ZimmComm – New Media, LLC

June has been racing by here at ZimmComm world headquarters – literally!

We attended two NASCAR races this month and will end the month with the Iowa Corn Indy 250. It’s all about corn farmers and ethanol at these events and even though the home-grown fuel is a little controversial even within the agriculture industry, we are proud supporters. The use of 15% ethanol by NASCAR this year has provided a new venue to get a positive message out to the public, and the Iowa Indy race is now the only Indy competition that uses ethanol that was born and raised in the USA, since Brazil provides fuel for the other races.

Chuck covered the inaugural STP 300 Nationwide Series race at the Chicagoland Speedway for the Illinois Corn Growers while I went to my very first race ever, the inaugural Sprint Cup Series STP 400 at Kansas Speedway, on behalf of the National Corn Growers and American Ethanol. Together we took about 600 photos and got comments from a number of drivers and owners about the importance of using ethanol to help the country be a little less dependent on foreign oil.

Here’s a few quotes:

Family Farmers/Marquis Energy car driver Kenny Wallace: “E15 ethanol inside of our race cars is awesome. Ethanol is a high performance fuel, the emissions are clean, it makes horsepower, it’s good!”

Kansas race winner Brad Keselowski: “It’s just an added benefit that (ethanol) comes from America. That’s really cool.”

Team owner Roger Penske: “The reliability is there, the fuel mileage is there and you can see the performance, so I think it’s a win-win for everyone.”

Team owner Richard Childress: “I’m a farmer myself and I understand the livelihood of farmers and I think it’s great for America what they are doing to help us not to have to depend on as much foreign energy. I hope some day we can run it all on ethanol.”

Watch for our coverage from the Iowa Speedway in Newton on June 25, sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers.

Google Juice was the theme for our booth at the 2011 National Agri-Marketing Conference to show people how SEO our websites really are. We had Google Juice t-shirts and blinking Google Juice shot glasses among other goodies with the message that “ZimmComm Makes Google Juice.”

I have to give credit for the inspiration to Mike Deering with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Board, since the first time I ever heard the phrase was from him describing why he wanted us to cover an event for them. Then at Commodity Classic Nick Fassler with BASF told me that all the interviews and stories we had done with him on AgWired had made him very “Google-able.”

So I looked up the term “Google Juice” and the best definition I found was: “the mysterious quality that causes pages to come up high in a Google search.” That works for me, because we really don’t know why posts on our websites tend to often show up on top in Google searches, but they do. Pat Morrow with BASF agreed with that. “It’s true! If I Google for Kip Cullers BASF, AgWired is all over the first page,” Pat told us at NAMA. We also rank high in searches for photos, video and news on Google.

Why it works has much to do with how much content we post and the flow of hyperlinks between our sites and others. We don’t do anything special and we don’t pay anything for our websites to rank high on Google searches, but we know that our clients like it.

Another shot of Google Juice, anyone?

Did you know that ZimmComm New Media is the same age as Facebook? Unfortunately, we’re not worth tens of billions of dollars – but the good news is that no one is suing us!

The really good news is that we enjoy what we do and we have the best clients in the world! When we started the company seven years ago this month, we never had any idea that it would go in the direction that it did. Facebook had not yet graduated from Harvard. Flickr had just launched and no one knew what it was. YouTube didn’t even start until 2005. Blogging was just starting to break into the mainstream and we ended up hopping on that train and have been just enjoying the ride since then. Our initial goal was really to provide content for media, which was why the Talking News Release service was started, and that is still one of our primary functions. But we just keep evolving along with the tools and technology.

Thanks to the people who helped us get this party started. Looking forward to keeping it going for a long time yet!

If January was busy for us, February was ever busier, if that’s possible!

We started out the month in Denver for the Cattle Industry Convention, where we covered the event for both the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. We did have a little trouble getting there, since our blizzard hit on the day we were scheduled to fly out of Kansas City. But, three canceled flights later, we did arrive and only missed the first day. We saw former Senior White House Advisor Karl Rove give the keynote address during the second general session and Larry the Cable Guy at the Cowboy Comedy Club.

While we were in Denver, Joanna was covering the Iowa Power Farming Show in Des Moines, thanks to the sponsorship of AgLeader Technology on Precision Pays. This is the second year we have attended that event.

Next stop on the agriblogging highway was Phoenix for the National Biodiesel Conference. This was the sixth year we blogged this event on the Biodiesel Conference blog, which we set up for NBB in 2006. When you go to that blog, you can go back and see all the photos and posts from the last six conferences – which is pretty cool. Of course, we also covered the event on Agwired and Domestic Fuel, and took lots of photos.

Chuck moved right from Phoenix to Louisville for the National Farm Machinery Show, with the sponsorship of both John Deere and New Holland for the fourth year in a row, and AgLeader for the second year. The weather was better this year in Louisville than it has been the past two years, so that was a plus and it resulted in record attendance for the show.

Not done yet. Next stop was Phoenix, again, for the National Ethanol Conference. This was the fifth year for this event, which is the annual meeting of the Renewable Fuels Association. The weather there was pretty un-desertlike on the first day, with rain and 40 degree temps, but it cleared up and was very pleasant for the rest of the event. We were treated to a spectacular desert sunset during the reception on the second night.

From Phoenix, we came back to Missouri and split up to attend the Agricultural Relations Council meeting in Ft. Myers and the Western Farm Show in Kansas City. Chuck got the bad end of that deal with a nasty ice and snow storm that came up out of nowhere to make for a treacherous drive to KC. But he made it there and Chuck did two social media seminars there plus we had a booth with some giveaways. Meanwhile, the weather was fabulous in Florida and the ARC meeting was a blast.

Speaking of Florida, we are starting out March with Commodity Classic in Tampa, which is where we are heading tomorrow. Hope to see you down the road in our travels!

Winners of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) 2011 Golden ARC Awards Contest were announced at the association’s annual awards banquet in Ft. Myers on Friday night. A total of 24 Golden ARC winners and 19 Merit winners were recognized as the elite in agricultural public relations. The number of entries this year was twice what it was last year!

In the category of Blogs/Electronic Newsletters category, the winner of the coveted Golden ARC was the National Corn Growers Association and ZimmComm New Media for the organization’s Corn Commentary blog, which we designed several years ago for them and recently updated. The photo shows me receiving the award from Mace Thornton of the American Farm Bureau Federation, who is the new president of ARC.

The competition was judged by members of the North Florida chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, according to contest manager Amy Keith McDonald of McDonald Marketing Communications. “The judges focused on a number of objectives including audience analysis, creativity, execution and campaign results,” she said. “They then provided constructive feedback to allow entrants to grow professionally from the opportunity.” Originated in 1990, the Golden ARC Awards Contest recognizes the best and brightest in agricultural public relations, and is open to both ARC and non-ARC members. The 38 categories reflect the broad scope of contemporary public relations activities.

Find out all the winners in all the categories here.

Really enjoyed attending the ARC meeting – you can get a taste for the highlights here.

Thanks to a three month survey asking readers of all the ZimmComm publications who they are and what they do, we now have some good data to share with those folks who wonder about that stuff.

Let’s look at Agwired first.

According to the survey, the largest percentage of our 14,000 visitors each month are in Advertising/Marketing/Sales or Communications/Public Relations – making up 20% in each category for a total of 4 out of 10 of our readers. Another 13% are with agribusiness associations or organizations and 7% are media. Over 20% are in crop or livestock production – including crop and livestock producers, dairy farmers, crop consultants, etc. There were some categories that applied to production agriculture but several also checked the “other” category.

We had responses from 21 states, three countries, and the District of Columbia, with the Midwest significantly leading the pack. Most responses came from Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

On Domestic Fuel, we now are getting 30,000 unique visitors a month. The survey says that the largest percentage of those visitors (13%) are existing biofuels producers. The next largest categories were Advertising/Marketing/Sales (9%), Consulting (8%), Engineering (7%), Consumer/General Public (7%), and Association/Organization (6%).

We had responses from 38 states the District of Columbia and Canada. Most responses came from California, South Dakota, Missouri, Minnesota, and Iowa.

Nearly 12,000 visitors go to World Dairy Diary each month for news about the dairy industry. According to the survey, the largest percentage are dairy farmers or milk producers – about 14%. Another 11% are nutritionists in the dairy business and about 7% are consultants. Over ten percent of respondents said they were with dairy organizations, media, or in public relations for agribusiness. About two in ten of our visitors are consumers, students, homemakers or retirees – falling into the “other” category. We also have a good number of beef cattle producers, farmers, and input dealers in the other category.

We had responses from 33 different states and three other countries besides the United States. The states with the most responses are among the largest dairy producing states – Wisconsin, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, and Michigan.

Finally, visits to our precision agriculture publication Precision Pays are up to 5,000 per month. The survey found that 22% of them are actual crop farmers of mainly corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton. The next largest category was Equipment & Services at 18%, followed by education at 15%. Another 11% each fell in the categories of Crop Consultant or Advertising/Marketing/Sales.

We had responses from 15 states and Canada. Most responses came from Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Missouri, North Dakota, California and Oregon.

Hope that answers some of the “Who reads your stuff?” questions!

When it comes to smartphone platforms, our audience is using a mix with iPhone/Android/Blackberry on top. According to the latest ZimmPoll, sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, 32% say they use iPhone, 32% are using Android, 28% are Blackberry lovers. A small minority (5%) said Other and only 3% are using Windows.

We may have to ask that question again later this year since there’s lots of changes coming up in mobile phone carrier systems and phones.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

After a nice quiet holiday season, ZimmComm immediately got back on the road with the new year.

We started out the month in “Icelanta” covering both the second AG CONNECT Expo and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) annual meeting. The weather was okay for the first couple of days, but on the first day of the AFBF meeting we saw five inches of snow and ice hit the southern city with only six snow plows! It was an experience we will not soon forget. Farm Bureau has never had a meeting like it!

Besides the snow and ice, the highlights of the meetings included being part of a really great show for AG CONNECT with lots of content that we are still using on all of our on-line publications – and meeting Mike “Dirty Jobs” Rowe. He is really a great advocate for agriculture.

Check out the coverage of AFBF on Agwired here and all the stories from AG CONNECT Expo here.

We had the opportunity to welcome a new sponsor for Agwired and Precision Pays during the month of January – GROWMARK and their FS Green Plan Solutions. Chuck visited ​GROWMARK headquarters in Bloomington and Cindy attended a conference on the company’s “Pursuit of Maximum Yields” program in East Peoria. Look forward to learning lots more about this regional cooperative that started in 1927 and provides agriculture-related products and services, as well as grain marketing in the Midwest and Ontario, Canada.

At the end of the month, Chuck headed back to Atlanta for the International Poultry Expo, with coverage sponsored by our friends at Novus International. This is the third year in a row that we have covered this event for them and once again they featured a well-known sports figure at their exhibit. This time it was a football theme with NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus. The weather was much better this time!

While Chuck headed south, Cindy went north to Des Moines to attend the 5th annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit for the first time to enjoy a fantastic program that included two potential presidential candidates – Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum. The great event was made possible by sponsorships from Domestic Fuel supporters Growth Energy and the Renewable Fuels Association.

We are supposed to get back on the road this week, heading to Denver for the Cattle Industry Annual Convention and NCBA Trade Show, but that will depend on the weather as the forecast is calling for a major snowstorm. We’ll get there at some point to start off another big month of travel in February. Joanna is in Des Moines for the Iowa Power Farm Show this week and Chuck is scheduled to head directly from Denver to Phoenix for the National Biodiesel Conference. Later in the month, we’ll be at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, the National Ethanol Conference in Phoenix, the Agricultural Relations Council meeting in Naples (yeah!) and the Western Farm Show in Kansas City. Praying for better weather everywhere and hope to see you all down the road!

The new year is starting off a little greener for the latest winner in our ZimmComm publication survey drawing.

The winner for December is Michelle Stahlhut, an Agwired reader and crop farmer from Indiana. Michelle actually filled out her survey in November and since we put all the entries back in the pot for the next month, she was the lucky pick today and will be receiving a check for $250 from us.

Among the topics that Michelle says she would like see covered by us in 2011 are sustainability, beginning farmer programs, organic industry, small farm policy, meat processing.

The survey continues through January, so please fill it out before the end of the month, if you haven’t done so yet. All entries received so far will be entered to win in the last drawing for $250, which will be held on February 1.

Agwired Survey
Domestic Fuel Survey
Precision Pays Survey
World Dairy Diary Survey

Our seventh year in business was the busiest yet for the ZimmComm team. We spent a total of 172 days on the road – traveling from Seattle to Orlando, San Antonio to Atlanta, Dallas to Louisville, Mexico to Memphis, Anaheim to Miami, the Netherlands to the Carolinas, Denver to Panama City Beach, St. Paul to Savannah, Lexington to Lancaster – and lots of trips to Chicago, Des Moines, Kansas City and St. Louis.

It’s kind of mind boggling to count the number of posts we do in a year – just on Agwired and Domestic Fuel there was over 3,000! The number of audio files posted on all websites totaled over 1,000. We posted nearly 16,000 photos on Flickr from about 60 different events and posted 103 videos on YouTube. Can’t even begin to count the total number of tweets on Twitter!

Traffic on all of our websites increased in 2010. Agwired was up 17% to 185,000 unique visitors; Domestic Fuel was also up 17% with 315,000 unique visitors; Precision Pays traffic increased by 66% to 48,000; and World Dairy Diary was up 35 percent to over 98,000.

The most popular YouTube video of the year was the unveiling of the Chip Foose designed John Deere tractor at Commodity Classic, which has been viewed nearly 13,000 times. Videos from the John Deere XUV media event were viewed over 5,000 times. Other top videos of the year including the unveiling of the New Holland T8 & T9 Tractors, Opening Day at National Farm Machinery Show, AG CONNECT Expo Preview, General Motors Exec at the National Ethanol Conference, President Obama at the POET plant, AgLeader at AG CONNECT, Kip Cullers New Record, and the fly-by at the National Agricultural Aviation Association meeting.

Our wonderful clients make every day of every year a pleasure to do what we do. Those clients are not a bunch of corporate names – they are people we are proud to call friends. They are John and Whitney, Bob and Matt, Pat and Sandi, Barry and Kelly and Leigh Ann, Gene and Dawn, and Rich and Mike and Jeff and Dan and Jeremy and Jill and Andrew and Ken and Rita and Jessica and Joe and Joy and Chris and Stephanie and Jerry and Erika and Mindy and Janell and Curt and Mace and Billy and Mark …. just to name a few! We sincerely appreciate you all and look forward to continuing our relationship for many years to come. We also sincerely appreciate our wonderful freelance team of Joanna, John, Melissa, Michelle, Lisa, Kurt, Robert and JoDene – our super sales guy Dave – and our daughters Chelsea and Carly, who both helped out with the business in 2010.

Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy, prosperous and blessed new year!