During the recent Ag Media Summit my friends at Gibbs & Soell conducted an “Ag Industry Pulse Check: Use of Digital and Social Media.” It’s a survey of attendees to gauge their feedback on the subject. To learn about the results I spoke with Gardner Hatch, who you can contact to get the full story.

It was very interesting to note that although over 94% expressed high levels of confidence with proposing the use of digital and social media, a high number (39.7%) said their top challenge was “unclear ROI to justify efforts.” So although they like and are comfortable with new media options they aren’t clear how to justify them. I think it’s interesting since these social media mechanisms are so “measurable.” However, there seems to me to be a lingering fear and or distrust of using measurements that don’t include all of a person’s demographic data. As if somehow, the visitors to a blog on agriculture aren’t farmers. Of course, some may not be but on the other hand why would you not think that visitors to a topical blog are involved or at least very interested in the subject?

Gibbs & Soell also had a drawing at the Ag Media Summit for a new iPod touch. The winner is Bob Callanan, American Soybean Association.

So, listen to my conversation with Gardner as he reviews the results of the survey and we discuss what they mean.

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