Want an example of how one group is using Twitter in a very coordinated way? Check out the National Biodiesel Board.
Today several of us have joined Twitter, to help answer your questions and discuss anything you feel like talking about in the biodiesel world. Whether you want to know if there is a biodiesel pump in your town, or have technical questions, or want to talk about anything biodiesel at all, we want to hear from you! If we don’t find you first, you can follow these National Biodiesel Board representatives on Twitter by clicking on the user name:
Biodiesel_Voice, Jenna Higgins/Director of Communications
Biodiesel_Media, Jessica Robinson/Senior Communications Specialist
Biodiesel_DC, Michael Frohlich/Wash D.C. Dir. of Comm. (federal updates)
Biodiesel_Tech, Jordan Thaeler/Technical Projects Manager
Biodiesel_Earth, Don Scott/Director of Sustainability
Biodiesel_Info, Bev Thessen/Information Coordinator
Hey Joe Jobe. I don’t see you on the list!
If you or your company needs some help figuring this whole Twitter thing out then contact me anytime. You can follow me on Twitter too.
Need a good book or two to curl up with in the evenings? I was recommended a few books recently that I thought I would share with all of you. These books are not just for horse lovers. They are for anyone who wants to be inspired. Interestingly, the author royalties from the sale of these books go to the care of the 63 rescue horses currently residing at the Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary. These two novels are authored by Melanie Sue Bowles, who is incredibly passionate and dedicated to the equine industry. Her mission is to care for unwanted and elderly horses, and she is raising money through book purchases. Today, nearly 200 downtrodden horses reside at Proud Spirit.
The first book is appropriately titled, The Horses of Proud Spirit, and her second novel is titled, Hoof Prints. Melanie’s first book details her mission to care for abandoned horses. The second novel takes readers on a journey back to the lives of their favorite horses. In a time where horse slaughter is banned, there is an increasing number of unwanted horses. I give kudos to those that dedicate their lives to caring for them. I just hope that books like these don’t create the image of horses as pets. Horses are animals; they live and die. It’s the circle of life in agriculture, and I hope these books don’t sway too much away from that message.
In any event, these books sound like they have a good message and a heart warming story in between the pages. To order, head to Amazon or Proud Spirit.
A new post to the Agricultural Relations Council group on Facbook by Katana Ewbanks details some incentive offers to join and get others to join.
The ARC Board is excited to announce our spring membership specials to our Facebook group members.
Individuals who become and ARC member between now and April 18, 2009 can join for the low price of $100. This is a $75 savings off our annual membership.
For companies who want multiple employees to join ARC, we have developed a laddered membership that will provide a significant cost savings. The laddered membership works like this:
* Member #1 — $175
* Member #2 — $100
* Member #3 and beyond — $75 each
We believe so much in the mission and focus of this organization we have even built in a contest for 2009 members:
* Personally recruit 3 ARC members in 2009 and your 2010 membership dues are free.
* Personally recruit 5 or more ARC members in 2009 and not only do you get your 2010 membership for free, your name is also entered in a drawing for a free registration to the 2010 ARC annual meeting.
There has never been a better time to join ARC. If you have any questions, or to get a membership form, visit us online at www.agrelationscouncil.org.
Get your application here (.doc) and tell ‘em Chuck sent you.
Novus International was a primary sponsor of the first World Agricultural Forum (WAF) Asia Roundtable held last week in Phuket, Thailand.
“At Novus, our corporate mission is to help feed the world affordable, wholesome food.” Novus president and CEO Thad Simons, pictured here (right) at the conference talking with Bangaran Saragih, Former Minister of Agriculture Indonesia. “Novus has a thriving business in Asia, we are proud to support the valuable work of the World Agricultural Forum and to play a key role in this historic, regional event.”
The main theme of the roundtable was “Balancing the Agricultural Bottom Line.” The event agenda focused on agriculture in the context of current global economic conditions and the regional impact to Asia.
Countries participating in the event included: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, France, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, the Philippines, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.
Novus is going to be sending us some audio from this event to do a few more posts about it so stay tuned for more info.
- The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Michael A. Gerber as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.
- Cooperatives Working Together announced that it has reached its goal of signing up a supermajority of the nation’s milk supply for two years (from Jan. 2009 through Dec. 2010), which will enable the self-help program to focus on reducing the current devastating imbalance in milk supply and demand. 67% of the nation’s milk supply has now committed to pay the 10 cent per hundredweight membership assessment.
- New Holland’s new line of finishing mowers complements the versatility of New Holland’s 28-hp to 60-hp compact and utility tractors. Click here for complete product information.
- The United Soybean Board (USB) recently was presented with the results of its independent return-on-investment study, which was conducted by Dr. Gary Williams, director of the Texas Agribusiness Market Research Center at Texas A&M University. The study found that the soybean checkoff has returned $6.40 in additional profits to U.S. soybean farmers for every dollar invested.
The U. S. Census Bureau puts out some interesting stats each day like these about the Houston Stock Show in an audio report called “Profile America” (mp3).
The largest show of its kind will wind up this weekend. Before it’s over, the 77th annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is expected to have drawn nearly 2 million people to Reliant Park. To show how big the event is, it takes 20,000 volunteers to stage the three weeks of activities. The show will feature 30,000 entries from young farmers and ranchers, and will award almost $11 million in scholarships. The youngsters will compete in contests ranging from public speaking to plant identification. There are just over 2 million farms in the U.S. Texas has the largest number at 230,000, more than twice the second ranked state, Missouri. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.
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Here’s a couple of internet-related tidbits for you on a Wednesday morning.
According to comScore, YouTube surpassed 100 million visits in January with the average viewer watching 62.5 videos. This is from an eMarketer story.
YouTube owes much of its growth to the users who generate the majority of content on the site. eMarketer estimates that 9.1% of Internet users, or 18.1 million people, will create user-generated videos in 2009.
Also of interest is a new PEW study that says that between 2005 and 2008 the biggest growth in internet use was people 70 years old and older.
The biggest increase in internet use since 2005 can be seen in the 70-75 year-old age group. While just over one-fourth (26%) of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online. Much as we watch demographic and age groups move up in “degrees of access” on our “thermometers,” we can probably expect to see these bars become more level as time goes on. For now, though, young people dominate the online population.
I think these things imply that we’re just going to continue to see growth in internet use and by all age demographics. You may not think of YouTube as a social networking site but just think about how many comments are left on videos and how often people forward links around to friends and family or post on their own website. Of course farmers are doing the same.
Here’s one more from Forrester via Podcasting News. Sounds like a great lead-in to my social media breakout session at the NAMA Convention!
During a recession, marketers are often forced to reduce budgets, in fact, it’s often one of the first buckets to get trimmed. In our latest research: Social Media Playtime is Over, we found that 53% of marketers are determined to increase their social media budget during a recession, and 42% will keep it the same, a total of 95% of marketers bullish on social media marketing. Why? The reasons are obvious to some, it’s inexpensive and the opportunity to benefit from cost-effective word-of-mouth, are promising.
It’s a beautiful day in mid Missouri so I got out on the Katy Trail and found that there’s some field work going on.
As Jeff Caldwell put it on Twitter, “Man, is that a beautiful sight to see!” #farm.
Amen. I hope we have a great spring planting season and thanks to all farmers for what they do. Picture is from my iPhone off a Schwinn.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you.
Dr. Pearse Lyons, Alltech, sent me a special holiday card which you can view online.
Enjoy some happy Irish music and get a “See you at Symposium” message.
I will see him at this year’s 25th Alltech International Animal Health and Nutrition Industry Symposium – “The Sustainability Principle.”
I got an update from John Jenkinson about his jump starting The Ag Network next month. So keep an eye out for him since it looks like we’ll be seeing him out and about.
The first official full day of programming will be April 6th. We currently have affiliates in Colorado and Oklahoma, and we are in negotiations with more affiliates in Kansas, and we hope to have those on board by the 6th also. The website is under construction as we speak, and will be fully functional by the first air date also.
We will offer 7 programs initially, consisting of both market updates, and agribusiness news. In some of our programming, we are catering to big and popular music intense FM stations with very progressive, “outside the box” style programs. These will be geared toward consumers, rural lifestylers, as well as full time agribusiness listeners. The balance of programs will still fill the needs of the “Full service” legendary AM audience. Also, we are negotiating for a syndicated daily television show, here again aimed at the rural lifestyle, without alienating the serious producer.
We are fortunate to be based in the heart of protein and grain production in Kansas, Colorado, and the Oklahoma/Texas panhandles. Because of that fact, we intend to set ourselves apart and be a very involved as a “hands on” ag network, by originating our broadcasts from the areas we serve. We will be attending many events with extensive travel in our own aircraft, as well as our continued partnership with Machinery Link.
As much as I dislike Oprah for her animosity towards agriculture and food production, I took note of her show last Friday the 13th. The segment was titled, “The Face Behind Facebook,” and Oprah interviewed founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the social networking site’s success. With 175 million users, this project that started in a Harvard dormitory, has quickly spun into a tool used by anyone that wants to stay in touch.
According to Oprah’s website, If there were a Facebook nation, it would be the world’s 6th largest country! People around the world are reconnecting with long-lost friends and relatives, uniting on common ground from politics to Chia pets. Every day, half a million people join the social network.
Zuckerberg said that the fastest growing members are 30+. Individuals can even use this network to keep updated with President Obama, who has 6 million friends! So, what is it about Facebook that’s so addicting? Why do I check it everyday? How can professionals utilize Facebook effectively? How can we incorporate our various media tools into one effective, dynamic marketing campaign? To check out the entire text on the Oprah segment, link to “The Face Behind Facebook.”
I was on the road last week for Spring Break, and I spent some time in the secluded Black Hills in Western South Dakota. If you have never vacationed there, I highly recommend it. You will have the opportunity to explore the Badlands, Black Hills and Spearfish Canyon. Test your luck at Deadwood, hike to see Roughlock Falls, salute our presidents at Mount Rushmore and feel the spirit of prairie at Crazy Horse.
As I played tourist for a few days, I read something at Mount Rushmore that had me thinking. Sculptor Gutzom Borglum had a vision to engrave the faces of four great American faces into a granite rock in the legendary Black Hills. The museum exhibit explained Borglum’s efforts to gain public support for this privately funded project. To help earn popularity with the nation’s people, Borglum made posters to advertise the dynamite blasts. Everyone was invited to watch the explosions.
Today, we don’t use homemade posters and dynamite to reach our audiences. Instead, we focus on utilizing social networking tools to enhance our brand, spread the word about our causes and promote our work. I’m wondering what your favorite marketing tools are? In comparing the techniques of the past to the methods of today, it’s quite an impressive change.
Here’s where you can find information on how USDA is involved in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
USDA was appropriated $28 billion (3.5 percent) of the package. The Act:
* Provides $19.7 billion to increase the monthly amount of nutrition assistance to 31.8 million people.
* Enables expanded opportunities for broadband loans and grants to rural communities.
* Expands funding opportunities to develop water and waste facilities.
* Provides funding to protect and conserve the nation’s forests and farm land.
To report fraud, waste, and abuse on Stimulus spending or fraud, waste, and abuse within any USDA programs or operations, please contact the OIG Hotline.
Our Secretary of Agriculture has recorded a public service message to highlight National Agriculture Week.
You can listen to it here: vilsack-agweek-psa.mp3
The picture is Secretary Vilsack with Cookie Monster and Broccoli at the National WIC Association and Sesame Workshop Partnership conference. I like it.
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Welcome to Ag Week and the ZimmCast. This week we’re all about celebrating American agriculture and thanking our farmers and ranchers who feed and fuel the world.
In this week’s program I spoke with Greg Webb, ADM, who is currently Chairman of the Agriculture Council of America. He says the purpose of this week and National Agriculture Day on March 20 is to raise awareness of the role that agriculture plays in our economy and it’s indirect impact on our lives through food, fuel and fiber. Although he says we’ve only got just over 2 million farmers, they’re each feeding almost 150 other people and when you look at all the people working directly in ag, including outside of production, there are over 20 million people involved.
Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis. But too few people truly understand this contribution. This is particularly the case in our schools, where students may only be exposed to agriculture if they enroll in related vocational training.
By building awareness, the Agriculture Council of America is encouraging young people to consider career opportunities in agriculture.
Each American farmer feeds more than 144 people … a dramatic increase from 25 people in the 1960s. Quite simply, American agriculture is doing more – and doing it better. As the world population soars, there is an even greater demand for the food and fiber produced in the United States.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 212 (9 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Greg Webb - ZimmCast 212
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
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That’s a long headline but it pretty much sums up Nielsen’s latest report, “Global Faces and Networked Places” (pdf). I like the way they describe it as a “global footprint.” We are communicating online globally now in ways you couldn’t imagine ten years ago and that certainly includes agriculture. Here’s some tidbits:
. . . the global media and advertising industries are faced with new challenges around the opportunities and risks this new consumer medium creates. Social networks provide competition to traditional publishers for consumer attention and at the same time, facilitate new ways for publishers to connect with their audiences.
Time spent on social network and blogging sites growing at over 3x the rate of overall Internet growth
In terms of sheer audience numbers, for example, the greatest growth for Facebook has come from people aged 35-49 years of age (+24.1 million). Furthermore, Facebook has added almost twice as many 50-64 year olds visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million). Consequently, people under 18 years old are making up less of the social network and blogging audience, whereas the 50+ age group are accounting for more of the audience.
A well used analogy is that advertising on a social network is like gate-crashing a party.
Social networks are a communication channel just like TV, newspapers, radio and the telephone. Therefore, social networks are just another vehicle by which any company with an offering, product or service can use to communicate, engage and connect with consumers.
- The USDA has granted a conditional license to Epitopix, LLC for America’s first E. coli O157 vaccine for cattle.
- Farm Journal Media announced that the company is re-aligning its sales structure — national account managers will now represent all Farm Journal Media products to the crop and livestock markets. Farm Journal Media also announced the addition of a new national account manager, Paul D’Anna, who joins the company from Monster.com.
- The 49th Annual Wisconsin Public Service Farm Show returns to the grounds of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh on Tuesday, March 31, and continues through Thursday, April 2.
- MANA Crop Protection announces the addition of Jake Brodsgaard to its national sales team as the company’s newest area business manager, serving parts of southern and eastern Texas.
National Ag Week has started. It’s a week long celebration of American agriculture.
Actually, the big day is Friday which is the first day of spring and National Agriculture Day. Here’s some good information from the Agriculture Council of America.
World Population Growth Is Creating Needs For Food And Fiber
* World population is at 6.2 billion today, and is expected to reach 7.5 billion by the year 2020.
* There will be millions of new mouths to feed, many of whom rely on United States food production to meet this need.
The United States Is Best Positioned To Meet This Growing Need
* Agriculture is America’s #1 export.
* About 17% of raw U.S. agriculture products are exported yearly.
* The United States is out front in technological advances.
* U.S. farmers and ranchers produce more than 200 raw commodities yearly for domestic and export markets.
There’s plenty more on the Ag Day website.
It sounds like the ARC annual meeting has gone very well in New Orleans. Thanks to Mace Thornton, AFBF, I got some notes about the meeting to share. Here’s what he says:
An aggressive plan in place to rebuild the organization and grow membership. Now have Den Gardner managing (have not had professional management for the last 3-4 years so this was a key decision) and an energetic board. I do believe that ARC’s period of dormancy is over. I know we are planning a webinar later this year and will conduct an industry PR trends survey, which we hope to make a yearly event.
Networking among people who speak the language of ag PR. We just started a facebook page and are redesigning our logo and website in the very near future. Tiered membership dues…$175 for first, $100 for second. Plus recruiting bonus, half off membership with 3 recruits, free membership with 5.
I don’t know why I let things like the global warming hoax bother me but sometimes . . . It seems like lately I’ve been hearing and seeing more “news” coverage of this subject. For a while last year the term changed to “climate change” when a number of stories came out from weather reporting stations and actual meteorologists and weather scientists that in fact the Earth had cooled. Now it seems like we’re back to global warming. I think the news media and a lot of people confuse a current weather condition with long term climate change. Just because it’s hot today or cold today doesn’t really mean much in the long term.
Because of our work with renewable fuels groups I think I’ve been exposed to more of the rhetoric and science behind this issue than most people. I am just not alarmed about global warming and that man has caused it or can effectively control it. Apparently a growing number of Americans are feeling this way too according to a new Gallup poll which found that when it comes to news coverage of the subject “. . . a record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject.”
You can see some interesting information on the subject at ICECAP. I also found an interesting take about new media vs. old in a post by Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch (bold is my doing). This comes after his pointing to the Gallup poll.
So what does this say after 20+ years of irresponsible media exaggeration of the issue? It tells me a few things: that there is no such thing as a dominant “mainstream media” any more that captivates the news-consuming public. That while it’s nice to have one of these news outlets do your story, it’s not vital, and it’s not necessary to agonize over whether they do so or not. That these historically well-known news outlets are not only losing readership and revenues because of advertising losses, but because of credibility loss and disconnect with their communities. News consumers are smarter these days and know how to detect biased reporting, and they are not buying the product any more. With the speed and efficiency of the Web, it almost doesn’t matter any more where your information gets published; it’s that it does get published, gets found by a few key constituents, and gets launched from there. Can anyone purchase a Sunday paper in any city these days and honestly say it was worth the money?
Yet too many in political activism, public relations, and business believe that if your message hasn’t penetrated these media dinosaurs, then you’ve failed. Well, as the global warming issue illustrates, the skeptics are at least tied with the alarmists if they are not outright winning, despite the lack of respect and attention from the dying news giants. The polls show it clearly.
We certainly have climate change and maybe we’re in for some drastic ones in the future. I think a lot is being done to effect changes in how we as humans affect the environment. Agribusiness and farmers would be at the top of the list of people doing work on this. I have no doubt we’ll find positive solutions to any situation that arises. Just look at the work in drought tolerant and disease resistant crops or improved efficiencies in ethanol and biodiesel production for example.
I’m betting you have an opinion on this too.
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In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
