Podcast Audience Grows

Chuck Zimmerman

eMarketer GraphicAccording to a new report from the PEW Internet and American Life Project the number of people who have downloaded a podcast is growing. Quite quickly it seems to me. This graphic is from eMarketer.com where I saw the report first.

Some 12% of internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time. This finding compares to the 7% of internet users who reported podcast downloading in our February-April 2006 survey.

According to their February-April survey 20% of American adults own an iPod or other MP3 player and 26% of all internet users.

The report also says that people aren’t downloading podcasts on a regular basis. I’m not sure about the significance of that. I’m a pretty prolific podcast downloader and I don’t do it regularly. I crank up iTunes whenever I think of it and let it download all the latest to my iPod. I just don’t do it on any kind of regular schedule. However, I still get all the episodes I want of the programs I subscribe to.

I just thought you might want to know.

Podcasts

Monsanto News

Chuck Zimmerman

Yieldgard Plus Stress PlotThis picture is of Monsanto Yieldgard Plus corn at a stress plot in Iowa. It helps you visualize the following from their latest release. I like it when companies include images with their releases. A little audio never hurts either!

A moisture utilization study conducted by Monsanto this season has provided a unique look at how YieldGard® Plus Corn roots are able to effectively absorb subsoil moisture under dry conditions. The study involved placement of 60 moisture probes at five different locations across the Corn Belt to compare the root performance of YieldGard Plus plants with YieldGard Corn Borer hybrids protected by soil-applied insecticides. The probes, extending five feet underground, were in place from mid-June through September, providing data every 15 minutes on relative water density at different soil depths. Based on these readings during the growing season, root depth and water absorption could be monitored.

According to Clint Pilcher, Monsanto Corn Technology Development Manager, test results demonstrated that YieldGard Plus hybrids, with in-plant rootworm control, developed longer, healthier roots than soil insecticide-protected corn, which in turn resulted in significantly better moisture uptake. The Monsanto probes were part of a “stress mitigation” study during the 2006 season, demonstrating how YieldGard Plus is able to help reduce the stress of dry weather on corn plants. Most of the moisture probes were placed in Monsanto stress mitigation plots, which were grown under 40-foot by 50-foot tents with a clear vinyl top that allowed the corn plants to receive sunlight but not rain. Under these simulated dry conditions, YieldGard Plus corn hybrids achieved a 31.2 bushel-per-acre yield advantage over soil-insecticide protected corn.
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Agribusiness

Get Your infOpinions Here

Chuck Zimmerman

infOpinions?One of the first people I spoke with after we started ZimmComm was Robert French who is an instructor of Public Relations, Marcom, CMS, Blogs, Education and New PR at the University of Auburn. Robert had some advice about our Talking News Release idea and the blogging and podcasting. He’s a guy who knows his new media. In fact I hope you’re a regular reader of infOpinions?.

I guess he keeps an eye on the agriblogger and just wrote a very nice post about what we’re doing. Thanks Robert.

AgWired is a site I’ve been impressed with for some time now. It is the brainchild of Chuck and Cindy Zimmerman. They had this funny idea about “Talking News Releases.”, long since renamed to AgWired or the ZimmCast podcast. I first wrote about the site in December 2004.

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Not Snowed In

Chuck Zimmerman

Snow at HomeWell we’ll be fully clear once the country truck/plow gets done since he just showed up. At least we’ve got power. I just spoke to Mike Wilson in Illinois and they have no power. That can get old real fast.

My arms are like jelly after working with my youngest daughter for a number of hours today to get our driveway to look like this. Thanks go to my neighbor who got his 4-wheeler going with a front plow and helped with the last several feet. Please tell Cindy I need to have one of those!

This was a wild and wooly winter storm. Around midnight I woke up to major thunder and lightning. If you’ve never seen lighting in the middle of a snow storm you’re missing a wild sight. Earlier this week at the gym a guy was saying how we needed snow because it’s been so dry. It proves that you’ve got to be careful of what you wish for.

If you’d like to see more pictures from the Missouri Snow Storm you can find them in my Flickr Photo Album.

I’m done for the day.

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Hit My Page View or Flickr Photo or YouTube Video

Chuck Zimmerman

In one of his latest posts on Micro Persuasion, Steve Rubel writes about the end of the “page view” metric as a tool to evaluate online media value. I think he’s right on the money. Technology is changing so fast that it’s going to be interesting to see how we evaluate things in coming years. He’s giving the page view about 4 more years of life.

Remember when everyone bragged about how many “hits” their website had? Well, actually there still are people bragging about it. Most of us know that it’s not a very good metric anymore. I guess pretty soon page views will go the same way.

In case you’re interested though, AgWired hit a couple of new milestones in November. We had over 103,000 page views.

And just so you know. We had over 258,000 hits.

Just to add a little extra to your thought process consider this too. I have over 3,600 pictures in my Flickr account. These are arranged in sets, mostly by event where they were taken. I’ve had almost 20,000 picture views in there. I can tell how many times each picture has been viewed too. They’re all tagged and public. So, when I take pictures while I’m out and about keep in mind that it may not just be the post on AgWired where people see the picture!

And we can’t forget YouTube can we? I’ve only just started working with it. I’ve got 4 videos in there but they’ve been viewed 900 times collectively.

Oh, wait. There’s one more thing. I just Googled for the keyword “AgWired” and got 61,100 results.

I think that’s enough measurement for one day.

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They Speak To Ag

Chuck Zimmerman

Ag SpeakHere’s an interesting concept. A company to do online market research of farmers that’s owned by farmers. I’ve got an appointment to speak with Steve Hawkins tomorrow and will bring you that interview in next week’s ZimmCast.

The first and only online market research company owned in part by farmers has been formed. AgSpeak was spearheaded by a group of ag business professionals seeking a better way to enable agricultural suppliers to get accurate information to make sound business decisions, while also fairly compensating farmers for the information they share.

“The concept of AgSpeak was driven by the need for businesses that serve the agricultural community to connect with key decision makers and for farmers, in-turn, to receive fair value for the information they share,” said Steve M. Hawkins, president of AgSpeak. AgSpeak gives farmers a voice and ownership of the information they share, Hawkins said. Read More

Agribusiness

Evan Slack is Online

Chuck Zimmerman

Evan Slack NetworkI guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. Evan Slack is advertising his new website here on AgWired and just sent out an announcement about it.

Feel free to give him a little love and encouragement. He’s got a blog we set up for him and he’s using it as the mechanism to deliver his programs to his affiliate radio stations in 9 states.

He included a personal message too. If you’re a radio man then use audio right? Right.

Message From Evan: evan-slack-announcement.mp3

Audio, Media

Rhea & Kaiser Add Three

Chuck Zimmerman

Rhea & KaiserThere’s a new trio of public relations staff on board at Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications. The are Rhonda Brooks, Julia Goebel and Amy McEvoy.

Rhonda BrooksBrooks, who joins Rhea & Kaiser as an account supervisor, has more than 20 years of agribusiness communications experience. Prior to joining Rhea & Kaiser, Brooks was a contract freelancer working with clients, including BASF, DuPont, Pfizer Animal Health and The Iams Company. Her work has been published in Farm Industry News and Progressive Farmer magazines. Brooks holds a degree from the University of Missouri–Columbia.

Julia GoebelGoebel joins the Bayer CropScience corn and soybean team as senior account executive. She’ll manage the development of public relations programs and oversee the development and execution of integrated communication plans. Most recently, Goebel led the Pfizer Animal Health swine team at Rhea & Kaiser. Goebel is a graduate of the University of Missouri–Columbia.

Amy McEvoyMcEvoy, a five-year veteran of Rhea & Kaiser, returns to the agency as public relations account supervisor, on the Underwriters Laboratories account. McEvoy first joined Rhea & Kaiser in 2001 working on the Bayer CropScience corn and soybean team. Prior to joining Rhea & Kaiser, she was with agencies in Kansas City, Mo. and Des Moines, Iowa. McEvoy is a graduate of Iowa State University.

“I’m confident Rhea & Kaiser’s clients will benefit from the experience and knowledge of Julia, Amy and Rhonda,” said Deron Johnson, Rhea & Kaiser’s director of public relations. “Individually and collectively, they are great additions to our public relations group.”

Agencies

Snowed In

Chuck Zimmerman

Snow at HomeEverything seems to take longer when you’ve got 16 inches of snow on top of about an inch of ice.

This is a picture from my front yard this morning. We live on the top of a hill so the bottom of the hill neighbors usually park on the street out front in the hopes that it’ll make it easier for them to get out. It didn’t make any difference with this storm.

This is the largest snowfall I’ve been in here in Missouri since January of 1995. This is more snow than the last 3 winters combined I think. Now the question is, “When will they plow the road?”

Fortunately we have power and internet access. What more do you need?

Uncategorized

He’s The Mouth of the South

Chuck Zimmerman

Mouth of the SouthThere are a lot of ways that bloggers receive a pitch and I agree with John Scalzi that there’s a right and a wrong way. I thought this one from Gary Claxton’s PR person was okay. It was personal, short and to the point.

He would love to speak and entertain at any of your agricultural meetings and conventions. Check out Gary’s website at www.mouthofsouthgc.com and listen to some of his humorous stories.. Gary entertains at a lot of Young Farmer and FFA conventions and banquets and many other agricultural events, such as the Corn Growers Association, the National RC&D convention, the GA Soil & Water Conservation, the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association, and the Florida Farm Bureau Convention. He has appeared on shows such as the Grand Ole Opry and other national shows. Gary also stars in his own television show titled “The Mouth of the South Show”. He writes a monthly humorist column for the Georgia Outdoor Magazine. Gary has been a guest on several television shows. He is also a hobby farmer. If you are interested, please write back as soon as possible. You can email him at southmouth22@aol.com or call his office at 1-888-465-0438.

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