WFMB Ag Director Wins Ipod Shuffle

Chuck Zimmerman

Last month we asked farm radio reporters to send us feedback about our Talking News Release service. We told them that if they emailed us with their thoughts they’d be entered into a contest to win a digital audio player (Ipod Shuffle). Today we are happy to announce the winner. She’s Leah Guffey, ag director for WFMB-FM in Springfield, IL.

Leah Guffey

Leah was very kind with her remarks:

Chuck and Cindy,

Congratulations for making it with a new business venture! I appreciate getting the “Talking News Releases” from you.

Much continued success,

leah

Thank you Leah. Ironically, Leah’s station is running a contest for listeners who can win an Ipod Shuffle. She says the staff was just talking about how they’re ineligible to win one and she got our email letting her know she won one in our drawing!

I’m going to write a series of articles about news releases and how reporters use them in coming days which will feature the feedback we’ve received from people like Leah. Stay tuned!

Uncategorized

Midlands NAMA Meeting Wrapup

Chuck Zimmerman

The meeting’s over. A few people are still hanging around chatting. We had a group of about 30 agrimarketing professionals gather to learn a little bit more about blogging, podcasting and RSS. It takes about 45 minutes to go over the basics, looking at examples and then leave a few minutes for questions and answers.

I see a lot of interest and people were asking good questions about how they could use these strategies for specific projects in their company. For example, one questions centered around setting up a subscription e-newsletter as an RSS feed. I’ve got to do a little research on this and will write about it soon.

Thank you Midlands NAMA for having me. I enjoyed it and hope it was productive. Please send feedback to help me improve my presentation!

Midlands NAMA Meeting

NAMA

Windy At The Oaks

Chuck Zimmerman

I’m going to write several posts from Quarry Oaks Golf Club, where I’m going to be giving a presentation to the Midlands NAMA chapter in just a little while. I wanted to play 18 holes first but just didn’t have time and with the wind today I’m almost glad I didn’t. Almost.

Quarry Oaks

This post is just for instructional purposes to use during my presentation.

NAMA

Agrimarketing Website In China

Chuck Zimmerman

I was just looking around at all the websites that have “agrimarketing” in their URL and found this one. Nice looking site and interesting business – Seabridge Marketing.

Seabridge Marketing Logo

They describe their company as follows:

　Our company is a professional agri-products, food, seafood marketing and promotion company run by a group exports specialized in marketing, promotion, PR, consulting, project management, cooking and cuisine development, food processing. We engage in delivering professional marketing, promotion and consulting service for overseas government, trade associations, farmers’ association and individual farmers, processors and suppliers of agri-products, seafood, livestock products, food and beverage, food ingredients.

Hey NAMA how about we start a WAMA? (World Agri-Marketing Association) I’ll bet we’d find plenty of interest in developing members all over the world. Then we could start the “International” Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show!

Agribusiness

U. S. Food Policy Blog

Chuck Zimmerman

Me, I’m a food enthusiast. I like it in just about any form you can think of. Now, Parke Wilde? He’s a food economist. If there were a profession called “nutrition economics,” he would belong to it. At least that’s what it says on his blog: U. S. Food Policy “U.S. food policy and economics from a public interest perspective.”

I came across it when Googling (one of my hobbies). Parke wrote about our decision not to sell advertising. He makes a very good point about it.

I’ve commented on his post and invited him to be interviewed for an upcoming ZimmCast. I’ve only read a few of his posts so far but he’s obviously put a lot of thought into what he writes. Let me know what you think.

Uncategorized

Legislative Wrapup In This Week’s CornTalk

Chuck Zimmerman

In this week’s CornTalk, MCGA/MCMC CEO, Gary Marshall provides a Missouri state legislative wrap-up. He focuses on several areas of legislation affecting corn growers including the budget and omnibus ag bill which was finalized last Thursday.

MCGA Logo

You can listen to this week’s report here: CornTalk

The current edition of CornTalk is always available in our “Audio Programming” sidebar.

Ag Groups, Audio

Find Out About GEOSS Friday

Chuck Zimmerman

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this but it has the involvement of a lot of people in agribusiness. It’s an invitation to for an event this Friday in Washington, DC. The invitation was emailed out from the National Cotton Council. If we get some more information from it I’ll pass it along.

EPA Seal

WHO: National Cotton Council Advisor Kenneth Hood, a Mississippi cotton producer and founder of InTime, a crop input management services firm, joined by Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns; Vice Admiral USN (Ret) Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere/ National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration administrator; and business leaders representing: John Deere, Monsanto, Bunge, National Corn Growers Association and DigitalGlobe.

WHAT: Seminar – AGRIBUSINESS IN THE 21ST CENTURY – New Global Earth Observation System Will Change Face of Agriculture

WHEN: Friday, May 20, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

WHERE: U.S. Chamber of Commerce/International Hall of Flags
1615 H Street, NW
Washington, D.C.

Breaking new ground, top government and business leaders will underscore how the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems, now supported by nearly 60 countries, can revolutionize the face of agribusiness in the 21st century. Focus will be on improving agribusiness’ ability to meet accelerating world needs for food and fiber, cope more effectively with rapid changes in international markets, and reduce vulnerability to extremes of weather, climate and pests. Advances in Earth observations, science and service are transforming agriculture, helping farmers to farm even when there are several thousands acres over several counties to cover!

Kenneth Hood states: “This technology gives the farmer the tools to make intelligent management decisions on applying crop inputs by knowing when, where and the exact amount needed in the field as opposed to blanket treatments. This results in a proven 20-50 percent savings in a farmer’s application of chemicals as well as a direct cost savings to the farmer through increased labor efficiency and reduced chemical costs.”

For more information contact David Logsdon or Madelyn Appelbaum.

Ag Groups

Blogging 101 Coming To Midlands NAMA

Chuck Zimmerman

If you’re in the Omaha area tomorrow plan to attend the Midlands NAMA meeting. I’ll be giving a presentation I call Blogging 101. The meeting will be at 3pm at Quarry Oaks Clubhouse. Directions are on the NAMA website.

Quarry Oaks Ball Image

If you have no idea what a blog is or even if you subscribe to many, you’ll want to come to the meeting to learn how this website format works and how you can use blogs in your marketing communications. The presentation will include the use and demonstration of live, online blogs and various components and features that include: Blogging Software Options, RSS, XML, Podcasting, Trackback, Search Engine Optimization, Archiving and more.

If you’d like to have this presentation at your meeting or for your staff just give me a call and we’ll see what’s available on the schedule.

NAMA, Podcasts