Happy Independence Day

Chuck Zimmerman

Happy 4th of JulyZimmComm New Media would like to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July celebration. I thought it would be a good opportunity to borrow some prose from Rick Tolman, NCGA, about energy independence and the role ethanol is playing. Here are some excerpts from his most recent Our View:

Another Fourth of July is upon us and as we prepare to celebrate this nation’s independence it is also a good time to reflect on our dangerous reliance of imported petroleum and ask what more we should we be doing to assure our energy independence.

This Independence Day we should be resolute and re-commit ourselves to making the right choices for America. We can pursue a strategic national initiative that will lead us to energy independence — and put America back in control of its destiny. We can start by looking for ethanol fuel at the pump. It is readily available as a 10 percent blend and E85 is becoming more common – as are the flexible-fuel vehicles that can utilize this clean-burning fuel.

Don’t be fooled by sensational headlines and pseudo-science funded by anti-ethanol factions. Ethanol continues to be as good an idea today as it has always been because of its contributions to our environment, energy security and economy.

Productivity on America’s farms is at an all time high and through technology and innovation farmers are growing five times more corn than they did in the 1930s on 20 percent less land. And this is being accomplished in a more sustainable way, with soil erosion cut more than 44 percent in the last 20 years and fertilizer used to grow a bushel of corn down 36 percent since 1980.

So, at the family barbecue or fireworks this weekend, tell your friends and family to do their part by using ethanol. Ask them to encourage their elected officials to continue to support using increased blends of this proven American fuel.

Ag Groups, Corn, Ethanol

Tricia Braid-Terry New Dir. of Comm. for IL Corn Growers

Chuck Zimmerman

Tricia and Hooters GirlsAccording to AgNews on Twitter (yes I’m reporting Twitter news), Tricia Braid-Terry is the new Director of Communications for Illinois Corn Growers. She’s much better looking than Mark Lambert her predecessor who is now with NCGA. I’ll bet Mark would like to be in this picture though. This is from when Tricia was in Guatemala the U. S. Grains Council.

We’ll be seeing her this weekend at the @farmerspice wedding. That would be Leah Guffey. I’m pretty sure there will be tweets and pics starting this evening. Should be a fun 4th of July!

Congratulations Tricia!

Ag Groups

Talking With The Twittering Farmer

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-225 - Twittering Farmers />I know that <a href=Steve Tucker had a busy day. Things can kind of get that way when you’ve been featured in a major news story by an outlet like CNN. This twittering farmer took the time to talk with me via Skype and his mobile phone this afternoon about what is actually a shared experience since yours truly was also quoted in the story. My hat is off to reporter John Sutter for doing a great job. He’s from Oklahoma so I guess he had a good background to draw on!

Steve’s Twitter followers have more than doubled today. He got a comment back from a non-farmer who said, “Keep us entertained for those of us for those of us who have to live our life in a cubicle.” As Steve puts it, “I walk out of my front yard and I’m in my office.” Here’s one of his tweets from today talking about the social aspect of what he’s doing, especially when he’s got time on the tractor:

Last year I would sit in my tractor and think, man I’m lonely. 2day I think, where is everyone going to fit in this cab?

I think that this is a great example of how social media/networking can help bridge the communication gap between farm and non farm.

By the way, Steve has a great view from the tractor.

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

Audio, Farming, Social Networking, ZimmCast

CNN Live With Steve Tucker

Chuck Zimmerman

Steve Tucker on CNN LiveI am so glad Steve Tucker tweeted that he was about to go live on CNN via Skype! I got on it and got a screenshot for you.

The Twittering Farmer just did a great job letting people have a little bit of insight into who produces their food.

Steve told ’em like it is. Up to 15 hours in a tractor can get a little lonely and boring but not with the communications tools of today. You can read all about it on CNN.com. How’s that for some social networking communications results? You can follow Steve on his blog.

Post Update: CNN has posted the full video of the interview with Steve Tucker:

Audio, Farming

CNN.com and The Twittering Farmer

Chuck Zimmerman

CNN.com has a nice story by John D. Sutter that covers how farmers are communicating today with their smartphones and Twitter. He spoke with my main man Steve Tucker, Nebraska farmer and Any Kleinschmidt, Ohio State University Extension Agriculture Educator and Assistant Professor and yours truly and also mentions AgChat. Here’s an excerpt:

As he rolls across the wheat fields of his Nebraska farm, Steve Tucker often has his hands not on the wheel of his tractor, but on a smartphone. Steve Tucker, a Twittering farmer, pauses in front of his tractor in Nebraska.

He sometimes posts a dozen messages per day on Twitter, commenting on everything from the weather to the state of his crops to his son’s first tractor ride and even last night’s cheeseburger.

He wants to bring urban Internet users along for the ride. And in doing so, he’s become a sort of text-happy evangelist for rural America.

I love the term, “twittering farmer.” We need more of them and there are a lot already. What’s your take on farmers using new social networking tools to communicate with each other and the general public?

Social Networking

YouTube As Your Home Page

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmComm YouTube StatsCould you use your YouTube channel as your website homepage? Of course you can. Take BooneOakley, a full-service ad agency in Charlotte, NC as an example.

Want to know about their agency? They’ve got a video for that. Want to know how to contact them? They’ve got a video for that. And so on. The videos have links in them to each other. I need to learn how to do that.

I’ve upgraded our YouTube channel to the new theme viewer and notice that you not only have email built in but you can now do posts in the Recent Activity section. This is really adding new and useful functionality to the site. The image here is from the Insight statistics that are now available to you which give you a lot of information about your video downloads including some basic demographic information. As an example, it shows that we’re getting about 500 views of our videos a day on average. That’s over the 267 videos we currently have archived.

Looks like you’ve now got another great option for starting your own website without a lot of $’s invested! Would you do it?

Inspiration via Smays.com.

Uncategorized

Growth Energy Growing eTeam

Cindy Zimmerman

Growth Energy is building a team from the grassroots to speak up for the ethanol industry.

Tom BuisCEO Tom Buis says they created the eTeam to be “an army of thousands of ethanol consumers and supporters who are willing to take action to spread the message that ethanol is a clean, green renewable fuel available today.”

Buis says they already have 1200 eTeam members signed up who are armed with factual ethanol information to comment on blog posts, write letters to the editor, speak to local organizations, participate in community events, and contact their state and national lawmakers about policy issues.

“Now’s the time we have to stand up in a proactive manner and go out and tell that good story,” Buis says. “Tell people that we’re a low carbon fuel, we emit less greenhouse gases than gasoline, tell them we create jobs and we are helping our nation address a problem that has existed for the past 35 years, that literally our economy and our nation are held over a barrel – an oil barrel.”

Growth Energy is reaching out to people in rural communities where ethanol has created jobs, to farmers, and to consumers who believe in the benefits of ethanol for the economy, the environment and energy security.

Sign up for the eTeam here.

Listen to or download my interview with Tom Buis about the eTeam here:

Audio, Ethanol

Some Sales & Training Days

Chuck Zimmerman

Dave LarsonI might have been a little “quiet” here the last two days but that’s what 760 miles of driving will do to you. This morning I had a brainstorming session with our sales guy Dave Larson, seen hard at work on his Eee PC. No way I was going to get out of a meeting without a picture. Many of you will be hearing from Dave in coming weeks. He’s looking forward to discussing how to promote your agency, clients, product, services, company using the ZimmComm News Network.

Yesterday I spent time in St. Joe, MO with Andrew McCrea, American Countryside and Tom Brand, KFEQ. We just finished building a new website for Andrew and I was doing a little training with them. Andrew has a daily radio program that he also offers in podcast form and Tom helps him with production.

I also had other meetings that included dinner with Joanna Schroeder, 4R Communications, last night and BCS Communications this afternoon. Joanna contributes to AgWired and our Domestic Fuel website. We’re providing her with some website support for two new ones for other clients of hers. At BCS we discussed the John Deere Drive Green Utility Tractor Show project which is coming to a close for now.

So, it’s been a busy time and tomorrow I’ll be off to the Missouri Beef Industry Council for advance blog and Twitter training.

ZimmComm Announcement

Michelle Rook Interviews President Obama

Cindy Zimmerman

President Barack Obama reached out to the farm media this week to promote his administration’s National Rural Tour.

Michelle RookDoing the honors of interviewing the president on behalf of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting was past president Michelle Rook of WNAX, Yankton, SD. Michelle was able to ask Obama about several agricultural issues in the ten minute interview, including renewable fuels, the climate change bill, whether farmers should be concerned about increasing regulations, and how the government might be able to help the livestock industry.

Vice President Joe Biden, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genakowski kicked off the “rural road trip” today in Pennsylvania, announcing $4 billion in loans and grants to bring broadband internet service to rural communities. Other stops are planned in Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. USDA has even launched a Rural Tour website and a Twitter feed for the tour.

Listen to Michelle’s interview with Obama here:

Audio, NAFB

Congratulations Colleen Callahan

Chuck Zimmerman

Colleen CallahanI just found out that good friend Colleen Callahan has been named State Director for Rural Development for Illinois.

“Colleen Callahan will be an important advocate on behalf of rural communities throughout the state and help administer the valuable programs and services provided by the USDA that can enhance their economic success,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Callahan is currently the President of Chicago Farmers and runs Colleen Callahan Communications, where she provides communications services to a variety of organizations, including the USDA. In 2008, Callahan was a candidate for the 18th congressional district of Illinois. She has extensive experience in broadcast radio producing segments on agricultural and agribusiness issues. Callahan was the first woman elected as President to the National Association of Farm Broadcasting in 2002, and has received many awards for her broadcast work and contributions to agricultural associations. Her family raises purebred Angus cattle on a family farm near Kickapoo, Illinois. Callahan has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Uncategorized