Public Relations Guidelines

Chuck Zimmerman

TOCAWhile browsing the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association website this morning I came across their PR/News Release Guidelines. This is worth a read for all you public relations professionals who I’m sure already know this. It’s always nice to have a reminder though. I wish more ag comm groups would do this.

Here’s some key points they make for marketers:

1. The news releases I distribute will be newsworthy. There’s a reason why this is number 1 on the list. Sending out news releases without a real news angle is kind of like saying the sky’s falling. Do it enough an editors won’t even look at your news releases anymore.

4. I will not call editors to confirm that a release has been received. I will also not call editors to ask when or if a news release will be published. They say this is the number one complaint of editors and I fully understand why. I may be in the news release distribution business but I’m also an editor and we just don’t have time for this. Sometimes there’s just no way to answer the second part of this question so you’ve at best wasted my time. When I get these calls I often feel like I’m being put on the spot and it’s very uncomfortable and not likely to put me in a “favorable” mood regarding the release.

5. I will not call editors to ask for clips of my published news release. This is because the editor often can’t and doesn’t have an easy way to do this and definitely doesn’t have time for it.

With our AgNewsWire.AgWired.com service we try to keep our database up to date so we’re sending to current email contacts at all the various broadcast, print and web outlets. We don’t and won’t call on editors to see if they got the release. We can tell how many open the email but we won’t report who. We often get asked how many “used” a release and there’s just no way for us to know that. I realize how important metrics are even in public relations but I think you hurt your public relations efforts if you push too hard for this data. Just keep in mind that editors can’t do your story if you don’t send it to them! One of the best things you can do is participate in the various agricultural communicator association meetings to develop good relationships with editors.

Public Relations

Some Ag Comm Annual Meetings

Chuck Zimmerman

  • Agricultural Relations Council: A Consumer-Driven Marketplace A look at the influences consumers have on the food and fiber industries – March 29-31, 2007.
  • North American Agricultural Journalists: The annual NAAJ meeting will be April 15-17 in Washington, D.C. The conference hotel will be the Holiday Inn-Capital. Rooms are $223/night. We have a small block reserved, so budget now. The number to call for reservations is 202-479-4000. Identify yourself as being with NAAJ, North American Agricultural Journalists. You must make reservations by March 15.
  • The Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association: Next Annual Meeting: May 1-May 3, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Savanna, GA.
ARC, Media, Public Relations

Behind The Scenes in Iraq Again

Chuck Zimmerman

Paul McKellipsYou know you’re in a wild place when you’re sharing a 256k satellite modem with a bunch of soldiers in the desert. That’s what Paul McKellips, Global Outreach Officer, US Embassy Baghdad, The Green Room – Public Affairs GO Team, is doing in Iraq to help get out the word about what’s really happening there, especially related to agriculture. He can’t send out an audio report but provided this text report for us. I think you’ll find it fascinating.

For the past 37 days – since the Super Bowl – I’ve been living at a Combat Outpost in Diyala Province, Iraq. The new Baghdad surge has driven many of the al Qaeda terrorists and Sunni insurgents into this area. I’m less than 3-miles away from Baritz and 8-miles from Ba’qubah. This is increasingly becoming “ground zero” for combat operations. COL. David Sutherland, Brigade Commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division invited me to come out here and launch an Iraqi radio and television station. I can assure you that I got a lot more than what I was bargaining for. Safety and security within our 40-acres has been excellent. But I can watch the IEDs explode on the roads all around us. Apache attack helicopters circle the area numerous times each day. But the 50 or so US Army soldiers who protect this facility – and me – are doing their jobs heroically. The conditions are horrible. There is no running water. No showers. No toilets. No phones. The Iraqi desert is not the place for a contact lens wearer. Every two days I warm up two water bottles in the morning sun and then take a shower behind one of the parked Bradley fighting vehicles. The outhouses have wooden plywood seats with cut-out garbage cans for catch-pans. Every morning a couple of soldiers get burn detail where they pour diesel fuel in the catch-pans and incinerate the waste. Read More

International

New Media Articles

Chuck Zimmerman

I’ve added a few new articles to my monthly new media column for the Jefferson City Business Times. You can find inks to all of them here in case you’re interested.

You may re-publish them if you provide credit to ZimmComm New Media as provided in the documents.

I hope they help answer some questions and raise others. Feel free to provide your feedback on any of them.

Uncategorized

Zimfo Bites

Chuck Zimmerman

  • New Economic Impact Study of U.S. Ag Equipment Industry – $82 Billion a Year, 250,000 Jobs. From the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.
  • FMC Corporation Acquires Exclusive Access to Sankyo Agro Fungicide. Under an agreement with Sankyo Agro, FMC has acquired the rights to develop, register, market, and sell both stand-alone and combination products containing simeconazole globally, except for several countries in Asia and the Middle East.
  • New Vaccines Offer L. Hardjo-Bovis Protection. Two new vaccines from Novartis Animal Health US, Inc. help prevent reproductive disease and failure caused by the most common leptospire found in U.S. herds – Lepto hardjo-bovis. ReproSTAR L5 HB and ReproSTAR VL5 HB contain an L. hardjo-bovis isolate that originates from a U.S. herd that was diagnosed with L. hardjo-bovis.
  • W.D. Farr Scholarship Ready for Applicants. Applications are being accepted for the W.D. Farr scholarship program, presented by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation (NCF). A $12,000 graduate scholarship will be awarded to each of two outstanding students pursuing graduate degrees in animal science, environmental science or agriculture. All applications must be postmarked by April 4, 2007.

Zimfo Bytes

Fungicide of the Year

Chuck Zimmerman

No-Till AwardsWow. Fungicide of the year. Now there’s an award you don’t hear about everyday. BASF wins this one with Headline.

Growers who follow conservation tillage practices have selected Headline® fungicide as fungicide of the year for effectively controlling disease in both no-tilled corn and soybeans, and for contributing to their reduced-tillage success last year. The 2006 No-Till Products of the Year were recently announced during the 15th Annual National No-Tillage Conference and published as the reader’s choice in Conservation Tillage Product Guide. In total, 114 products were nominated in seven different categories, including fungicides.

“BASF is honored that growers chose Headline as the fungicide of the year, and saw it as having the greatest impact on their success in 2006,” said Jerry Minore, market manager at BASF. “We are pleased to know that more growers are recognizing the value a planned application of Headline can make.”

Agribusiness, BASF

John Deere Pink

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-110 - John Deere at ClassicHere’s another post Commodity Classic ZimmCast for you. In this week’s program Cindy interviews John Deere’s Barry Nelson about how they’re marketing at Commodity Classic. Barry talks about the company being 170 years old and although he never would have thought it, they’re selling the logo on pink merchandise!

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 110 (9 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:

zimmcast110-3-12-07.mp3

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes.

Agribusiness, Audio, John Deere, ZimmCast

Get a Horse and a Halter

Chuck Zimmerman

BLM Horse ProgramI’m not sure how badly you want a halter but you can get a free one in Illinois if you’re willing to adopt a horse or a burro. It seems like a lot of effort just to get a halter.

The Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management-Eastern States (BLM-ES) will hold a Wild Horse and Burro Adoption at the Wild Horse and Burro Holding Facility in Ewing, Illinois on April 27-28, 2007. The adoption will be from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. on Friday, April 27, 2007 and Saturday, April 28, 2007 on a first come, first serve basis. All adopters at this event will receive a free halter. The facility is located 30 minutes from Mt. Vernon, Illinois just east of I-57 exit 77.

Adopters must provide their own stock-type, step-up trailer. BLM staff will sort, halter and load animals onto the adopters’ trailers. Applications to adopt may be screened in advance by mail or fax and will be reviewed in person starting Friday. Call early to be pre-approved before you attend to avoid waiting in the lines.

For applications, facility and trailer requirements or other information about this event, contact the Bureau of Land Management-Eastern States at 1- 800-370-3936 or visit the web site at: http://www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov/. Adopters’ applications must be approved by a Wild Horse and Burro Specialist prior to being eligible to adopt.

Uncategorized

Spring Wheat Yield Contest Winners

Chuck Zimmerman

SWYC WinnersNot that you may care but here’s my first photo that’s been edited with iPhoto and uploaded with Transmit3 from my Mac. I’m starting to get the hang of it. iPhoto just doesn’t let me fully format the image for the web though but it works don’t you think? These are the winners of the North Dakota Grain Growers Association, Spring Wheat Yield Contest. They would like to:

. . . congratulate Gary Heyerdahl, Griggs County (pictured left), Stuart & Katie Dilse, Slope County (pictured center) and Craig Dewald, Kidder County (pictured right) for winning in their district. Each took home a Honda Rancher 4X4 on March 8th and every participant who entered will be receiving a Carhart or Columbia jacket.

The winning variety from the west, NDSU’s Reeder was planted on pea ground using no-till and fertilized with Urea at 217 lbs per acre. The winning variety from central ND, AgriPro’s Knutson was planted on soybean ground with minimal till and fertilized with 60 lbs per acre of 1152 at seeding, and 140 lbs of Urea. The winning variety from the east, AgriPro’s Kelby was planted on pinto bean ground with conventional tillage and fertilized with 98 lbs of Anhydrous in the fall and 80 lbs of 1152 during seeding.

Ag Groups

Agriblogging Away

Chuck Zimmerman

Just two years ago when I mentioned blogs to people in agrimarketing I got blank looks or an amazing amount of skeptical comments. Since then our business has flourished and we’re seeing more and more adoption of new media channels in agricultural communications. I’ll be speaking on the subject at an ag journalism class in Columbia, MO on Tuesday. Colleges are realizing that their students need to know more about these mechanisms if they’re going to be prepared properly for the real world when they graduate. Companies of all kinds are also starting to get it.

I’ve been doing a little bit of office catch up this past week and realizing how far we’ve come already. For example, here’s a list of websites we’ve built for clients and in some cases continue to manage:

I think we may need to get beyond the fact that these are blogs and just consider them websites that can be updated easily and frequently, are highly search engine optimized, can be subscribed to and provide a direct channel of communication to customers who are searching for information and probably the thought leaders in their business.

Uncategorized