New media, social media, whatever. On August 6, I participated in the first Aggie Lance Social Media Tele-Seminar. Besides company President, Mark Jewell, I was joined by John Blue, Truffle Media Networks and Liza Markle, National FFA.
We had a lively discussion, talking about using new media in agricultural communications, including why you should be doing it now. You can download and listen to the Tele-Seminar with this link. (wma file) I’ve already discussed making these mp3’s btw.
Perhaps you’re still wondering if your company or organization should be getting involved in new media. One of our recommendations is to start participating yourself (Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog, YouTube) to become personally familiar with it. I just saw some interesting new data on how Inc. 500 companies are making use of social media. Here’s a chart comparing their use in 2007 (green) with 2008 (blue). You can click on the image to see a bigger version of it.
Research Highlights:
* Four out of five companies in the Inc 500 rate social media technology as important or very important;
* 21% of the companies are podcasting and 39% blogging;
* The number of companies blogging and podcasting has doubled in the last year;
* The Inc. 500 are adopting new media technologies much quicker than Fortune 500 companies.
The research suggests that companies that are using social media & new media technologies are growing faster than other companies.
The research was done by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. You can download the study, which I recommend.
Via Podcasting News.
Liza Teixeira is the new Public Relations Specialist for the 
One of the key people involved with the Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Seminar was Gary Robertson. He’s the brand manager for Ingelvac MycoFLEX. You can actually see him sitting in the back left part of this picture during the presentations.
A very important component of a swine herd management plan is nutrition. Boehringer Ingelheim’s Swine Health Seminar featured nutritional consultant, David Funderburke. He and his wife have their own business, working with large producers domestically and internationally.
You know that any company with national sales/technical support services looks at their folks as all “on the team.” According to Doug Nold (left), Boehringer Ingelheim has been team building.
Dr. John Kolb is a professional services veterinarian for Boehringer Ingelheim. He was on the program to talk about 
Tropical Storm Fay has certainly changed my plans this week. Instead of being in a plane on my way to Ft. Myers, FL for the Florida Citrus Expo, I’m staying home. The final word on the status of the event is pending the next forecast this morning but it doesn’t look good.
I’m seeing new media presentations on more and more programs these days and last week’s NAMA Boot Camp was no exception. Erin Holt, Media Supervisor, 
I asked her for an example of how they’ve used new media for a client and she used Pfizer Animal Health, equine division. The agency developed a desktop widget for customers called the 
In addition to pork producers, a number of veterinarians attended the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar. I spoke with Dr. Randy Jones who has been in practice in eastern North Carolina for 23 years. I first asked him if he thought his local BI Rep, Dan Johnson, was doing a good job and he said “He does a great job.” Dan has played a big role in putting this event on, along with a lot of other people and I would echo that.