These Canadian guys are ahead of the curve when it comes to blogging and podcasting. One of them is Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World.
Even as we were being attacked (AgWired was by spammers) last night the show went on. That is the Blog Business Success Radio show on Blog Talk Radio.
We had a nice hour long conversation which 
you can still listen to if you missed it live. We talked about agricultural communications, Talking News Releases, blogging, podcasting and all from the perspective of how these new communications tools can be used for business purposes.
So, if you have time feel free to listen in.
One of the first people I found when I got started blogging was Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World. It was a lot of his ideas about how to use a blog as a business communications tool that formed some of my ideas about how to use this great platform.
Well, Wayne’s a podcaster too and on something called Blog Talk Radio. Tonight at 8pm (Eastern) I’ll be his guest on his program “Blog Business Success Radio.” You can listen in live or use these instructions from Wayne if you can’t:
If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.
Let’s talk with Chuck Zimmerman about podcasting and talking press releases and how they can take your media relations to the next level, on Blog Business Success Radio.
When the Cattlemen’s Beef Board was looking into ways to better communicate with producers about the activities of the next week’s Cattle Industry Convention, especially their committee meetings, they turned to blogging and asked us to create and manage the site. There’s still some final pre-conference posting that will be done over the next couple days but the site is open and ready for activity. At the event next week, I’ll be blogging the CBB activities on Beef Board Meeting.com. One of the great things about this idea is that not only will information flow out to interested producers but each post and page of information has the comment feature enabled to allow them to provide their feedback. I have no doubt we’ll get some.
(Holts Summit, MO January 26, 2006 - AgNewsWire) Cattle producers who are unable to attend this year’s Cattle Industry Convention February 1-4 in Denver can still stay informed and take an active role in decisions that are made through the Beef Board Meeting.com (www.beefboardmeeting.com) web log, according to Cattlemen’s Beef Board Vice Chairman Jay O’Brien of Amarillo, Texas.
“We’re trying to get information out to the producers to let them know exactly what’s going on at the convention and even allow them to have input back in to the committees, so that all of the people who pay the checkoff will be part of the process.”
The web log will feature postings throughout the convention following the various committee meetings to inform producers about discussions that are taking place and decisions that are made on how their beef checkoff dollars will be spent. O’Brien says the Beef Board wants all producers to have the opportunity to participate in decision-making at the national level.
“We have 108 producer members of the Beef Board who serve on the committees, who work hard to decide the best way to spend the checkoff dollars. But, of course, we have a lot more producers out there then those 108. We want every producer to be informed about what is going on and to be able to have input as to where the checkoff dollars are spent.” (Full Release)
You can hear a full interview with CBB Vice Chairman Jay O’Brien here. (2.2MB MP3)
If you’re going to switch teams, pick a good one. That’s what Team Ethanol driver Paul Dana did. The rumor was floating around until confirmation came today at an Indy Racing League press conference. Paul Dana will now be driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, which makes him a teammate to Danica Patrick.
“This is a huge step up for us from a competitive standpoint because Rahal Letterman has such an excellent track record,” Dana said. “My teammates will be Buddy Rice, who won the Indy 500 in 2004, and, of course, Danica Patrick, who was Rookie of the Year last year.” Rahal Letterman Racing is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and television talk show host and comedian David Letterman.
Team Ethanol is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. Executive Director Tom Slunecka said they could not be more thrilled with the switch to one of the best and well-known IRL teams. “The Rahal Letterman team, having produced Indy car winners and having the sensation in race car and sports media Danica Patrick, is just a fabulous way for ethanol to get its name out to that many more people.” (Full Release)
You can hear the actual press conference annoucement here.
The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council has some promotion results to be proud of. This relatively new organization headed by Tom Slunecka just moved their offices to Omaha, NE. That hasn’t slowed them down any. The results of their promotional campaign in Wichita were just released today in the form of a Talking News Release on AgNewsWire.
OMAHA, NE. (January 13, 2006 - AgNewsWire) - Wichita, Kansas residents turned to ethanol-enriched fuel in record numbers this fall, according to recently released market data from a partnership promotion between Kwik Shop stores and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC).
According to Tom Slunecka (suh-Len-icka), EPIC executive director, the promotion first started by giving ethanol information to key leaders within the city, such as mechanics, auto dealers, politicians and community leaders. The information explained why ethanol is important to the city and how it would work in their automobiles and how it would clean the air. “This program was far more than just an advertising campaign, it was an integral part of the thought process within that town about how to maximize their economics from a regional basis as well as how to help their air quality there within their city.” (:16 ) ( epic-wichita-slunecka-cut3 (Full Release) (Word Doc)
With today’s announcement about the opening up of the Japanese market to U. S. beef the Missouri Beef Industry Council wanted to make sure the word got out about what it means on the local level with this release.
MISSOURI BEEF PRODUCERS STAND TO BENEFIT FROM
REOPENING OF JAPANESE MARKET
Columbia, MO (AgNewsWire) News that Japan is reopening its market for U.S. beef products is good for Missouri beef producers, according to Missouri Beef Industry Council Executive Director Steve Taylor. “With the full export market available to us, there’s an additional 50 to 75 dollars per head added to the value of a carcass, so that translates back to Missouri producers. It does put money on to the value of the cattle that they sell here.” (Full Release)
This is a Talking News Release so you can download the full release which contains the audio links if you want to listen.
Let me take this opportunity to announce a new service just started by little ole ZimmComm. I know this is self serving but hey, it’s our website. What kind of promoters would we be if we didn’t use this opportunity too?
ZimmComm, the owner & operator of AgWired, announces a new service called AgNewsWire. We wanted to answer the question, why isn’t there a newswire service for “us.” Now there is. So what is it?
AgNewsWire is a news release production/distribution service for the agribusiness industry and a resource for agricultural editors in all forms of media, including broadcast, print and internet. This means we push your release out to agricultural journalists of all types (radio, print, internet and direct-to-farmer). Additionally, with the creation of the website, journalists can subscribe to the RSS Feed which includes all releases we distribute.
One of the most exciting things about AgNewsWire is our exclusive agreement with Quickfarm , the premier website developer and content provider for farmer cooperatives nationally. Beginning December 1, we post your release to the Quickfarm network of 425 cooperative websites nationally that have over 2,000 locations. Just last month their network had 100,000 unique farmer visitors and 2 million page views. That’s getting your message directly in front of your customer.
QuickFarm Vice President of Sales & Operations Matt Walsh approached ZimmComm with the idea of providing new content for their websites. “We have a lot of traffic out there on the internet. We see close to 2 million page views a month. Those page views are made up by roughly 100,000 unique visitors every month and we want to make sure those people are getting the best possible content that we can find. So, going to ZimmComm was a no-brainer for us because of their established multimedia release service. That service provides excellent content for our website customers and in turn for their customers, the American farmer.”
AgNewsWire will distribute traditional text-only releases as well as our patented Talking News Releases. We can also guarantee search engine inclusion through our relationship with PR Web. Let AgNewsWire be your one-stop-shop for news release distribution.
That’s our big news for the week. Now it’s on to blogging the NAMA Agribusiness Forum and NAFB convention. Maybe I’ll see you in Kansas City.
MFA Incorporated just got some very important news for cattlemen who want to be able to take quick advantage of the pending opening of new foreign trade markets. To announce it they sent out a Talking News Release. The state of Missouri is ahead of the game in obtaining USDA Quality Systems Assessment and MFA’s Health Track program is now able to offer that status to its customers!
Now that Missouri’s Quality Systems Assessment (QSA) program has been accepted by the USDA, MFA Health Track calves can comply with the new federal designation, which means they will have the go-ahead for the toughest export markets. Specifically, post-BSE negotiations with trading partners like Japan have made QSA a necessary bargaining tool.
MFA Health Track manager Mike John says the pending opening of the Japanese market has already created a demand for QSA certified cattle because it takes about 180 days to finish those animals. “The feed yards are willing to start filling the pipeline so they’ll have product when the market does open. So it will bring more buyers to Missouri because of the large number of feeder cattle that we have.” Full Release
With all the corn harvesting going on Vermeer Manufacturing wants growers to know how important baling the stalks can be as an economical roughage for livestock. To help get the word out they sent a Talking News Release today.
When it comes to a good, affordable source of roughage, many cattle producers and livestock feeders are finding that cornstalk bales really fit the bill. Daniel Rippe (Rip-ee) who has a cow-calf operation in Auburn, Nebraska says he has found that cornstalk bales work better for his operation than hay bales.
“Part of it is that they’re – well, cheap. And I can feed distiller’s products with the corn stalks and end up with a decent ration and still be cheaper than going out and buying some higher quality hay.” Full Release
This is the third in a series of releases that Vermeer has distributed on this subject.
The latest Talking News Release we distributed this week was from Monsanto. The topic was research from their sticky traps program to see if western corn rootworm beetles are present in soybean fields. I think this is a very interesting story. These western corn rootworm “variants” have adapted their reproductive practices by laying their eggs in soybean fields in order to survive field rotations between corn and soybeans. The variant eggs hatch during the spring, after the field has been rotated back to corn, resulting in larval feeding in first-year corn, which is not a good thing. These are some smart pests!
A sticky trap monitoring program conducted recently by Monsanto suggests that the western corn rootworm variant may continue to be expanding, posing a potential threat to first-year corn next season.
Monsanto distributed 28,000 Pherocon® AM sticky traps to 3600 growers in parts of five Central Corn Belt states – Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Missouri – where the rootworm variant has been expanding. Growers participating in the monitoring program, which covered more than 10 million acres, were asked to place the sticky traps in their soybean fields to determine whether the rootworm beetles are present and at what level.
“What our results showed was that in 90 percent of the counties that we sent sticky traps into farmers did capture the western corn rootworm beetle on these sticky traps,” said Dave Rhylander, Director of Traits for Monsanto. “And so that tells us this bug continues to move east, and to the west and to the south, and that it’s now expanded further than anybody had anticipated.” Full Release
It’s a busy week for news releases, especially Talking News Releases. Yesterday afternoon Pioneer Hi-Bred was able to announce in conjunction with Dow AgroSciences that they’ve received U. S. regulatory approvals for the Herculex RW rootworm protection trait in 2006.
Corn growers who have been fighting corn rootworms can now protect their corn with the Herculex® RW Rootworm Protection trait in 2006.
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., and Dow AgroSciences LLC, the trait’s developers, recently received confirmation that Herculex RW has received full food and feed approvals within the United States. Kyle Whitaker, New Product Launch Manager for Pioneer Hi-Bred, says Herculex RW will give corn growers expanded options for in-the-seed protection against corn rootworm. Full Release
Cotton growers got some good news from Syngenta today. To announce it they used our Talking News Release service.
First Seed Treatment Nematicide For Cotton Now Available For Purchase
For the first time ever, cotton growers will be able to use a convenient and innovative option to control nematodes, insects and diseases. AVICTA™ Complete Pak, a groundbreaking seed-delivered technology to combat all early-season cotton pests, is now available for the 2006 planting season. A combination of three separately registered products: AVICTA seed treatment nematicide, Cruiser® seed treatment insecticide and Dynasty CST® seed-delivered fungicide, AVICTA Complete Pak offers cotton growers complete early-season protection to ensure better root development and, in turn, a more vigorous crop with improved return on investment. Full Release
What kind of public relations people would we be if we didn’t do a talking news release about our own project eh? So of course we sent one out on World Dairy Diary, our very own farm show blog and the “Official blog of World Dairy Expo.” I’ll be posting here on AgWired from Expo next week but you can already see and hear plenty on World Dairy Diary!
“World Dairy Diary” will be keeping Expo attendees and non-attendees alike informed about the activities at the event October 4-8 in Madison, WI. The official blog of the World Dairy Expo at www.wdexpo.org is being sponsored by No-Bull Enterprises, Holstein Association USA, and the Qualisoy initiative.
“Look for commentary, pictures, audio and much more on World Dairy Diary before, during and after the Expo,” said blog manager Chuck Zimmerman of ZimmComm, Marketing and Communications. “I’ll be there for the entire event, covering all aspects of the expo.” Full Release
When it was time to get the word out this week about a Missouri Beef Industry Council-sponsored Chili Cookoff to benefit a regional food bank the obvious thing to do was send out a Talking News Release!
(Columbia, MO) Callling all chili chefs! The Central Missouri Food Bank will benefit from a Chef’s Chili Challenge to be held October 6, 2005 from 5:00-8:00 pm at the Holiday Inn Select in Columbia, Missouri. Enter your favorite chili recipe to win while helping this great charity. Full Release
Just last week I told you about this contest being run by the Holstein Association and this week we helped them promote it by sending out a Talking News Release! Here’s your chance to hear Lisa Perrin. She did a good job don’t you think?
BRATTLEBORO, Vt., September 21, 2005— World Dairy Expo 2005 is just around the corner and Holstein Association USA, Inc. is inviting everyone who attends the expo to stop by their booth and meet the “Holstein Association Member of the Day” and get a free copy of the 2006 Holstein Association calendar.
Holstein Association Communications Manager, Lisa Perrin says they are excited to be featuring their own members as part of the exhibit this year to tell their own stories. Full Release
During food safety month the Missouri Beef Industry Council decided to do a series of releases on the subject to highlight their efforts in this area. Here’s number two in a 3-part series, featuring food safety research funded by MBIC checkoff dollars.
You can download the release here: MBIC Food Safety Release (Word doc)
Missouri is the first state to apply for a Quality Systems Assessment (QSA) program and MFA Incorporated’s Healthtrack program allows a producer to participate. To let them know MFA sent out a Talking News Release.
The Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) is currently developing a Quality Systems Assessment (QSA) program that will allow producers to sell source and age verified cattle with third party verification through branded programs such as MFA’s HealthTrack Program, according to Mike John, Director of Beef Marketing for MFA, Incorporated.
“The QSA program is a tool that USDA has provided to the industry to comply with the beef export verification program. And this particular QSA will involve source and age of feeder cattle. So the system that is in place has to be designed such that it gives USDA confidence in proclaiming that they guarantee that the animals are so source and age verified.”
Download Full Release
September is food safety month and the Missouri Beef Industry Council is making sure people know about it. They’re producing a series of talking news releases on the subject. This first in the series features MBIC director of consumer information, Alane Lidolph, who provides guidelines to make sure you cook safe.
You can download the release here: MBIC Food Safety Release (Word doc)
The latest news from Vermeer Manufacturing Company was sent out today in the form of a Talking News Release. With all the increase in ethanol use there’s more pressure to bale cornstalks. So the company offers some ideas on how to handle the challenges this creates especially for equipment.
You can see the release here (Word doc).
This isn’t new news to many of you but we post all Talking News Releases that our company produces and add them to our RSS feed. Today we publicly began promoting “World Dairy Diary,” the official weblog of the World Dairy Expo. Since it’s a TNR it includes links to sound bites. We distributed to our list of ag journalists (print & broadcast) here and internationally as well as our national database of radio station reporters and through PR Web. Feel free to check it out. BTW, sponsorships are currently available.
WORLD DAIRY EXPO BLOG SITE TO PROVIDE UP-TO-THE-MINUTE EXPO INFORMATION
(Holts Summit, MO) The 2005 World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin is reaching out to the global community with an on-line daily information source to provide the latest news and promotional materials about the event and the dairy industry.
“World Dairy Diary” at www.wdexpo.org was created and is being maintained by ZimmComm, an internet communications company based in Missouri. President Chuck Zimmerman explained that Expo officials were looking for a new way to get information out to people about the event.
“World Dairy Diary” is what has become known as a web log, or blog,” Zimmerman said. “Since a blog is just simply a website that is easy to update, it is getting more popular as a communications tool to provide information, pictures, audio and even video on an immediate basis.” (full release) Word document
For more information contact me! That’s Chuck Zimmerman.
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