Social Media Use In Business Up Significantly

Chuck Zimmerman

center-marketing-researchFor the third year in a row the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has conducted an in-depth and statistically significant study on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations. The study is titled, “Social Media in the 2009 Inc. 500: New Tools & New Trends.” I’m guessing agribusiness companies will follow this trend and it is a real trend since they now have good comparative data over several years. Here’s an excerpt from their report:

Social networking continues to lead the way. The technology that continues to be the most familiar to the Inc. 500 is social networking with 75% of respondents in 2009 claiming to be “very familiar with it” (compared to 57% in 2008). Another noteworthy statistic around familiarity is Twitter’s amazing “share of mind” with sixty-two percent of executives reported being familiar with the new microblogging and social networking platform.

The adoption curves for different social media technologies are not all the same.
Interestingly, while social networking and blogging have enjoyed growth in actual adoption, the use of message boards, online video, wikis and podcasting has leveled off or declined. The addition of Twitter (considered by respondents to be both a microblogging site and a social networking site) in the latest study shows that an amazing 52% of the Inc. 500 companies are already using this tool for their business.

Regardless of the particular technology, social media matters and is here to stay.
Forty-three percent of the 2009 Inc. 500 reported social media was “very important” to their business/marketing strategy. And an incredible 91% of the Inc. 500 is using at least one social media tool in 2009 (up from 77% in 2008). In addition, as they ramp up their usage, the Inc. 500 companies are also seeking to protect themselves legally, with 36% having implemented a formal policy concerning blogging by their employees.

Thanks to Podcasting News for the heads up.

Media, Podcasts, Social Networking

FarmConnect.net

Chuck Zimmerman

farm-connectLet’s end the year with something new. FarmConnect.net. It’s a new social networking site created “by farmers for farmers.” The farmers are Mike and Laura Murphy who own a small family farm in South West Michigan and raise beef and lamb on pasture. The old saying goes, you should find a way to make your passion your work, and FarmConnect.net is just that. Mike previously taught E-Commerce at the Illinois Institute of Technology, so FarmConnect.net was the perfect way to combine his passions for farming and Web technology.

FarmConnect.net allows you the option of signing up for your own blog, creating your own groups and discussion forums (either public, private, or hidden) to help spread the word about agriculture to your families, friends, and communities.

If you use Twitter, you will love FarmConnect.net, because it gives you so much more room to say what you want to say than that little box!

Look forward to seeing you on FarmConnect.net

Social Networking

Headline Harvest Report from Kankakee

Cindy Zimmerman

Who would have thought we would still be doing BASF Headline Harvest reports the last week of the year?

BASF headline harvest ron hansenThis week we traveled to northern Illinois where there is still lots of corn in the fields and lots of flooded areas due to the extremely wet fall. I talked with Ron Hansen of Kankakee, who still has about 300 acres to combine, but he says it is still standing pretty well, despite a storm that blew through last week with 40 mph winds. It helped him see a side by side comparison of how Headline helped with standability in this late year. “We had a check on one field and that check was 100 percent down from end to end, and where the Headline was there were spots it was down but it was not down at the root, where as with the check it was,” Ron told me.

Ron says the weather this year has just been “nuts.” “With the cool summer, it’s done some things that I’ve never seen in my lifetime, like not maturing the corn and beans like normal so we are caught with this real late wet corn – but we are having good yields.”

As to when he will get the rest of his crop out of the field, Ron said he just doesn’t know. “I’ve harvested at Christmas, I’ve never harvested at New Year’s,” he said.

Watch the video interview and listen to or download the audio of my interview with Ron below.

Audio, BASF, Corn, Video

Corn in the Snow

Cindy Zimmerman

cornThe final USDA crop progress report on this year’s harvest released last week showed that 95 percent of the nation’s corn crop was finally harvested, just a few days before Christmas. Illinois was on par with the national total, reporting five percent of the crop left in the field.

I saw some of that corn this week during a visit to northern Illinois, around Kankakee and St. Anne. Some of it is still standing well, but some of it got hit pretty hard by a storm that blew in last week with up to 40 mile an hour winds.

cornThese photos are two different fields I saw along the road between Cullom and St. Anne that showed a pretty stark contrast in standability. No idea of who the farmers are who own those fields, what varieties they planted or plant health products they used, but I’d say the farmer with the field in the left photo has a better chance of salvaging a decent crop, whenever that may be.

The states still running the farthest behind in corn harvest are North and South Dakota and Wisconsin. All three were still below 90 percent complete in the final USDA report last week. That final report, by the way, was two weeks later than USDA ever issued fall harvest progress reports.

Corn, USDA

New From John Deere

Chuck Zimmerman

Matthew ArnoldTo tell us what’s new with John Deere I spoke to Matthew Arnold, Sr. Marketing Representative. Matthew was attending the NAFB Trade Talk to discuss the new 8R and 8RT tractors. These tractors range in horsepower from 225 to 345 with larger cabs and more fuel efficient engines. They also have a new suspension system on the 8RT Track models.

The new tractors were introduced to dealers in August and Matthew says the response has been great. The new cab is a feature that has really caught people’s attention since with the redesign the operator can swivel in the seat and have all the tractor’s command controls move with him.

You can listen to my interview with Matthew below:

See more NAFB and NAMA Trends photos here.

Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, John Deere, NAFB, Tractor

Chicago Farmers Thoughts On Social Media

Chuck Zimmerman

chic-farmers-fair-10I’m going to be talking about social media and networking at the upcoming Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair. But before getting there I talked about it with Rich Schell, SchellAcres.com, who is a member and committee organizer for the fair. He’s also an Attorney, Author & Agri-preneur, Wagner & Schell, LLP.

Rich says that since the purpose of the Fair is to communicate, they see social media mechanisms as just a new channel to communicate with people interested in farmland and specifically investing. That’s why I’ve helped them create a Chicago Farmers Twitter account and will be assisting with online coverage of the Fair in addition to presenting a session on social media. Rich sees the target audience for the Fair busy on their Blackberry’s and he thinks they’re pretty savvy when it comes to using the internet. My session will help those who haven’t started with social networks and want to.

Please feel free to listen in on my conversation with Rich below:

Ag Groups, Audio

AgChat Wrap

Chuck Zimmerman

AgChatWe had a great holiday week AgChat last night. Thanks to everyone who participated and made my life easy as the guest moderator. Our topic was climate change and there was no lack of opinions on the subject as it relates to agriculture. I would characterize most of the comments to the following questions as being skeptical about the science behind the modeling and policies being proposed and many even questioning the necessity of any legislation dealing with the issue. Perhaps our U.S. Senate has realized that there are way too many questions that need to be answered before creating a massive tax scheme and new bureaucratic nightmare for us to deal with since they’ve put Crap & Trade on a back burner. Too bad the House didn’t do the same.

So, although many seem to agree that we don’t need C&T and that there is too much scientific disagreement on the issue I think most are okay with continued or new research on climate change. From new research we can learn more about weather patterns, find new genes to make plants and animals more adaptable to changing conditions and maybe even new practices that will make farming more profitable.

You can scroll back through the online conversation using Twitter Search. You can also participate with AgChat via Facebook too.

Here are the questions posed in this weeks’ (final AgChat of the year/decade!) session:

Q1: via @lenejohansen Are farmers concerned about climate change and how will Cap&Trade impact the farm economy?

Q2: via @RandolphWriter Is ag better off with C&T that has potential upside for some income, or w/ direct regulation from EPA?

Q3: via @cornguy What are the potential competitive consequences if the U.S. pursues an aggressive C&T agenda and other key players stay on the sideline? via@cornguy

Q4: via @danielschel How can climate change research benefit agriculture?

Q5: via @AFBFMace Are you more concerned about added regulatory costs or climate changes that might impact production?

Q6: via @AgriBlogger What did American ag learn from the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference?

Q7: via @mpaynknoper How do we translate the science in a way that helps people understand more than the politics of climate change?

Q8: What are executable ideas we can take away from tonight’s chat?

Uncategorized

What’s New At Alltech

Chuck Zimmerman

AlltechWhat’s new with Alltech? That’s a good question and one I posed to Billy Frey at the NAFB Alltech Trade Talk booth recently.

According to Billy one of the things this year is the fact that crops are still in the fields and that means a greater chance of molds and mycotoxins. He says that one of their core competencies is being able to understand how they will affect feed and animal nutrition. He says they’ll continue doing new research, especially since they have their new Nutrigenomics Center. They have a number of new products in the pipeline.

I asked him how the World Equestrian Games are going since Alltech is the sponsor of the games in 2010. He says almost 200,000 tickets have already been sold and it’s going to be a great place for promoting the brand.

You can listen to my interview with Billy below:

Agribusiness, Alltech, Audio, NAFB

AgChat Tonight

Chuck Zimmerman

AgChatIt’s time for another AgChat and I’ll be your guest moderator this evening. AgChat takes place via Twitter from 7-9pm Central.

I’m choosing the topic of climate change since we just finished the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. If you’re an AgWired community regular you know I am more than a skeptic when it comes to man made climate change. I think there’s way too much disagreement in the scientific community to make any policy decisions on this issue. I’m all for doing what we can to be good stewards of our natural resources but I see this whole thing as a political power grab and social engineering experiment by people who wants things their way or no way. I think it’s immoral and criminal how many activist groups, politicians and others are employing scare tactics to feather their own nests. But, hey, that’s just my opinion.

I know you’ve got an opinion of your own and AgChat tonight will be an opportunity to present it and “chat” about it and how the issue affects farming and agriculture in general. Of course, what affects ag affects consumers so let’s keep that in mind.

There are a lot of different applications you can use to participate. Here are a few:

Twubs – Highly recommended. Just use your Twitter ID to login.
TweetChat – Usually works great for me.
Tweetie – For Mac or iPhone – My Twitter app of choice.
TweetDeck – Full featured for Mac/PC or iPhone.
Seesmic – For PC, Blackberry and Android.
Open Beak (formerly Twitterberry) – For Blackberry.
ÜberTwitter – For Blackberry.
Search Twitter – The Twitter search engine.

There are certainly more than these. If you’d like to share your favorite feel free to post it in comments.

See you in AgChat.

Uncategorized

NAFB Internet Usage Study

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 244The National Association of Farm Broadcasting recently released its latest Internet Usage Study. Cindy spoke with Ted Haller at their convention and I thought I’d have a chat with him about it too since the organization sent our a release on it last week. You can download a pdf with some of the key findings of the study on their website (pdf).

nafb-internet-usageThe survey explores producer activity and preferences in accessing the Internet for agricultural business information, as well as use of texting and social media. Specific to broadcaster interests, it also probes interest in e-newsletters and the preferred content of agribusiness-focused Web sites.

Among key findings noted by Haller in the new research:

  • the Internet is revealing “quintiles” of usage — a sign of what Haller calls “settling,” with indications of core usage in the low range of 20 percent and the high range of 50 percent, depending upon the specific online behavior/activity surveyed
  • those producers using the Internet are very active, for the most part, with e-mail, weather, markets, and futures the top draws
  • unlike other media, “what I do not do” is still a larger number than “what I do;” but the “I do’s” appear to be in normal quintiles and represent an attractive target

Agribusiness marketers and agencies interested in specific demographic detail or a customized presentation should contact Ted Haller at teddymedia@live.com. Association member broadcast organizations interested in learning more about how the NAFB Internet Usage Study© may benefit their cross-media programming strategies and local business development can contact Mike Parry at mike@nafb.com.

As you’ll hear Ted say in our conversation, traditional media options like radio will not go away. However, the use of the internet by farmers will only continue to grow and these numbers are proof of that. He also describes how useful the internet is now to companies with a limited budget and those who have a “big budget” and are now spreading it across more media options.

Thanks to AgWired Sponsor, Fluidigm, for their support of the ZimmCast.

You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast below.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our a Subscribe page.

Audio, Internet, Media, NAFB, Social Networking, ZimmCast