’d want a firm that knew how to get me in front of iPhone, Blackberry and Android users. It wouldn’t be enough to know if they could post canned Tweets.

All of the thoughts were practical and forward-looking, leading to this starter checklist to use when vetting any PR agency, in order to really test their tech savviness and strategic thinking. Note … if any agency hesitates in their answers or if they pause and exchange glances, cross them off:

• How would the agency define Web 3.0? (One answer is emphasis on wireless devices, constant interactivity and social media where users publish and share content. A better answer is tomorrow’s style of online and wireless communications where we are only limited by our own imagination.)
• Ask who in agency leadership is active on Twitter, and are they engaging in conversations or just promoting/selling the agency?
• What are some of the best-known sites that use the WordPress blog platform? (Answer: NYTimes.com, eBay, and PEOPLE magazine are among tens of millions, including this site.)
• By the way, what does WordPress software cost? (Answer: it’s free.)
• Visit an agency’s blogs. Are they one-way sales promotions or are they engaging people in conversations and listening?
• About blogs, what is “MySql?” (Answer: The core database of any blog that contains everything, including posts, comments, images … everything.)
• What is a benefit of Android and does the agency have any developers on-staff? (Answer: Android, as an open-source wireless platform, provides unlimited new creative ways to communicate and capture awareness. Any big PR agency should have at least one developer on staff.)
• How many members of the Apple Software Developer’s Connection does the agency have? (Answer: Any agency that is creating applications for the iPhone should have at least one on staff. If they are not developing Apps for the iPhone, they might consider getting in the game.)
• Visit the agency’s YouTube, Facebook and Delicious accounts. Are they sharing good information, and are they reaching out to authentically connect?
• As thought-leaders, what books have agency leaders written, especially on today’s seismic shifts in communications? (This helps to cull out the talkers from the doers.)

Notice how most of the questions center around evolving technology. Anyone can create a blog today. A blog is no longer unique. You don’t need an agency to send out a press release into oblivion through a costly blast email spam service. Just hire an intern.

As Steve Kayser at the IT software giant Cincom says:

Many agencies are still Web 1.0, and we’re on Web 3.5 right now.

What is really special is finding professionals who know how to adapt what’s happening now and coming in the near future to help your organization achieve a competitive edge in communications and the media, and ultimately, to solve your challenges and meet your goals.

Never hire an agency to promote your products or services … because no one cares about what you do. Hire an agency that knows how to use technology strategically to show your customers how your products and services will solve their problems and enrich their lives. It is a subtlety that makes all the difference.

David Meerman Scott and I have each written respectively and extensively about these issues in our new books – David’s World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories and my new book, The Media Savvy Leader: Visibility, Influence, and Results in a Competitive World.

We live and work in the Internet Age, and as Mark Cuban told me for my upcoming book, The Media Savvy Leader, “Executives have to learn how to shape information about themselves and their companies, or the Internet will do it for them, and it won’t be pretty.” My hat is off to Brogan, Livingston, Scott and Defren … and others … for their thought leadership in this area.

While they primarily focus on the evolutionary forces of social media and online viral marketing – involving Web 2.0 platforms such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook, among others – I view their visionary thinking more as a beacon that illuminates the playing field, today and tomorrow. Ideas – some practical, some thought provoking – that help savvy executives to find an edge, a solution.

Livingston, for example, was writing today, “This new media world will see an even stronger focus from corporate as big ad spends get cut and marketers seek guerilla oriented tactics.” His posting today distills some of the week’s best ideas from others into more practical focus, a tremendous resource for corporate and organizational leaders who are actively seeking new strategic approaches, largely because their traditional support system – PR, advertising and marketing agencies – are so woefully lagging behind in comprehending Web 2.0 and the digital revolution.

There are, however, things we can do to pull together, collaborate and to become leaders to prepare for a serious downturn in the economy. It involves thought leadership, authentically creative thinking and utilizing new methods of reaching out, using all the many new tools of Web 2.0

I am a fan of Chris Brogan, a social media and social networking visionary in Boston. His richly informative blog contains some of the most enlightened thinking on leadership into a new era for our country. For example, I highly recommend reading his new post, “25 ways social media prepares you for the downturn. While his posting is primarily intended for individuals, many of the ideas could be adapted by business and organizations, as well. You would be surprised by the growing number of businesses using social networking channels, like Twitter, to enhance brand awareness.