ZimmComm – New Media, LLC

Our theme at the 2012 National Agri-Marketing Association conference is “Don’t Worry, Be Appy!”

Our AgWired app, sponsored by Raven Industries, is almost two years old now – available for both iPhone and Android users – yet we continue to get new downloads every day and people tell us they use it all the time. It’s a handy way to check the latest posts on all of our websites with just a few clicks. Even those folks who have Blackberries or some other type of phone often download the app to use on their iPad or iPod Touch.

So, in honor of our app, our giveaway this year is the cool “Digi-Clean” handy wipe for all types of screens – from cell phones to cameras to iPads and laptops. What is really cool about this tiny little screen cleaner is that it sticks to your device, then unsticks when you want to use it and re-sticks again! They come in several sizes from REALLY tiny to almost 3.5″ wide, but we went for the tablet size that is still small enough for the phone, but big enough to be used on a good sized laptop screen.

So come on by booth #412 this week at the NAMA conference in Kansas City and get yours. Chuck is already there for NAMA business stuff, but I will be heading that way tomorrow with our youngest lovely daughter Caitlin to help us out this year.

We’ll be “appy” to see you there!

We’re looking for the right person (or people) to become a ZimmComm producer. We’ve been blessed to have a number of incredibly talented folks work with us over the years and are very proud of them and their accomplishments both professionally and personally. We stay in touch with each and every one of them. Now we’re looking for some new talent.

The right person would be very self-motivated and passionate about agriculture, as well as having most or all of the following skills (listed in order of importance):

• 1. Computer savvy – Mac or PC
• 2. Flexible work schedule for on-site assignments
• 3. Digital photography – composing, shooting, editing
• 4. Audio production – conducting interviews, editing
• 5. Short format writing skills
• 6. Social Networking experience – Blog, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
• 7. Video production (web style) – shooting, editing
• 8. WordPress experience

We would like to see examples of work that ideally will include social networking accounts.

A ZimmComm producer needs to be able to shoot photos on the go, conduct spur of the moment interviews, edit photos/audio/video quickly and upload and post to WordPress websites. This includes writing story posts to go with the posted media. The work will include periodic travel to ag related events of different kinds – probably not more than 10 days per calendar year. You will need to be equipped with notebook computer and camera to take hi-res photos. Personal digital audio/video recorder and/or iPhone a plus.

Payment will be negotiated depending on experience and ZimmComm will supply on-the-job training for the right candidate. So are you up to the challenge?

If so, please send me your interest including things like resume/work examples via email.

This peaceful piece of paradise is where ZimmComm World Headquarters has been based for the last six weeks.

It is located on Perdido Key, Florida – which is situated between Pensacola and Orange Beach, Alabama – not too far from the infamous Florabama Bar (which is currently being remodeled). We have totally enjoyed our time here and would highly recommend it for a great getaway. While the winter at home in Missouri has been pretty mild so far and the weather here has been fairly cool, nothing beats waking up in the morning looking at the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico.

We are heading home tomorrow to prepare for a heavy month of travel in February, which includes the Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, National Biodiesel Conference in Orlando, three GROWMARK events in Illinois and Iowa, the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville and the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando. We hate to say goodbye to the beach, but duty calls!

See you on down the agriblogging highway!

2011 was another very good year for ZimmComm New Media – thanks to our sponsors, clients, fans, freelancers and friends.

It was our eighth year in business and we spent too many days on the road to count. We started the year in icy Atlanta with record winter weather and ended the year relaxing on the beach in Florida, enjoying some rare down time before getting back into it again. We start back on the road on the third day of 2012 with Chuck going to Orlando for Beltwide Cotton Conferences. Cindy will be right behind him, heading to Honolulu on January 7 for the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting.

We did over 5000 posts on the four main websites in 2011 with about 1,000 audio files, over 17,000 photos in 70 Flickr photo albums and 120 YouTube videos posted on AgWired, Domestic Fuel, World Dairy Diary and Precision Pays. We also posted on various other client websites including New Holland’s Boomer 555.com; the Biodiesel Conference Blog; the Southern Peanut Growers Conference blog; and National Corn Growers’ Corn Commentary.

Traffic on all of our websites increased again in 2011. Agwired was up 7.5% to almost 198,000 unique visitors; Domestic Fuel was up 3.5% with over 324,000 unique visitors; Precision Pays traffic increased by 3.5% to nearly 50,000; and World Dairy Diary was up 5 percent to over 102,000. Twitter followers total 11,584 between all the websites, and our personal Twitter accounts. Chuck, aka @agriblogger, has almost half of those himself – 5400 followers.

We are looking forward to setting new records in 2012 and hope to see you all on the agriblogging highway in the year ahead.

One day I was thinking to myself, “I wish there was a calendar that had all the ag events for the year on it.” I had never seen such a thing, so I decided to make one.

This was not an easy task. It took me about a month to get it the way I wanted it, including photos from events throughout this past year and getting as many dates for the major ag events included. Not sure how it would actually look in person, we ordered a limited quantity to give as Christmas gifts to some of our clients.

We think they actually came out pretty sweet and now we are wondering if there is any interest among AgWired readers to get their very own copy.

You can order your calendar here: Order 2012 ZimmComm Ag Events Calendar.

The cost is $20 each plus $2 shipping/handling.

Chuck Zimmerman, better known to many as @agriblogger on Twitter, was honored to receive one of the National Agri-Marketing Association’s 2012 Professional Development Awards of Excellence during the Trends in Agriculture conference last week in Kansas City. Chuck received the award for Excellence in Public Relations.

In good company, Chuck was honored with Stephanie Gable (left) of Novus International for Product/Species Management and Margaret Fogarty, Farm Credit for Marketing Communications. The fourth winner in the Sales category was Sue Lee of Farm Journal Media who is not pictured because she was attending another meeting. All are well deserving of the honors.

Here’s what NAMA had to say about Chuck:

From on-line photo album development for key industry events, to news reporting and media liaison activities for various commercial clients, to ‘blogging’ his way across the land, Chuck has become a common sight at just about any type of meeting or event in the agriculture industry. He has also done a great deal to get many others involved in new media endeavors.

Chuck has been active in NAMA throughout his career and he continues his membership in a very active way now in his role representing his own company, ZimmComm, Inc. He has given countless hours and days to NAMA service in many, many ways over the years. He has always been active in his local chapters, and has been involved in program planning and leadership at local levels. He is currently a nominee to the Executive Committee.

Stephanie turned the tables on Chuck and interviewed him about his award. Listen to that here: Stephanie Interviews Chuck

2011 NAMA Trends in Agriculture Photo Album

We have gotten to take a much-needed break from the road in September and enjoy the beautiful late summer weather here in mid Missouri. It has been by far the longest stretch of decent weather we’ve had here all year – and the longest stretch of time off the road! It’s been nice to catch up and catch our breath.

Of course, Chuck did spend over a week in Ontario, Canada for the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) annual congress this month, so we weren’t TOTALLY home bound. Check out all of the more than 1,000 photos from the trip here. Thanks to Pioneer for once again sponsoring our coverage of this great event.

As for Cindy – well, I spent a grand total of one day on the road in September – and now feel fully caught up. My one trip was to Minnesota for the official opening of the REG Albert Lea biodiesel plant. We would like to sincerely thank the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council for allowing us to cover this event on their behalf and congratulate all involved for getting this plant back up and running to meet the advanced biofuel needs of the state of Minnesota and the rest of the country under the Renewable Fuels Standard.

Gearing up to get back on the road, both of us will be heading to Madison, Wisconsin the first week of October to cover the World Dairy Expo on World Dairy Diary for sixth year in a row. Thanks to our sponsors Charleston Orwig and several of their dairy clients, including Hoard’s Dairyman, Accelerated Genetics, and Dairy Business Association; as well as Alltech – a first time sponsor for this event for us, but a long time supporter.

Hope to see you all somewhere on down the agriblogging highway!

August may have been our busiest month ever.

We started out the month with cattle producers in the Sunshine State for the 2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference. The joint meeting of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) in Kissimmee, Florida featured Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. Click on the photo for a larger version and see the CISC 2011 photo album for more. Posts about the CBB side of the meeting can be found on BeefBoardMeeting.com, where meeting photos, interviews and committee reports going back to 2007 are archived.

We also covered the AgCareers.com 2011 Ag HR Roundtable for the first time. The event was held on the campus of Purdue University and brought together representatives from agribusiness and academia to discuss how to recruit and prepare young people for careers in agriculture.

Another stop this month was in Toledo, Ohio for the CTIC Conservation in Action Tour, which featured a full day of visits in the area around Lake Erie. This rosy sunset over the Maumee River greeted us as we returned from the tour. I really love that photo – click on it for a larger version, and check out the CTIC 2011 tour photo album for more.

The Sturgis Motorcycle rally in South Dakota was definitely a first for us. Chuck covered that for the Renewable Fuels Association, which partners with the Buffalo Chip Campground to promote ethanol. See his photos from Sturgis here. No, he didn’t ride a motorcycle, but he did sleep in a very comfortable RV at the campground – it was an experience!

Without too much of a break, Chuck headed to Kansas City for the NAMA Bootcamp and then to Nashville for the AgChat Agvocacy 2.0 conference.

Cindy’s next two trips sent her from coast to coast. First to the Boehringer-Ingelheim annual swine health seminar in North Carolina. This is the fourth time we have been able to attend this event and it is always fun because it is so family-oriented. They invite their producer and partner clients and their families for a really nice weekend on the Carolina coast. It was a pirate theme this year and all the kids really enjoyed it!

Five days later, Cindy headed to Seattle at the request of the United Soybean Board to attend the U.S. Soybean Export Council’s first Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting. The weather was glorious in Seattle and as a weird coincidence, Cindy got to attend the wedding of a very close high school friend who lives in Tacoma.

The month wrapped up with the biggest product launch in the 174 year history of John Deere in Indianapolis. Chuck got lots of great photos and video there. The photos have already been viewed over 2600 times and the three videos collectively have been seen almost 10,000 times! Cindy attended the GROWMARK annual meeting in Chicago, then we both got together and headed to Decatur, Illinois for the 2011 Farm Progress Show. Together we uploaded over 600 photos that have been viewed more than 3,000 times.

All totaled, we traveled over 16,000 miles in August, uploaded nearly 4,000 photos, and did more than 400 posts on all four of our websites. We are definitely looking forward to a break from the road and a little R&R on Labor Day before we get back at it in September!

It’s hard to believe we’re half way through July and we haven’t updated you on all the things we’ve been doing. Could be because we’ve been doing a lot. So I’ve got more updating to do. But let’s just focus on a big announcement we made last week. It’s a project we’re doing for New Holland. Here’s the details.

Announcing the New Holland Boomer™ 555 Contest. Eight lucky winners will receive a 5-year lease (150-hour per year) on a New Boomer 30 with a 240TLA Loader with the 5-year Boomer Guard5 Limited Warranty. All you have to do is fill out the entry form and describe how you would use a New Holland compact tractor.

You can find out all you need to know, including contest rules and regulations, on the Boomer555.com blog. I’m going to be the Boomer™ 555 Contest blogger throughout this campaign, updating you frequently with announcements and sharing selected entries and feedback from the folks I meet. Yes, that does mean I’ll be out and about. Follow along on Twitter and Facebook too.

Here’s a picture of a Boomer 30. Picture that on your place!

So, let’s learn more about the contest from Doran Herritt, New Holland Brand Marketing Manager. We spoke by phone. Doran says New Holland decided to conduct the Boomer™ 555 Contest as part of their introduction of the new 5 year limited warranty on the new Boomer tractors. The 5′s represent 5 months to enter to win a 5 year lease on a Boomer 30 with a five year warranty. Doran encourages you to think creatively about how you would use a Boomer tractor/loader and enter the contest. Whatever you can dream up is okay. It’s time to get Boomer555 Fever!

You can listen to my conversation with Doran here: Doran Says - Get Boomer555 Fever

If you aren’t familiar with the New Holland Boomer Tractors then learn all about them on the New Holland website.