Are you as tired of the “Top Ten . . . ” lists popping up everywhere as I am? Yeah. I thought so.
But a conversation last night over the future of ag communications prompted me to put together a list of AgWired posts during 2008 that all relate to where things are going in communications today and that goes for agricultural communications. If you still think farmers are somehow different than “normal” people then you haven’t spent any time with a bunch of farmers. I know I have this year. Some of them are ahead of me when it comes to online communications! So here’s a list of some topics/posts that might be worth a review if you’re trying to come to grips with the change that is happening (whether you like it or not).
1. A YouTube Justification: Now you can even load high definition video and it’s still free. Why wouldn’t you go where your customers and members are?
2. iPhone: It’s not just a phone, it’s a “platform.” And the others are playing catch up. Just this morning we discussed blogging an event with just this one device. I’m tempted to try it. It’s a step toward complete mobile communications freedom.
3. Social Networking: We’ve always done it. We’re just doing it online now.
4. Twitter: With Twitter and all its related applications this has become a monster of an information delivery system.
5. Internet Continues To Grow As News Source: Only television ranks higher now.
6. More Media Fragmentation and Diminished Importance of Reach: If you’re still using old school measurement standards then you may be wasting a lot of money.
7. Some Social Media Wisdom: It’s not about lots of eyeballs it’s about the right set of eyeballs.
8. Survey of Rural Lifestylers: Or Ruralpolitans or whatever you want to call them. They’re online and searching for information.
9. New Media On The Minds of Marketing Officers: And it should not only be on your mind but you should be a part of the conversation.
10. Online Faster and Older: The myth that it’s all about young people is just that, a myth.
11. Texting For Farm Information: They’re doing it in places like the Phillipines!
12. The Growing Business of Blogs: That growth is driven by the niche orientation of blog content. The very thing that some think is a weakness (not).
13. Blogging/Podcasting Exploding: And this study finds that people think more positively about a company that blogs.
14. AgWired Mobile and AgWired Live TV: Texting is becoming more important as a way to distribute information and we can “broadcast” live from just about anywhere.
15. Podcast Audience Grows Significantly: Like as in 40% growth.
16. Go With NewsGator and Keep Up: This is about getting your rss feeds on your phone. We’re carrying our news and information around with us now. As an update to it you can now get them on your iPhone with the NetNewsWire app.