Do You Know About the Kansas City Agricultural Business Council?

Chuck Zimmerman

You may not be aware of this recently formed organization in Kansas City. They’re having a great program coming up you might want to attend though:
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The Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City will be hosting nationally-renowned speaker Steve Kopperud for breakfast on Friday, February 25, 2005, 8:00 a.m. The event will be held at the American Royal. Members’ cost for breakfast is $10.00; Nonmembers’ cost is $20.00.

Steve Kopperud has special expertise in agriculture and food issues. He speaks to the topic of how the extremists’ have influenced agricultural policy, among other very pertinent issues facing the agricultural industry. Prior to his current leadership position with Policy Directions, Inc. of Washington, DC, he served as senior vice president of the American Feed Industry Association. He is also the former president of the Animal Industry Foundation; and chairs the Animal Welfare Coalition. He has been quite involved in policy-making efforts which has involved the animal science, veterinarian medical and animal agriculture industries. Before his successful career in government relations’ efforts, he was a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the San Diego Union. He served as bureau chief and Washington editor for ABC’s publishing division. He has been interviewed many times, on behalf of animal agriculture, by Fox, MSNBC, CNN and ABC.

Reservations can be made online via the following website: http://www.americanroyal.com/Default.aspx?tabid=183 Please RSVP via website or email if you are planning to come and/planning to bring your colleagues, so we may ensure an accurate headcount.
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I’ll be happy to post information like this for groups that promote agriculture locally. Just let me know as Gina Bowman did with this meeting notice.

Ag Groups

Jazz Up That E-Newsletter With Audio!

Chuck Zimmerman

This is one of those “duh” why didn’t I think of that ideas. You can listen to me talk about this here: ZimmComm Podcast.

If you’ve got an e-newsletter why not insert hyperlinks to audio that your subscribers can listen to on their computer?

Let’s say you’ve hired ZimmComm to produce a Talking News Release. We have to do an interview to collect audio for sound bites. We can edit the full interview and make it available in your e-newsletter or just the sound bites!! Heck, we’ll conduct an interview just to create audio for your newsletter even if you don’t want or need a TNR.

The easiest way to do this would be to either email us your newsletter prior to distibution and we can insert the hyperlinks for you and return it to you or we can send you the URL of the audio file and you insert the hyperlink. Isn’t that simple?

And you’ll have really jazzed up your e-newsletter!

Audio, Podcasts

Missouri Beef Industry Council Takes The Stage

Chuck Zimmerman

One of our charter client’s the MBIC just sent out this Talking News Release today. This a general consumer release that was sent to radio, tv and publication reporters. There are hyperlinks in the release to audio and image files. The subject is MBIC’s sponsorship of the cooking stage at the St. Louis Women’s Show.

Addtionally, we produced a self-contained interview on the same subject which was distributed to traditional farm broadcast reporters as part of the MBIC’s weekly MBIC Report series. This is done to help communicate MBIC activities to cattle producers whose money is funding these projects.

I hope these will give you ideas of how you can use ZimmComm to produce and distribute quality information targeting both consumers and producers.

Ag Groups, Audio

Latest Talking News Release

Chuck Zimmerman

We’ll begin posting links to our latest Talking News Releases as they are sent out and as long as our client is okay with it. They might give you some creative ideas for projects we can do for you. You’ll be able to click on the audio file links just like a reporter would and who knows what you’ll learn.

Keep in mind that I’m available for on-site training in news release creation and distribution too. Just call to schedule. My fees are reasonable!

Today we sent a release for Missouri Agricultural Statistics Service. It’s part 3 of a 5-part series on the ARMS survey that’s currently being conducted here in Missouri.

Audio

NAMA – Convention Coming Up In Phoenix

Chuck Zimmerman

Many of the people who are aware of this blog and I hope are paying attention, are members of NAMA – National Agri-Marketing Association. However, not all of you are.

A great place to learn more about it and network with people from across the country is the annual Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show. This year it’s in Phoenix, April 20-22.

ZimmComm will be there, blogging our way through.

Just thought you might be interested.

NAMA

New Ag Blog

Chuck Zimmerman

I was just alerted to an ag blog you might want to check out. You can see for yourself at the Center For Rural Affairs .

See? There’s more of them happening all the time.

Feel free to contact ZimmComm if you’d like help in learning how to blog. We can set yours up for you and even help you maintain it!

Ag Groups

Definition Of A Blog

Chuck Zimmerman

This is from Webopedia:

(n.) Short for Web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.

(v.) To author a Web log.

Other forms: Blogger (a person who blogs).

I’ve found that so many agricultural communications folks don’t know much about it that I thought it might be helpful to put a definition.

I would add that this year will be the year that companies start using blogging and RSS as a way to communicate in a very personal way and to easily syndicate that information.

I wish there was a prettier word to use than blog though.

Uncategorized

We Are The Media

Chuck Zimmerman

Or are we the media?

Interesting question.

It used to be that companies had to push their information to their customers through “traditional” media (newspaper, magazine, radio, tv). The web has opened up a whole new world though.

What about blogging, or as I’d rather say, self-publishing and syndication? If I create an easy to use and subscribe to web log site then I’m going directly to the audience I want. My site can include audio, video and of course text.

Although not blogging, look at what companies like John Deere are doing today. They announced this week that member organization NCBA has “endorsed” the Gator and Buck as their official Utility and ATV vehicles. I’m sure this provides the organization with much needed and welcome revenue for it’s programs and services. In return, John Deere gets mentioned and plugged in NCBA news releases and materials which I assume will include their website and other member communication devices. They’ve passed the traditional media by to reach their customers directly in a relationship that seems to work for everyone.

Does this mean that NCBA has become the “media?”

I got my latest edition of NCGA News of the Day by email. It talked about a new agreement with Eden Bioscience that allows NCGA members to receive product discounts and participate in field demonstration trials with a product they hope to receive registration for prior to the upcoming planting season.

Does this mean that NCGA has become the “media?”

Love to know your thoughts on this.

Media