Blogging’s not for everyone and especially not for the guy who writes WebWatch for American Farm Bureau Federation. I didn’t come across this myself. It was forwarded to me and provided too good an opportunity to pass up.
You can read the full rant at the link above. It’s a rambling dialogue about blogging which doesn’t ever answer the question posed by the title “To Blog or not to blog?” Apparently the writer doesn’t really have much experience with blogs or blogging.
However, he poses a good question wondering how many farmers read blogs. I’ve addressed this subject here before. Although there’s no statistic we can point to, other studies suggest that farmers use computers and the internet pretty much like the rest of the population.
An interesting article about how Texas A&M is looking at blogging can be found here: Blogging Agricultural News
The WebWatch writer obviously doesn’t like blogs when he calls what’s written in them “dribble.” But he then tries to make a case that he’s actually blogging by writing a column a couple times a year that’s on the internet. Wrong. Not even close. Blogging is about a whole lot more than just writing an opinion and posting it on a website.
His column has no comment feature for one thing. Sure, you can email him but that defeats the comment feature purpose, which allows others to see what you write and post their own comment. Blogging allows someone to communicate very personally with others and very publicly. This is why so many company’s and organizations are looking at it. I think it’s an ideal mechanism for people involved in agricultural lobbying (hint Mr. Stallman). From a corporate standpoint it allows your customers, members and the public to get to know you better and to give you feedback.
Look at what Bob Lutz, or Alex Avery are doing.
If you really want to learn more about blogging and why you should consider it, give me a call or stop in at the Midlands NAMA meeting in Omaha next Tuesday!
A great resource of information can be found on Robert’s Echo Blog too.
Oh, and before I forget, the FB writer suggested that Keith Good, a blogger who’s been featured in one of our previous podcasts, “get out more.” That’s actually what blogging allows you to do. You can blog from anywhere. If you don’t believe it look over my blog posts this year. I’ve done it from planes, airports, hotels, convention centers, you name it. Blogging is mobile!
