How To and Not To Blog

Chuck Zimmerman

Yesterday I was working on my high school reunion blog and ran into a great example of how to use a blog. The background is that my hometown, Sarasota, FL was in the news because some homeless advocacy group voted it the meanest city in America. So I thought that would be good for a post on my reunion blog. As I did a quick Google search I found out that the City Manager of Sarasota has a blog and he had already written about the story. Great application and in looking at his blog, here’s a guy who gets it! Not only did he respond to a national story quickly but personally for anyone to read. This is open communication that doesn’t depend on how or if the media uses it. There’s a world of application of blogging like this in the agricultural world.

For example, let’s say that someone at the executive level at Diamond Pet Foods was blogging. It would have provided them with a great outlet to deal personally with the national level story that’s been running over the pets who have been poisoned by dog food containing aflatoxin. Instead they’ve done the “traditional” thing. They issued a news release and created a nice looking but pretty “corporate” website for the issue. It’s interesting that if you type their corporate website url into your browser they’ve got it automatically re-directing you to this “Recall Information” site. Then you can’t see their home site without a little work. Once you get to the home site in their news section is a “Customer Alert” which has a title of “Media Statement.” Is that for the media or is it meant to be a personal statement to their customers? If it’s the latter, it doesn’t come across as very personal. It’s not signed by any staff person and doesn’t provide a way to contact them. A blog would accomplish so much more. Their customers would be reading the personal statements of management who could be communicating frequently as this issue unfolds. It would allow those customers to give feedback and at least feel like they had an outlet for their emotion. This isn’t a story that’s going away quickly I’m afraid. On Friday I was speaking with someone on the phone who brought it up and made it clear how he would feel if it had been his pet that got sick or died. If you Google on the topic you’ll even find an attorney who’s advertising a site for people who want to sue the company!

Although I think Diamond Pet Foods could benefit from blogging they would still have to have someone who is capable and willing to do it. I am consulting with a number of companies and organizations about blogging and it’s the first thing that needs to be considered. What you don’t want is to create a blog and then not post anything. For example, I was thrilled to see that the National Association of Wheat Growers had started the NAWG Blog “Commentary by NAWG President Sherman Reese.” However, the last post showing is from August 4, 2005. In fact, there’s only 3 posts on the blog. Not good. There’s been so many things that could have been written about on the site like, personal comments about trade, travel, staff changes, the upcoming grain congress, etc. I’ve got to believe the members want to know what the CEO thinks and what he’s doing.

Blogging isn’t for everyone but it is a very effective communications tool in today’s web world and that includes the business of agriculture. Do you have plans to blog? Do you want to find out more about how it works? If so, please let me know and I’ll be happy to share what I’ve learned in over a year of doing it!

Ag Groups, Agribusiness

Play Combine Combat

Chuck Zimmerman

Combine CombatI hope Cindy doesn’t read this post since it’s about a new online computer game (she plays them all the time!) called Combine Combat. It’s created by Successful Farming and John Deere. I played through all 4 levels. My first time final score was 407,494. How’s that stack up against your score? I can see in there user forum that a couple people have gotten higher that 600,000. I wonder who’s tops.

The game lets you pit yourself against your “rowdy” neighbor to see who can harvest the most corn and soybeans in a race against the weather, the markets and time. It’s fun, exciting and it’s drawing a lot of attention. The game is simple. Participants steer their combine with the arrow keys on their keyboard, trying to outpace their “rival” while avoiding various obstacles, including combine collisions. Collecting John Deere icons and featured items can boost speed and add bonus points. There are four levels of play, with total acres harvested, harvest yields and time in field, plus bonus points, contributing to a players net harvest profit. “We approached Successful Farming and said ‘We have some marketing goals, can you help us achieve them,’ ” said David Pauli, John Deere Advertising Creative Group Manager. “They came back to us with Combine Combat, which we felt was an exciting and very creative solution to our marketing challenge.”

In the first week of the game, the site monitored more than 17,000 plays. “People are already talking about their scores on our discussion sites”, Snyder said. “We’ve even got one guy who says he hit $600,000, which we didn’t think was possible.”

They claim the game is addicting. What do you think? In fact, what do you think about the idea of an online game as part of a marketing effort for a company like John Deere?

Agribusiness, Internet, Publication

Being A Carnivore is Healthy

Chuck Zimmerman

The Healthy CarnivoreMaybe I’ve been hitting the keyboard too hard today but I’m getting hungry and this story isn’t helping things. I believe in meat as a part of a healthy diet so when I see a company with a name like The Healthy Carnivore my interest is peaked.

The natural meats e-tailer will take on the local butcher and mail order companies such as Omaha Steaks in an effort to change the way consumers think about and purchase meat. With its premium, all-natural, artisan-cut meats, including beef, chicken, pork and lamb, The Healthy Carnivore makes delicious natural meats available to anyone at anytime — for gift-giving and daily consumption. The Healthy Carnivore’s cut-to-order, free-range, grain-fed meats rival the taste and quality of other first-rate brands, but contain no hormones, antibiotics, or animal by-products. The Healthy Carnivore provides a sensible and delicious alternative to the grocer’s meat case and traditional mail-order catalogs. The Healthy Carnivore offers next-day delivery; fresh-frozen and beautifully presented.

I think it’s interesting to see that the company “was established in 2005, as a collaboration between Ken McLaughlin, a Web designer, health enthusiast and meat lover, and Jobbers Meat Packing, a renowned, 27-year-old packing and distribution company.” Ken sounds like my kind of guy!

Agribusiness

Wichita Residents Embrace Ethanol

Chuck Zimmerman

Ethanol Promotion and Information CouncilThe Ethanol Promotion and Information Council has some promotion results to be proud of. This relatively new organization headed by Tom Slunecka just moved their offices to Omaha, NE. That hasn’t slowed them down any. The results of their promotional campaign in Wichita were just released today in the form of a Talking News Release on AgNewsWire.AgWired.com.

OMAHA, NE. (January 13, 2006 – AgNewsWire.AgWired.com) – Wichita, Kansas residents turned to ethanol-enriched fuel in record numbers this fall, according to recently released market data from a partnership promotion between Kwik Shop stores and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC).

According to Tom Slunecka (suh-Len-icka), EPIC executive director, the promotion first started by giving ethanol information to key leaders within the city, such as mechanics, auto dealers, politicians and community leaders. The information explained why ethanol is important to the city and how it would work in their automobiles and how it would clean the air. “This program was far more than just an advertising campaign, it was an integral part of the thought process within that town about how to maximize their economics from a regional basis as well as how to help their air quality there within their city.” (:16 ) (Download MP3 File epic-wichita-slunecka-cut3 (Full Release) (Word Doc)

Ag Groups, Audio, Ethanol

Technology Updates On Growing Point

Chuck Zimmerman

Pioneer's Growing Point WebsiteI just love it when an agribusiness site uses audio (and promotes it). That’s why it’s worth noting that the Pioneer, Growing Point, website has new audio file. I’m going to use their link to one so you can hear what it sounds like. This one is a technology update on “gene shuffling” by Bart Baudler.

You’ll need to subscribe to get into the Growing Point website if you haven’t already.

Agribusiness, Audio

Who’s Listening To Podcasts

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s an interesting story on eMarketer on podcasting (via Sundog). They have a nice graph showing how there were only 1 million radio listeners who downloaded a podcast in 2004, 5 million in 2005 and it’s projected to be 9.3 million in 2006. They project on up to 62.8 million in 2010.

Interestingly they also quote some recent research (by Podtrac) that shows that although 78 percent of those who have downloaded podcasts are men, women are more likely to have listened to a podcast in the last week. I guess that means that us men do the work and the women do the listening. Sundog blogger Greg says in his post:

My wife and I recently took a thousand-mile car trip. About 80 percent of the time we listened to audio books or podcasts that had been downloaded to my iPod. Many of my friends listen to satellite radio when they travel. Right now we’re a minority, but as we see above, that minority is growing rapidly. The world is changing. Marketers had better change and adapt with it.

This year, 30 percent of all new cars will offer iPod integration. I predict this will rapidly approach 100 percent.

I couldn’t agree more.

Media, Podcasts

Charlene Finck New Farm Journal Editor

Chuck Zimmerman

Charlene FinckFarm Journal just named Charlene Finck as their new editor. She will replace Karen Freiberg, who is retiring in March.

In making the announcement, Farm Journal Media Senior Vice President of Editorial, Sonja Hillgren, stated, “Charlene’s leadership in initiating both the Farm Journal Test Plots and definitive machinery coverage over the past 16 years show that she is the kind of creative editor who can help farmers deal strategically with the technological challenges of the 21st century.”

. . . Freiberg retires after 23 distinguished years at FARM JOURNAL, including 16 years as managing editor and the last two years as editor.

Media, Publication

New NAWG Communications Director

Chuck Zimmerman

National Association of Wheat GrowersThe National Association of Wheat Growers has a new communications director just in time for the North American Grain Congress. She’s Melissa George.

Melissa is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in political science. She has extensive experience in newspaper work as a reporter and stringer with the Oklahoman, Tulsa World and the Oklahoma Daily newspapers. She interned with NAWG in the summer of 2005, providing valuable assistance with organizing Rail Customer Day and our newsletter and web site. She has also participated in a summer Political Science Institute program at Georgetown University in Washington. Melissa’s job duties will include all of NAWG’s communications functions, organizing and supporting special projects (such as Foundation leadership programs sponsored by industry partners), and first point of contact with news reporters.

Ag Groups

Learfield Adds Two

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s been a long day on the road but I’m back and the announcements and news items have been coming in all day. As easy as blogging is you can’t blog and drive (yet). So I’ll get started and try to work through these as soon as I can. Let’s start with announcements from Learfield.

Kim LangAs we reported earlier this month, Kim Lang has joined Learfield Communications as an account executive for its News Division in Nebraska as well as representing Brownfield, America’s Ag News Source.

They also added Tom Hopfensperger as an account executive for the company’s News Division in Wisconsin. Tom will also represent Brownfield in Wisconsin.

Media

Preview of Cattle Industry Convention

Chuck Zimmerman

MBIC Report PodcastThe Missouri Beef Industry Council’s weekly MBIC Report this week is with David Dick who is the chairman. David provides a preview of the upcoming Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show. I’ll be blogging the conference right here and on a new blog that will be announced soon!

You can listen to this week’s MBIC Report here: Download MP3 File

The MBIC Report is an AgWired podcast which you can subscribe to using the link you’ll find on our “Blogs & Podcasts” page or on the MBIC website.

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Podcasts