Measuring the effectiveness of social media really is possible – if know what you want to measure and what tools to use.
At the Agricultural Relations Council annual meeting in Ft. Myers last week, we had a presentation from The Center for Public Issues Education – or simply the PIE Center – which is located at the University of Florida’s Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences (Go Gators!). The center is only a couple years old and was established with the mission “to enhance the understanding of agriculture, natural resources, and the environment by providing research-based solutions that address societal issues and raise public and policy maker awareness.” Increasingly, that has meant the use of social media, including blogs, Facebook and Twitter so they have gotten more interested in helping agricultural groups manage, monitor and measure the effectiveness of this new communications tool.
Dr. Tracy Irani (pictured) is Development Director for the PIE Center and she talked about the rapid adoption of social media and how agriculture has become part of the conversation, like it or not. She notes that social media actually has an advantage over traditional media when it comes to measurement. “We know that most of the traditional media metrics are based on the number of eyeballs or number of listeners,” she explains. “That’s where social media has an advantage because the return can be looked at on the basis of who’s in the network, who’s actively using, viewing, posting in a social media environment.” In other words, traditional media can tell you how many potential viewers or readers you might have, where social media can show how actively involved they are by retweets, comments, messages, etc.
PIE Center Media Specialist Kevin Kent got into some of the nuts and bolts of monitoring and managing social media. He gave a list of ten social media metrics to monitor, which include SM leads, engagement duration, membership increase, activity ratio, conversions, brand mentions, loyalty, virality, and blog interaction. Kevin also talked about being specific about what you want to measure, focusing more on quality than quantity and setting goals, and the use of social media Best Management Practices – like using social media with other communications tools, limiting posts to make them easier to monitor, and engaging in conversation channels.
Our AgWired iPhone App (soon to be Android too), Raven Industries, was on location at the National Farm Machinery Show. I visited with Paul Welbig to find out what’s new.
It looks like what’s new is an addition to their Cruizer product. This year farmers will have RTK available with the system. With this capability you can do high accuracy steering. He says the price point makes it very attractive. It also ties into their Slingshot system. It adds more precision to an already simple system.
Active Command Steering was one of the new things getting a lot of attention at the National Farm Machinery Show. These young guys were working on one of the simulators that were set up so attendees could get a real sense of how it works.
I spoke with Matt Arnold, Senior Marketing Representative, about the new product. He says it’s an option on the Model Year 2011 8R Series tractors. It’s a smart steering system that’s speed compensated. It adjusts the lock to lock ratio of the steering wheel as well as the effort. You can hear Matt explain how it works in my interview with him.
Rabo AgriFinance, has named Bob Wilhelm to the new role of Vice President, Marketing and Communications. Wilhelm, a seasoned agriculture marketing and communications veteran, will oversee all marketing and communications strategic development, branding, activities and people for Rabo AgriFinance.
Wilhelm comes to this new role with over 25 years’ experience, most recently at AdFarm, where he headed up that agency’s U.S. business, and served as key marketing and communications strategist for clients. He worked with a wide variety of companies, and participated in marketing planning and strategy work with agri-businesses across North America, including Rabo AgriFinance.
Wilhelm will be located in the company’s St. Louis office.
Prior to joining AdFarm, Wilhelm was with Osborn & Barr Communications, where he began his work in agricultural marketing and communications, leading the agency’s work on clients such as Monsanto, USDA Rural Development, Michelin Ag Tires and Purina Mills. He started his career in business-to-business and consumer marketing roles.
The 29th National Beef Cook Off is kicking off a recipe contest for everyday home cooks and entertaining enthusiasts nationwide. Submit your best beef recipes online for a chance to win $25,000 cash and a trip to the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show in Washington D.C.
Great taste, ease of preparation, originality and use of broadly appealing ingredients are a winning combination for recipe entries. And best of all, home cooks can increase their chances of winning by submitting multiple recipes in all four of the following contest categories: The 5:30 PM Dinner Crunch — This category will focus on easy-to-prepare beef recipes for busy weeknight meals using ingredients commonly on hand at home. Retro Recipes Revived — For this category, home cooks can improve and modify an American classic or old-time family favorite recipe to be more convenient, healthier, or both for today’s busy families. Fuel Up with Beef — Recipes in this category will feature convenient and healthy beef recipes using one of the 29 Lean Beef Cuts for people with busy lives. Stir Crazy Solutions — Home cooks won’t go stir-crazy when they have a chance to create a unique stir-fry recipe using one of the 29 Lean Beef Cuts along with fresh vegetables and grain ingredients.
Cook-Worthy Winnings
Four category winners (one per category) will receive $3,000 in cash on or about July 15, 2011. One grand prize winner will receive $25,000 plus an all-expense paid trip to the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show in Washington D.C. on Nov. 5, 2011 where they will be announced as the grand prize winner. Their winning recipe will also be demonstrated on the show floor for attendees to enjoy.
Today, most farmers have other occupations to supplement their income. They farm, they run a trucking operation, they sell anhydrous, they sell seed corn, they run a grain elevator. I think I just described my brother to a “T” as one of his other duties as assigned is a seed corn dealer. Every year, people come to him to buy enough seed for the next planting season.
But it wasn’t always this way.
This is a hand-crank corn sheller used by my great-grandfather back in the late ‘teens and early ‘20s. It was mounted on a wooden box so the corn would drop down into it. If you insert the cob in the basket at the top, turn the crank, then separate and keep the more uniform kernels, you’d have enough to plant a crop the following year.
An efficient sheller would get about 10-15 bushels of shelled corn per hour, or approximately 10 seconds per ear.
That sure is different than calling up my brother and having him deliver enough seed to plant 2,000 acres of corn.
Syngenta Seeds, Inc., has released 17 new NK brand soybean products, featuring more varieties with Syngenta’s Aphid Management System.
The Georgia Peanut Commission will be holding a mail-ballot referendum March 15 – April 15, 2011 for peanut farmers to vote on increasing the assessment paid by growers from $2 to $3 per ton.
Advanta US is improving and consolidating its sorghum seed production, processing and storage into its Hereford, Texas facilities.
Denise Athy of Visalia, Calif., has joined AgriTech Analytics as a marketing representative.
If you’ve been wondering how you can support the newly formed U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance the wonder no more. You can now make donations online.
You can support the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance and its goal to bolster the image of agriculture and enhance public trust in our food supply. Use the “Donate” button below to contribute to the cause.
We will:
* Enhance consumer trust in the U.S. food production system.
* Maintain and enhance the freedom of U.S. farmers and ranchers to operate in a responsible manner.
* Strengthen collaboration.
Warm and sunny Ft. Myers was a wonderful place to spend a few days last week for the 2011 Agricultural Relations Council annual meeting, especially since most of us were from places that have had too much cold and snow this winter. The weather was fabulous and the program was outstanding – a great combination.
The leadership of ARC is energetic and believes that public relations for agriculture is more important that ever. “Agriculture public relations is a different kind of an animal,” said Mace Thornton with the American Farm Bureau Federation, who is the new president of ARC. “This is the organization that really specializes in bringing PR people to the table in agriculture so we can talk about common challenges and discuss strategy and tactics.”
Mace says the organization is experiencing a resurgence in popularity and membership growth, after hitting a low about five years ago. ARC now has over 80 members – twice what it had about this time last year, and Mace credits the strong support of leaders like outgoing president Deron Johnson of Rhea and Kaiser. Mace and Deron are both pictured here during the Golden ARC award ceremony. That award program is also experiencing new interest after being revived last year.
We really enjoyed a great program during the meeting, starting with a panel discussion on Florida agriculture’s water and fertilizer issues. We also heard from the University of Florida’s Center for Public Issues Education on measuring the effectiveness of social media (more on that later) and from Gary Myers, former owner of Morgan and Myers, about Strategic Thinking on PR.
After a sunset dinner cruise on Thursday night, the business meeting was held Friday morning and followed by a great tour arranged by Gary Cooper of Southeast Agnet. The group visited Worden Farms, an 85-acre certified organic family farm in Southwest Florida, and Longino Ranch, a diversified citrus and cattle operation near Arcadia. There we enjoyed a Florida cracker cowboy meal of fresh venison appetizers, perfectly grilled steaks, homemade beans and can’t-get-it-anywhere-else boiled swamp cabbage. Just mmmm, mmmm GOOD!
The ranch was a great example of diversified agriculture and environmental stewardship. Not only do they produce cattle, citrus and timber on the operation, but they also maintain a preserve for endangered gopher tortoises.
During the Western Farm Show AgWired along with iPhone App sponsor Raven Industries held a drawing for an iPod Touch. I’d like to thank everyone who stopped by to enter.
So now that the show is over we have picked our winner. And the winner is:
Jerry Trautman a farmer from the Kansas City area. Congrats Jerry. Your new iPod Touch will be delivered to you as soon as we can get it there.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this year’s Western Farm Show. The attendance was strong even with challenging weather conditions at times but that’s what you expect and farmers showed they were quite capable to manage.
Precision ag was the topic of several educational seminars at the Western Farm Show. The presenter was Lucas Haag, Kansas State University Research and Education. The seminar going on in the photo focused on improving profitability. That’s something that any farmer would like to know. I think Lucas continued the discussion with some of the attendees long after it was over.
I spoke with Lucas about the message he had on profitability. He makes a distinction between technologies that have a quick payback and those that have a more long term payback. He says hardware like auto steer and auto swatch are ones that provide a quick payback. But in the longer term the data collection becomes more important. He encourages recording field yield data for example because that type of information helps make farm based decisions that can save money.
Lucas did get in a good plug for K-State and says that they offer opportunities for both students and adults who would like to learn more about using precision ag.
For those interested in becoming involved in exploring traditional techniques and cutting edge research in sustainable agriculture should consider applying for Green Mountain College’s summer program. In its third year, the 12-credit summer intensive program Farm Life Ecology: A Field and Table Intensive, runs for 13 weeks from May 23-August 19. For the first time the College is also offering half-sessions for 6 credits from May 23-July 2 and July 7-August 19.
“Modern agriculture is heavily reliant on fossil energy sources, and we’ll need to find ways as a society to incorporate more energy-efficient solutions to growing food,” said farm manager and program director Dr. Kenneth Mulder. “Students in this program get a chance to manage our campus farm while gaining a rigorous foundation in sustainable agriculture.”
Over the past three years, the college’s Farm & Food Program has received nearly $250,000 in grant funding to further develop their fossil-free agriculture initiatives.
“The Farm and Food Intensive combines a rigorous classroom experience with individual research projects and hands-on farm work,” Mulder continued. “Students also get a chance to participate in some pretty exciting research that will teach them to run farms that are productive, profitable, and environmentally sustainable.”
While in the program, students will manage all aspects of Green Mountain College’s 22-acre Cerridwen Farm while receiving a curricular focus in three core areas: the fundamentals of organic crop and animal management; efficient integration and management of diverse farm systems; and development and utilization of appropriate technologies in agriculture. In addition, their home base will be the Solar Harvest Center where the students prepare communal meals from produce they grow and harvest from the farm.
Phillip Ackerman-Leist, Director of the College’s Farm & Food Project and Associate Professor of environmental studies added, “Cerridwen Farm has become an agricultural lab of sorts, and our students contribute to that research. Like traditional ag programs students will learn a lot about agricultural practices and systems. They’ll also learn how to be part of the current food revolution that is transforming farming and how we view food.”
Day two of the Western Farm Show is concluding. I spoke with Jeff Flora, CEO, Southwestern Association, about how the show’s going. He’s very happy with it. Although the weather could cooperate better.
Jeff says that the first night of the Championship Tractor Pull exceeded expectations for attendance and tonight should be even better. I can attest that the traffic was much higher today and as I’m writing this is still strong.
One of the items Western Farm Show folks are collecting from the AgWired booth are “gadget grips” that you put on the back of your iPod or mobile phone to keep it from slipping off your dashboard or some inclined surface. They’re great and something we’ve received the most positive feedback over the last several years.
You’ll be able to find them at our booth at the April NAMA Convention just so you know.
This morning at the Western Farm Show I conducted a session on social media. The focus was on the “how-to” of social media for communications and marketing purposes. Yesterday my session with Kansas Farmer Darin Grimm, focused more on using social media to agvocate. Thanks to ZimmComm intern John Brown, Columbia College, Columbia, MO for taking the photo for me.
Some of the points that I tried to present using live examples included:
1. If just getting started, pick just one social networking application and use it, get comfortable with it and then expand. Ex. start with Twitter, then add Facebook and then YouTube, etc.
2. Go ahead and register your name or company name for social networking accounts even if you don’t use them right away. It’s a protection thing.
3. When you’re ready to start your blog or Twitter account make sure you post something at some level of frequency and then pay attention to your followers and people who leave comments. Engage them, don’t ignore them.
4. Think of social media as an electronic form of personal discussion. Kind of like participating in a discussion with some people at a cocktail party for example.
5. There are lots of metrics. Start looking at them right away and keep a record of them. They provide a benchmark for comparison over time. And you will need time to let your social networking begin to pay dividends!
We went over a lot more with some great Q&A. Thanks to everyone who attended! I hope to get to do it again soon.
Winners of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) 2011 Golden ARC Awards Contest were announced at the association’s annual awards banquet in Ft. Myers on Friday night. A total of 24 Golden ARC winners and 19 Merit winners were recognized as the elite in agricultural public relations. The number of entries this year was twice what it was last year!
Agency Weber Shandwick led the prize winners with four Golden ARC Awards and three Merit awards for clients Syngenta Seeds and Dairy Management Inc. On the corporate side, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health won three Golden ARC Awards and two Merit Awards.
Other organizations winning multiple awards included Osborn & Barr with three Golden ARC Awards and four Merit Awards; Syngenta Seeds with two Golden ARC Awards and three Merit Awards; CHS with two Golden ARC Awards and two Merit Awards; Charleston Orwig and Dairy Management Inc. with two Golden ARC Awards and one Merit; Egg Farmers of Ontario, David & Associates, Pfizer Animal Health and Bader Rutter & Associates each with two Golden ARC Awards; National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Rhea + Kaiser (Bayer CropScience) with one Golden ARC Award and two Merit Awards each; and Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition with one Golden ARC Award and one Merit Award.
The American Farm Bureau Federation won in the podcast category for their “FoodieCast Thanksgiving Special” and in the Blogs/Electronic Newsletters category, the winner was – ZimmComm New Media for the National Corn Growers Association Corn Commentary blog! Congrats to all!
Here is my photo album from the event – 2011 ARC Meeting – not the best photos I have ever taken since I was just using my little “toy camera” (Canon Power Shot). We were getting our good cameras and lenses serviced and checked out for Commodity Classic next week. If any ARC members (like Janice or Amy who were using better cameras) would like to send me some, I will add them to the photo album.
Adam Andrews, Kentucky Corn Growers Association Director of Programs (right), says they were at the National Farm Machinery Show to talk to members and also to resolve issues with friends throughout the industry. The show provides them a good opportunity to interact with a lot of members. He says the American Ethanol show car opened a lot of eyes about the level of involvement they have in promoting the use of the renewable fuel. They had a drawing for tickets to an upcoming race in Kentucky.
Looking ahead he says growers are excited about the new season since they had an early harvest last year. That gave them time to get caught up on a lot of projects on the farm. He says that within in the next three weeks Kentucky growers will be planting.
Beginning this week we’ll be posting a regular video from the American Angus Association. This week we’re featuring the following video that is part of a show, I Am Angus. The show will air this coming Monday. Here’s more information on it.
Monday evening’s “I Am Angus” episode — titled “Connections” — celebrates the relationship between America’s cattle ranchers and those who consume the quality Angus beef they raise. In this segment, Dr. Bernie Rollin discusses the ancient contract between animals and their human caretakers, and the implications of animal husbandry on the modern world. Watch the entire program on RFD-TV Monday evening at 7 p.m. CST or view all of the segments next week on www.angus.org. Also featured on the program are Dr. Temple Grandin; C.J. Hadley, publisher of Range magazine; and W.A. McHenry, Civil War veteran who produced what may be the greatest Angus bull ever.
The voice of the Championship Tractor Pull at the Western Farm Show is Dave Bennett. He was also one of the announcers last week at the National Farm Machinery Show Championship Tractor Pull. I was there and I can tell you he does a great job.
Dave stopped by the AgWired booth this morning to talk about the return of the tractor pull to the show. It has been many years (almost 30) since the events were held together. Dave started his tractor pull announcing even before then. He says that an indoor tractor pull isn’t new but that diesel engine tractors was more recent since they need smoke tubes and exhaust fans to handle the smoke. He says we’ll have nine classes and you won’t see the same equipment twice.
Here at the show they’re enticing students to attend their programs in precision ag and technician training. They’re offering in-state college tuition rates even for out of state students! That’s a big savings. This is being done in conjunction with the Southwestern Association Technician Program. If you’d like to take part then give them a call or stop by their booth here at the show for a tuition waiver note!
Carlos gave me a broad overview of their precision ag program starting with the Kubota utility vehicle in their booth that has been equipped with a sprayer and Trimble and Norac equipment. He says they have developed a curriculum that prepares students of all ages to move into the field prepared to work with any precision equipment. They’ve developed close relationships with all manufacturers and host them in each year to help guide them in terms of class offering.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
David conducted a presentation on delivering expert opinion via social media to an audience at the start of International Poultry Expo week. He's got some great information about who consumers trust and how you can use today's consumer behavior to help communicate your message.
Measuring the effectiveness of social media really is possible – if know what you want to measure and what tools to use.
Dr. Tracy Irani (pictured) is Development Director for the PIE Center and she talked about the rapid adoption of social media and how agriculture has become part of the conversation, like it or not. She notes that social media actually has an advantage over traditional media when it comes to measurement. “We know that most of the traditional media metrics are based on the number of eyeballs or number of listeners,” she explains. “That’s where social media has an advantage because the return can be looked at on the basis of who’s in the network, who’s actively using, viewing, posting in a social media environment.” In other words, traditional media can tell you how many potential viewers or readers you might have, where social media can show how actively involved they are by retweets, comments, messages, etc.
Our 
Active Command Steering was one of the new things getting a lot of attention at the National Farm Machinery Show. These young guys were working on one of the simulators that were set up so attendees could get a real sense of how it works.
Warm and sunny Ft. Myers was a wonderful place to spend a few days last week for the 2011 
Mace says the organization is experiencing a resurgence in popularity and membership growth, after hitting a low about five years ago. ARC now has over 80 members – twice what it had about this time last year, and Mace credits the strong support of leaders like outgoing president Deron Johnson of Rhea and Kaiser. Mace and Deron are both pictured here during the 
We really enjoyed a great program during the meeting, starting with a panel discussion on Florida agriculture’s water and fertilizer issues. We also heard from the University of Florida’s 
After a sunset dinner cruise on Thursday night, the business meeting was held Friday morning and followed by a great tour arranged by Gary Cooper of Southeast Agnet. The group visited 
Winners of the 
Adam Andrews, 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
