I’m not sure how long they’ve been doing this but I just noticed that when I opened a PR Newswire release it’s got a little link at the top that says, “Blog It.” It seems to only let you post to a Blogger or Wordpress.com account though. I tried posting it to ZimmComm.biz but no go.
At least they’re thinking in the right direction. Adding a function that would allow you to post to a blog on your own domain/host would be a nice next step.
I guess bloggers can be journalists after all. Who would have thought?
The Hondo Group, a marketing communications company, is moving to new ground. The Fort Worth-based firm has announced the grand opening of a new location in Darlington, WI. The Wisconsin office will serve as the company’s hub for Midwest operations. Pictured (l-r) are Patricia Lawson, account supervisor at The Hondo Group; Kim Jones, vice president of The Hondo Group; Lynn Balinas, president of The Hondo Group; Mayor David Breunig, City of Darlington and Suzi Osterday, City of Darlington.
“As our client base expands, so must our operations,” said Kim Jones, vice president of The Hondo Group. “We are pleased to now have a location in Darlington that will focus on our ever-expanding list of agriculture and dairy clients.”
As The Hondo Group continues to expand, the company will provide clients with business solutions such as strategic branding processes and procedures, new products and new technologies. The company has made investments in several additional staff members to ensure that exceptional customer service and results continue.
The Hondo Group has offered marketing services both on the national and international level. The firm focuses on agribusiness, real estate, professional services and western lifestyle.
Since a lot of you AgWired fans are involved in public relations I thought you’d want to know about PROpenMic. It’s a social networking site started by Robert French, one of the people who inspired me to move forward in this whole new media world.
He used Ning to create the site. Ning? What’s Ning you may ask. Ning is the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds. It’s the software equivalent of Home Depot. Unlike other services that offer a “one-size-fits-all” offering, your social network on Ning runs on a programmable platform.”
Now that sounds interesting. But let’s get back to PROpenMic.
PROpenMic? A metaphor. Step up and speak your mind. Our goal is to be the social network for PR students and faculty worldwide. We have common interests, goals and certainly can learn from one another. We welcome PR pros, too. Hey, you can find your next great intern or new hire right here. Also, faculty always love to interact with practitioners.
PROpenMic isn’t a podcasting network, although we’d love to see those here, too. Think of it as a digital place to step up to the microphone and share your views. Please tell your friends. Once you sign up, there is an easy “Invite More” link in the top right hand corner of the page.
I know I don’t have very many network connections online (yeah, right) but I did create a page of my own on the new PR network.
Osborn & Barr is now the marketing firm of choice for Becker Underwood. The global leader in bio-agronomic development has named Osborn & Barr its agency of record.
“When we initiated the search for a new agency of record, it was very important to select an agency with a winning track record of effective brand management and marketing communications within the agricultural market,” said Paul Holliday, Becker Underwood, Business Unit Head - Inoculants. “After a thorough search and analysis, we selected Osborn & Barr because of the agency’s in-depth knowledge and understanding of the agricultural market and their tremendous success in representing some of the most widely recognized brands in the industry.”
Osborn & Barr’s expertise will assist in increasing awareness of the innovative solutions Becker Underwood’s products offer the agriculture market. “Becker Underwood’s objective is to grow market share and build brand awareness among growers and retailers in both the United
States and Canada,” said Steve Barr, chief executive officer of Osborn & Barr. “Osborn & Barr will partner with Becker Underwood to develop and implement initiatives that fulfill the company’s goals.”
Becker Underwood, headquartered in Ames, Iowa, employs approximately 317 employees globally. For more than two decades, the company has provided unique and valuable products for niche markets in 60 countries, including agriculture, turf and landscaping, horticulture, and lawn and garden. Becker Underwood strives to develop new technologies and products through continuous scientific research that naturally improve customers’ end products, whether it’s higher crop yields or a more visually appealing golf course.
Osborn & Barr Communications is strengthening its man-power in Kansas City. The office has introduced new personnel to both its account service and financial teams.
The Kansas City office of Osborn & Barr Communications (O&B) has significantly augmented its creative, account service and financial teams with the addition of Jason Silvers, Debbie Davids and Kelly Midkiff.
“The addition of Jason, Debbie and Kelly has really expanded the skill base and operational turnaround capabilities of Osborn & Barr,” says Boo Larsen, managing director of the Kansas City office. “The breadth of their experience in multiple markets and industries will be a tremendous asset to our clients, and their addition to the office provides us even more immediate response capabilities that are so important in today’s fast-moving business marketplace.”
Jason Silvers was promoted to senior art director less than six months after joining O&B as an art director. At O&B, he designs collateral and brand identity pieces for such clients as John Deere C&CE, Intervet Inc. and Belton, Mo.-based Specialty Fertilizer Products.
Debbie Davids also joined O&B after working for Bernstein-Rein. As an account executive, Davids specializes in serving as the liaison between clients and the agency to ensure all creative operations run smoothly.
After a five-year absence, Kelly Midkiff returned to O&B as office services manager and financial assistant. Midkiff was office services manager for the agency from 2001 to 2002.
Many AgWired fans know I recommend Micro Persuasion written by Steve Rubel. The man has more insight into how new media can be used as corporate marketing tools than anyone else I’ve found. I have tried diligently to apply his ideas to the agricultural marketing world. He also writes a column for Advertising Age and his latest one is right on the money in my opinion.
He writes about a new career path that’s emerging on the advertising/PR agency and client sides called the Geek Marketer. “My thesis is this: it’s very difficult for anyone in marketing to keep up with all the twists the digital space because technology changes so darn fast. It’s like chasing a cheetah. Most marketers - be they clients or agency side - are heads-down running their business. Therefore, companies are creating a new role. They’re hiring people who act as translators between the ultra geeks and the marketers, if you will, and shepherd the development of pilot programs.”
He says about people like us, “They are marketers by trade, yet they also have a hard-core interest in technology and social anthropology. As curious individuals, they are constantly studying how digital advances are changing our culture and media. Armed with these insights, they regularly apply them in a marketing context by working closely with brand teams to codify new best practices.”
So, do you have a Geek Marketer on your staff? Are you willing to let that person try some new marketing programs that use technology you’re not familiar with or that you don’t use yourself? If Geek Marketer is not on your corporate flow chart then keep the Godfather of ag blogging in mind.
Bader Rutter & Associates is bringing a new Vice President on board.
Nesh Malinovic has been named Vice President, Media Director at Bader Rutter & Associates.
Malinovic comes to the agency from Kelly, Scott & Madison in Chicago where he was an associate media director.
Originally from London, England, Malinovic has nearly 20 years of strategic media experience, working for multiple agencies, including Oglivy & Mather, Carat UK and The Media Shop. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of London.
Bader Rutter & Associates is an integrated marketing services agency headquartered in Milwaukee, with additional offices in Chicago and Lincoln, Neb.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers has named the winners of its “Measures of Success” marketing awards program. Companies from across the U.S. and Canada comprise the list of winners. AEM’s Publications in Construction and Agriculture issued the awards which recognize excellence in marketing communications for the off-road equipment industry. The annual awards are also meant to stress the significant role marketing communications plays in a company’s business success.
“A special award of excellence goes to the winning entry receiving the highest score overall from the judges. The members of PICA this year voted to have this “platinum” award dedicated to publishing executive John Weatherhead of Associated Construction Publications in recognition of his longtime stewardship of the PICA group. Winning this award was Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria, Illinois with its agency Rhea & Kaiser Communications of Naperville, Illinois for their entry in the product literature category (over $50 million in sales division).
The PICA “Measures of Success” awards program is open to off-road equipment manufacturers and industry service providers. Award categories include magazine ads, product literature, direct mail and press kits, broken out by sales divisions (over/under $50 million). Entries are judged by a panel of business-to-business agencies, industrial marketers, university marketing communications professors and PICA publishers. Press kits are evaluated by PICA industry editors. Judges score the entries independently, and the AEM statistical department tabulates the scores. The number of awards given in each category and division is determined by the judges based on entries received.”
A complete list of winners from the 12 categories can be found on AEM’s Website.
The National Institute For Animal Agriculture has just sent out its final virtual news room release from its annual meeting out in California. Just like earlier this week they’re using AgNewsWire to produce and distribute the release.
The National Institute for Animal Agriculture annual meeting in Sacramento this week featured a symposium titled “Impacts of Animal Production Safety Practices on the Food Supply.”
Included in this release are links to audio interviews, photos and power point files from presenters at the symposium. All audio interviews are 96 kpbs mp3 files and can be downloaded from the link. If you would prefer to have the file emailed directly to you, please contact us.
Download Full Release Here
If you’re not a regular reader of eMarketer I highly recommend it. Theirs is one of the only daily e-newsletters I subscribe to and actually read. They also send out an eMarketer FYI on timely subjects. The latest is on a GoToMeeting webinar on the Top Ten Webinar Best Practices. I’ve had a number of clients asking about webinars lately and thought you might want to check this out if you’re thinking about conducting one for your company or client.
Webinars are an increasingly important channel for sharing a wide variety of useful content and broadening the reach of any size organization. Learn how leading innovators have mastered the key aspects of Webinar planning, delivery and analysis to boost revenue, reduce costs and drive productivity in their organizations.
This webinar will take place on April 11 at 10am-pdt or 1pm-edt. The speakers will be Michael Osterman, Founder, Osterman Research and Eric Choi, Product Marketing Manager, Citrix Online. Here’s where you register.
Another webinar you might want to check out is on blogging and being offered by PR Newswire. It’s called “Blogging: Get in? Get out? or Get out of the way?” You can probably guess what my answer is.
PR Newswire has brought together a panel of online veterans to discuss blogging as it pertains to the PR professional and the news reporter. Learn how blogging has changed journalism, how it has opened new lines of communication outside the traditional press and how PR professionals should (or shouldn’t) react to the trend.
This webinar takes place on April 12 at 2pm-edt. Here’s where you register.
The National Institute For Animal Agriculture is offering a virtual news room for reporters who can’t attend their annual meeting taking place in Sacramento. This isn’t the first time the organization has used this mechanism and it’s because they’ve received such positive feedback from the first time they tried it. The focus of the meeting on Monday was animal agriculture and biofuels production. NIAA used our AgNewsWire service to produce and distribute the document which you can find a link to below. It contains links to interviews that Cindy did with the presenters as well as their documents and images.
Included in this release are links to audio interviews, photos and presentations in document or power point files from the main presenters at the annual meeting on Monday. All audio interviews are 96 kpbs mp3 files and can be downloaded from the link. If you would prefer to have the file emailed directly to you, please contact us.
Dave Miller with the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation introduced the General Session with some statistics and general information about biofuels and animal agriculture, the main point of which can be garnered from his Power Point presentation.
NIAA-07-Gen-Session.ppt.
Full Release
While browsing the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association website this morning I came across their PR/News Release Guidelines. This is worth a read for all you public relations professionals who I’m sure already know this. It’s always nice to have a reminder though. I wish more ag comm groups would do this.
Here’s some key points they make for marketers:
1. The news releases I distribute will be newsworthy. There’s a reason why this is number 1 on the list. Sending out news releases without a real news angle is kind of like saying the sky’s falling. Do it enough an editors won’t even look at your news releases anymore.
4. I will not call editors to confirm that a release has been received. I will also not call editors to ask when or if a news release will be published. They say this is the number one complaint of editors and I fully understand why. I may be in the news release distribution business but I’m also an editor and we just don’t have time for this. Sometimes there’s just no way to answer the second part of this question so you’ve at best wasted my time. When I get these calls I often feel like I’m being put on the spot and it’s very uncomfortable and not likely to put me in a “favorable” mood regarding the release.
5. I will not call editors to ask for clips of my published news release. This is because the editor often can’t and doesn’t have an easy way to do this and definitely doesn’t have time for it.
With our AgNewsWire service we try to keep our database up to date so we’re sending to current email contacts at all the various broadcast, print and web outlets. We don’t and won’t call on editors to see if they got the release. We can tell how many open the email but we won’t report who. We often get asked how many “used” a release and there’s just no way for us to know that. I realize how important metrics are even in public relations but I think you hurt your public relations efforts if you push too hard for this data. Just keep in mind that editors can’t do your story if you don’t send it to them! One of the best things you can do is participate in the various agricultural communicator association meetings to develop good relationships with editors.
- Agricultural Relations Council: A Consumer-Driven Marketplace A look at the influences consumers have on the food and fiber industries - March 29-31, 2007.
- North American Agricultural Journalists: The annual NAAJ meeting will be April 15-17 in Washington, D.C. The conference hotel will be the Holiday Inn-Capital. Rooms are $223/night. We have a small block reserved, so budget now. The number to call for reservations is 202-479-4000. Identify yourself as being with NAAJ, North American Agricultural Journalists. You must make reservations by March 15.
- The Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association: Next Annual Meeting: May 1-May 3, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Savanna, GA.
If you’ve wondered what Kenna Rathai is up to then wonder no more. To start with she jumped into the business world last fall when she launched Kenna B. Rathai Communications. She does independent public relations and freelance writing assignments. And now she’s got a new gig helping out the American Agricultural Editors Association (AAEA) as associate director on a part time basis. Kenna will assist Den Gardner, AAEA executive director, in managing the day to day activities of AAEA. Her responsibilities will include editing The ByLine and managing Ag Media Summit exhibit booth logistics and other duties.
How would you like to have a state agriculture secretary helping you with your public relations efforts? That’s what New Holland has going for them in Pennsylvania.
Country music recording artist Michael Peterson will perform at the 2007 Pennsylvania Farm Show at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10, Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff said today. “We’re happy to welcome Michael Peterson to the Farm Show,” said Wolff. “As a musician and a friend to agriculture, he is a perfect fit to entertain Farm Show visitors and we look forward to his performance.” Peterson’s award-winning CD, “Down on the Farm” will be sold during the concert with proceeds benefiting the FFA. Peterson will also greet fans after the show for autographs and photos. This event is free of charge and is sponsored by New Holland and Messick’s Farm Equipment.
I know I keep bringing up the New Holland/Michael Peterson CD promotion but here’s another example of how it’s working for them. How do you put a price on this. This announcement came out as a national news release sent by the PA Dept. of Agriculture.
New Holland is one of our clients here at ZimmComm and I’m looking forward to working with them again in 2007! Happy Holidays Gene and Michael.
Many of you are familiar with the ZimmComm, AgNewsWire service. Well AgNewsWire.com just got a new look.
Our online news release distribution service is doing very well. We send your news release to all farm broadcasters as well as farm publication and website editors. It’s a comprehensive service that has been delivering releases for several years now.
We’re really glad to unveil the new look of AgNewsWire this week as so many of our friends and clients gather in Kansas City.
The best way to deliver your news releases to the farm journalist community is with AgNewsWire. Hey, we are them. Who better to know how journalists want to receive news releases?
One of the best things about our service is our ability to add in useful multimedia content like audio, images and even video to your news releases. Wouldn’t you like to have award winning farm journalists working on your public relations efforts?
Hey, did I just use journalists and public relations in the same sentence?
Contact me with questions or to handle your news release project.
This week’s program continues the theme from last week with a focus on new media in agricultural communications and discussing a few examples.
Cindy joins me in this week’s program. You’ll be seeing her out and about more as we get called on to use our “traditional” media skills to create great online content for blogs, podcasts, news releases, newsletters, e-newsletters and websites. It’s amazing what a little bit of multimedia capability allows you to do on the internet today! It’s digital online public relations.
Listen here: 
ZimmCast 79 (13 min MP3)
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.
How many of you have used PR Web to send a press release? Show of hands. Yeah, quite a few of you. I know, I get them. I’ve always liked PR Web, especially dealing with them. They make it easy for both sides. I’ve always thought they were the friendlier service. Lately I’ve been impressed with their completely embracing new forms of social communication and not trying to stay in the traditional media delivery box.
They’ve done well enough to attract a pretty substantial buyout from Vocus, Inc. As you’ll hear in this week’s ZimmCast, which I’ll post in a few minutes, you really need to design your press releases today for your customer as much as the media. That’s what PR Web has been evangelizing.
PRWeb uses proprietary SEO tools and a team of specialized editors to help ensure that its customers’ news receives maximum exposure throughout the full spectrum of new media. PRWeb-distributed press releases are indexed by major search engines, distributed to thousands of news sites, including Google News and Yahoo News, and delivered through more than 20,000 RSS feeds, that collectively reach tens of millions of consumers and thousands of journalists daily. The company was also among the first to embrace the social media press release concept through the integration of such technologies as podcasting, blog trackbacks and Technorati tagging.
“The internet has led to a dramatic increase in the number and types of media outlets and other website destinations from which consumers and journalists get their news,” said Rick Rudman, President and CEO of Vocus, Inc. “PRWeb has fully developed the technologies, features and pricing model to enable organizations of all sizes to maximize their online visibility and to exploit the potential of this new communication channel.”
Now the question is, “Would Vocus like to purchase a great “agricultural” news release distribution service that’s using the same focus (on new media/social communication)?” AgNewsWire
At the recent Agricultural Media Summit, one of the “official” participating organizations, the Agricultural Relations Council held a breakfast meeting.
Here’s outgoing(?) ARC President Jeri Omernik leading the meeting. ARC presented 5 recommendations from a task force that evaluated the organization. I couldn’t stay for the end of the meeting so I’m not sure where the discussion went after I left. The five recommendations are:
We offer professional intimacy with others in the same industry;
We offer professional development in ag, science and food-related Public Relations;
We are experts in ag, science and food-related Public Relations;
We extol the value of Public Relations in the agriculture, food and science industries and its continuing development; and
We strive to identify and to advocate best practices in Public Relations in the agriculture, food and science industries.
They consider these five attributes, the “unique selling proposition” of ARC. You can find a membership application here (pdf).
Okay agrimarketers. Here’s something for you to think about. In today’s new media world, press releases can and should be so much more than they typically are. In fact, press releases should be thought of as information vehicles for essentially everyone (media, customers, members, industry). Here’s a “Social Media Release” template. You can find out all about it on PR SQUARED.
Today’s media person is, or should be, in need of way more than just a few lines of text. We need images, links to websites, audio files (Talking News Release!), video, RSS feeds with updates after the release is sent out, ways to provide feedback. Get the picture? It’s not hard to do. Want to send audio to farm broadcasters? No problem, just email them one of these and have your audio pre-recorded and uploaded for them. Oh, and by the way, why not make that same audio available to farmers? How? Podcast it and post it to your own website and let them find it themselves or use a service that posts it to the web like our AgNewsWire. You can see the PR SQUARED template in action.
Love it or hate it, what is important is that the banal, unhelpful, cookie-cutter press releases of yore have outlived their pre-Internet usefulness. So, to announce the “Social Media Press Release template” (and to show how it might look in the real world) we also put out what may be the first ever press release to use this next-generation format, via PR Newswire.
If you have trouble figuring out how to set one of these up or what some of the components are, just give me a call and I’ll be happy to fill you in.
« Previously Posted
Digital cattle news pioneer, Rob Cook, is now working for Vance Publishing after the company acquired CattleNetwork.com.
