Happy New Year From ZimmComm

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmComm, Marketing & CommunicationsIt’s the end of the year and although I don’t have a “year in review” to offer I do have some statistics, reflections and ideas to share. Statistics as in traffic to the ZimmComm blogs. I’ll update this post if there’s a big change in the numbers by midnight (that is if I remember).

NUMBERS

AgWired got it’s “official” start on March 15. In 9 1/2 months we’ve had 16,000 unique visitors who have visited a total of 51,000 times. I like the fact that we’ve had 1,000,000 hits. That’s a million folks! Page views is right at 750,000. I’m happy with this. Talk about WOMA. We’ve only promoted this site to about 1,300 people. Somebody is telling somebody else about it. A very tiny percentage of our visitors come from a search engine. Most type it directly into their browser or are using a bookmark.

This fall we started 2 more farm news blogs. World Dairy Diary was kicked off in August in advance of World Dairy Expo. To date it’s had 7,000 unique visitors that have visited a total of 15,000 times. Our latest blog is DomesticFuel. We haven’t really promoted it yet but it’s already had 1,500 unique visitors who have visited 7,000 times. We’ll see a lot of growth in 2006 on these sites as we begin to develop and promote them more with the addition of new sponsors!

REFLECTIONS

ZimmComm was started with the idea that it would be a “traditional” advertising agency. That was in March of 2004. Very quickly it was obvious that our talents could be put to use by our prospective clients in some non-traditional ways. For example, as former farm broadcasters, Cindy and I created Talking News Releases, a service that targets broadcast reporters and includes pre-recorded audio. We developed a list of farm and non-farm reporters to push these releases out to. This led to conducting audio production work for clients which is used on-air and online. The evolution of this service is now AgNewsWire.AgWired.com. Besides distributing news releases to reporters we’re now posting them directly in front of farmers via website content managed by Quickfarm. This is “unfiltered” content that the farmer gets to read, interpret or just ignore. His/her choice.

I quickly realized that I don’t speak html and do not like designing and managing traditional web pages. At Steve’s suggestion I started a blog site. Once I realized what you can do with a blog I started preaching the power of the blogosphere and we now create blogs for clients and manage several of our own. I look at these blogs as online publications that contain media rich content (audio, video, pictures and perspective). This led to podcasting and the ZimmCast was born. We now produce client podcasts and expect to see this portion of our business explode in 2006. As I like to say, “create your own media.” Let your customers and members get what they want when they want it and wherever they want.

So I guess you have to say that we’re a “new media” company. We want to help our clients deliver their message directly to the people they want to reach in as efficient and cost-effective a way as possible. As my friends at Learfield are realizing, it’s time to get on the Long Tail.

IDEAS

Blogging: Think about it. How are you personally communicating with your members or customers now? Are you? Do you email some and snail mail others? Why not let them see inside your company or organization? Maybe it’s your CEO or maybe its a technician. Somebody on the staff probably has a blogger inside. Just don’t think that you can have the PR department ghost write for someone else. It will probably backfire. People want honesty and transparency. That’s what makes you credible. This new look inside will really set you apart from your competition. If you’re not sure who on staff can do this you might want to find out who already has a personal blog. You might be surprised.

Podcasting: The video iPod is here and the walls of traditional media are tumbling down. Even if you don’t think you’re a broadcaster you can hire a company like ZimmComm to create your own radio or tv show. You control the content. Your customers can subscribe to it (opt-in) and watch or listen to it whenever and wherever they want. That can be on their computer or on their portable digital media player. I can even do it on my mobile phone!

RSS: I’m not going to try to explain this. For a reasonable fee though . . . Actually I just want you to think of “feeds.” It’s the future, my friends. New browser software will have this built in. You can create custom search engine pages now that handle this for you. By this, I mean subscribing to feeds of information. This can be information that you produce like a newsletter. It can be audio or video which makes it podcasting. It can be any kind of content that you want to syndicate to your customers. They’re looking for it. Why not make it easy for them to get it. The best part is that it’s not email. You’ll probably see it showing up on websites using this icon: RSS Feed

That’s it. I’m done for 2005. I hope ZimmComm has helped you in your business in one way or another. We’re very excited about 2006. The new media business is just starting to heat up in agriculture. We’re proud to be a part of it and will see you onsite or online in the new year.

Uncategorized

Learfield Communications Gets Creative

Chuck Zimmerman

Learfield Communications is getting Creative I see. I still have a few Google news alerts and this morning one of them pointed me to TellTail Signs which wrote about AgWired. This is “Learfield Creative: Crafting Content for the Long Tail.” I’m glad to see a traditional media company branching out into the brave new media world.

What is the “Long Tail” you may well ask. Chris Anderson says it this way “The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of “hits” (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-target goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.” See the description of Long Tail on Wikipedia.

According to the TellTail Signs, Learfield Creative Services: “enables you to communicate your unique message directly to the audience your most need to reach. It strengthens your relationship with that audience by giving them information they want.” Some of the ways it says they will accomplish this is by: “Direct Communications with Targeted Groups, Custom News Material, Website Material, Event Coverage and Media Relations.” These are certainly components of the new media world which we embrace and have been evangelizing in the agricultural industry. These tools now allow you to reach willing customers or members with creative new content/media/communications options. They’re efficient and cost-effective methods too!

Media

NAFB Top Ten Stories of 2005

Chuck Zimmerman

National Association of Farm BroadcastingI have no motivation or inspiration to do a year in review so I’m glad that others are taking care of these duties. I guess I think that if anyone wants to know about the year at AgWired they can just scroll down!

NAFB has announced it’s top ten stories of the year. This was sent out in the form of a news release and I commend them for doing it. So many organizations don’t ever take the time to let the world know what they’re doing. AgWired is happy to pass it along. “Note to NAFB: You know how you like to get presents with the news releases you get? Bloggers are no different!! hint, hint”

The National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) announced its Top-10 Farm Stories and Ag Leader of the Year for 2005, selecting U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns as the year’s top farm newsmaker, and the unexpected sharp rise in energy costs as the year’s top farm news story.

NAFB’s Top-10 Stories of the Year for 2005:

1. Energy costs spike and squeeze producer profitability.
2. Hurricane Katrina devastates Southern agriculture and snarls the U.S grain transportation system.
3. U.S. Supreme Court finds checkoffs constitutional.
4. Congress passes comprehensive energy bill with Renewable Fuels Standard.
5. Japan re-opens market to U.S beef.
6. Asian Soybean Rust has no impact on U.S. soybean production in 2005.
7. U.S. Senate Confirms Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
8. U.S. re-opens border to Canadian live cattle.
9. U.S Ag Secretary Mike Johanns holds dozens of farm bill listening sessions in partnership with NAFB.
10. U.S. corn crop is second largest ever as Midwest drought is less severe than thought.
Full Release

So there you have it. I have to make a comment on the release though. If you’re an AgWired regular you’ll understand. Why no audio? You’re NAFB. It’s what you do. How about some audio to go with this release? Now that would have been really cool. I would have posted it. I know you’ve got it archived, or at least members do. Just a thought.

NAFB

Cool Extras At The ASI Convention

Chuck Zimmerman

Hot Air Balloon RideNo, it’s not a story about hot air balloon riding per se. But hot air balloon riding is what you can do if you go to the American Sheep Industry Association convention in Mesa, AZ. Here’s how they describe it:

Depart the hotel at 6:00am and drive west where the adventure begins upon arrival at the Sonoran desert launch site. Once your balloon is inflated, you will join your pilot in the beautiful hand-crafted wicker basket. The luxurious, over-sized basket has plenty of room to allow everyone to enjoy the ride to the fullest. Basket sizes vary, with carrying capacity of 4-9 people. As you gently leave the earth, you’ll be amazed at how light the balloon feels. During the glorious one-hour flight you have an unobstructed 360-degree view to take excellent photographs.

I’ve done this before and it is an awesome feeling. I got my mile high certificate after we supposedly went that high. Just remember you’ll be in the land of cactus. Be careful where you land!

Oh and btw, the convention is January 24 – 29 at the Phoenix Marriot Mesa. Registration Form

Ag Groups

Pork Delegates Appointed

Chuck Zimmerman

Pork BoardIt’s appointment time again for our U. S. Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns. This time it’s 153 pork producers and 8 importers to the 2006 National Pork Producers Delegate Body. I’m not going to post them all here. If you really want to know who they are though you can see the full list by downloading the release here: USDA release.

Delegates meet annually to recommend the rate of assessment, determine the percentage of assessments that state associations will receive and nominate producers and importers to the 15-member National Pork Board.

Ag Groups, Pork, USDA

Lallemand Supports Organic Producers

Chuck Zimmerman

LallemandMy friends at Lallemand know how to get my attention. This time it was with some great San Louis gourmet coffee from Alotenango, Guatemala. I can’t find a website for this coffee or the importer, Lankin Corporation, but if you can find it, it’s good! It’s farm fresh roasted and packed.

There’s a reason for the gift. This is what looks like “organic” coffee, meaning that it’s grown without the use of agro-chemicals. It came along with information about how they’re supporting the work of organic livestock producers. They’re doing this with a variety of products approved for organic use like: Alkosel, Agrimos, Biotal, Levucell SB and Levucell SC. You can find out all about these products on their website.

Great idea Lallemand. Good coffee, something every late night blogger needs.

Agribusiness

WordPress 2.0 Now Available

Chuck Zimmerman

WordPressIt’s the best and it sounds like it’s getting better. For all you bloggers and wanna-be’s you need WordPress to do it right. I’m hooked and it’s going to be hard to change me.

WordPress 2.0 is now available. I think I’ve got about 12 blogs going now in WP and more planned. I’m going to upgrade on one of my personal ones before converting AgWired. I’ll let you know how it goes.

This is exciting (for a blogger anyway).

Uncategorized

100 Years of the National Western

Chuck Zimmerman

Stick Horse RodeoThis would be me in a rodeo. You can’t get thrown and trampled by a stick. However, I wouldn’t be safe because you can still trip over a stick and fall down and break your neck.

This is just one element of the multitude of fun you’ll find at the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo and lots of other stuff. I’ve never been but I’d love to go. It’s the 100th year and to get a little background they have a story for you:

If the founders of the National Western Stock Show, Rodeo and Horse Show were to attend its 100th anniversary celebration in January, they’d likely pop a few buttons with pride. The brainstorm of Elias Ammons, Fred Johnson and G.W. Ballantine, the first show opened on Jan. 29, 1906, for a six-day run that attracted 336 entries–a number with which the trio was mighty pleased. The mid-winter date, sandwiched between the busier fall and spring seasons, appealed to farm and ranch folks, while for the show’s Denver boosters, primarily businessmen, the livestock hoorah was just the fix for those post-Christmas blahs. The first three shows were held under canvas. Full Story

Anyone going? Want to send me some pictures and a story?

Farm Shows

Brownfield’s Year In Review

Chuck Zimmerman

Brownfield NetworkI’m not planning on doing a year in review although it seems like a lot of people are. Take the Brownfield Network for example. Tom Steever looks back at the year in agriculture in this hour-long special report: Stream or Download (22mb mp3)

Speaking of the Brownfield crew, another one’s going south of the border.

Brownfield’s Josh St. Peters will travel to South America Jan. 19 through Jan. 29. St. Peters, along with several Illinois farm families and agribusiness leaders, will tour Brazil’s cities and farms. The farm broadcaster will also be accompanied by staff of South American Soy, LLC., an Illinois-based group that is investing in Brazilian agriculture.

Agriculture is truly international so I’m sure Josh is going where the action is. He can’t just want to get out of the office can he?

Post Update: I must have missed this announcement. Besides the boys going south Tom Steever is headed overseas.

Brownfield’s Tom Steever is traveling to Berlin, Germany in January to attend the East-West Agriculture Forum, which is part of that country’s International Green Week observance. Steever is going at the invitation of the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., which extends the invitation to one U.S. journalist each year.

This is a great trip and one I went on back when I was with Brownfield. I have a lot of stories Tom. Make them take you out to eat some good old German food. The first couple days we ate everything except German for some reason. If you try to convince us that you made it to all the booths I won’t believe you! This is one huge show going on there.

Audio, Media

The Radio War Perspective From Sundog

Chuck Zimmerman

Sundog Carol of the ChinsIt’s still the Christmas season so you can still enjoy singing a carol or watching someone or something else sing them. Like these chins from Sundog.

Actually I found them when I visited their site to see Greg’s latest post on “Radio War Heats Up.” If you haven’t visited Sundog you ought to. I mentioned them earlier this year since they did the creative behind the excellent GoE Roadtrip blog. If you’re looking for an agency that “gets it” when it comes to the new online world of communications then give these guys a try. Of course, you can call us too.

I am bringing this to your attention because I’d like your thoughts on what Greg writes. For example, eventhough he points you to studies that show the growth in various forms of new audio delivery mechanisms he still believes in it: “While all these radio alternatives make it almost impossible to use any one segment of the “radio” broadcast pie to reach a mass audience, it, nevertheless, makes it easier to narrowcast targeted, relevant messages to more granular market segments. Ultimately, this should increase the return on investment for advertisers.”

I wonder how it applies in the farm world. How fractionalized are the ways a farmer “listens?” How do you reach them if they’re listening to satellite radio, internet radio and podcasts in addition to their local radio station? Do you believe they are using all of these? How do we measure this? Anyone want to sponsor a national farmer media use study that will include questions about their computer, internet and use of new technology like iPods besides how and when they listen to their local station? I’ve got just the completely independent company that can do the research for us. They aren’t one of the “traditional” ones that always conducts the studies we see and hear about. Interested? Want to know what your members and customers are really doing?

Agencies, Internet