Registration is now open for this year’s BlogWorld and New Media Expo. I attended last year and am hoping to do so again this year schedule permitting. If you really want to hone your new media and social networking skills then this is the place to do it. It would be cool to have other ag folks there!

Join us at the World’s Largest New Media event and learn about Content Creation, Distribution and Monetization strategies, step-by-step techniques and bleeding-edge tools from the most successful Bloggers, Podcasters, Social Media Pro’s, Internet TV and Radio Broadcasters, and Podcasters! From the premier educational sessions at the Social Media Business Summit and BlogWorld Conference, to the resource-rich New Media Expo, to Amazing Networking events…it’s One economical trip, One weekend, One Big Show you can’t afford to miss!

We are all intrinsically connected. Mitch Joel unravels the fascinating world of new media and how it is changing business as we know it. Written in business language for business people, Six Pixels of Separation is a book about why these changes happened and what you can do about them to make your business grow. If everyone around you is asking what you’re doing on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and you’re still concerned about that newspaper ad you will be running next week, this book is the perfect business primer for you.

The biggest challenge for marketers was integrating Web analytics with other marketing solutions, cited by 46% of respondents. Verifying the accuracy of data was a problem for 41% of marketers, while 32% reported trouble with analytics that were not comprehensive and 29% complained of budgets that were too small.

I take exception to the statement above about analytics proving success. If by analytics they mean just web analytics. By this I mean that just because I can deliver a ton of impressions (visits, visitors, clicks, click throughs, etc.) it doesn’t mean the company sold anything. But how often does an agency or marcomm staff member justify an investment by providing a report that says, “We spent X$’s and got a story that aired on 200 radio stations, a feature in a publication with 100,000 “subscribers” and a web banner or post that had 10,000 visitors.” Wow. Sounds good. But what was the result? Did they sell more? Did that story actually air on those stations? Who listened? Did every subscriber read the feature in that magazine? Did every web visitor see and/or click through on the banner or post? How often do you get that much detail? Ever?

I want to find out how you agrimarketers are tackling this issue. What metrics do you want from the web? What is meaningful? What form do you want it in? Are there certain services or software you prefer? If you place a banner ad, what do you want reported to you? How often do you need to see information? What do you consider reasonable?

This is a very important issue in today’s new media world and one that I have spent countless hours researching and discussing. As ZimmComm has developed online communities that revolve around a blog I don’t think reporting unique website visitors is very helpful for you in evaluating an investment in an advertising order. Why? Because there are over 12 other measurements that have nothing to do with website visitors that need to be considered. Here’s an example:

Let’s look at one day’s traffic on our AgWired site. It can be as high as 1,000 unique visitors. If I post your story does that mean that only 1,000 people saw it? No way!!!!! Consider that there are almost 1,000 subscribers to the AgWired RSS feed. They may not visit the site. That’s part of the value of the RSS feed. Consider that every post goes to my Twitter account with almost 1,600 followers and that every time one of my tweets is re-tweeted, it is seen by their followers. Consider that Twitter feeds my Facebook profile where I have 350 friends. Consider that this also updates my FriendFeed. Consider that the images or video I’m using in the story may be included in my Flickr or YouTube account. Consider that there are over 40 other websites that have installed the AgWired widget which displays homepage posts on their website. I’m not even counting the other less used social networking mechanisms I’m utilizing like Posterous, MySpace, etc.

But even beyond the above, what about the search engine aspect of all those places on the web that I have posted/distributed content that are now showing up in key word search results or key word news alerts? What about all the people who are re-publishing my information or sending it to their friends, neighbors and colleagues? Of course now you’ll ask the question, “Who are these visitors?” That’s a topic for another post.

Yeah. It adds up and all the sudden the total number of impressions for that one post could grow from the initial 1,000 unique visitor impressions to as many as 5,000 impressions. In fact, this number may only be good for just that one day or point in time. All our stories are archived. We never delete them. How much higher will that number grow within the next week, month and year?

This is what I’m talking about. This is what we do and excel at. This is what we preach and this is what can help grow your brand.

I still find so many in corporate communications who can’t wrap their mind around this concept. Granted there are a lot of control freaks out there who fear loss of the control they’ve enjoyed for so many years. It’s a mentality that says “I’ll build what I want them to see and give them the choices I want them to make.” But those days are coming to an end.

Today’s consumer (any kind, farmers included) not only want and demand freedom of choice but they’re just creating their own destinations and touch points. They’re leaving the old destination websites behind. I was prompted to write this after reading Steve Rubel’s post on Micropersuasion, “The End of the Destination Web Era.”

After years of erosion it now it appears the destination web era is drawing to a close. This a trend that digital thinkers like Om Malik have long noted. In fact, the numbers prove it.

In March the average American visited a mere 111 domains and 2,500 web pages, according to Nielsen Online. What’s worse, our attention across these pages is highly fragmented. The average time spent per page is a mere 56 seconds. Portals and search engines dominate, capturing approximately 12 of the 75 hours spent online in March. However, people-powered sites like Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube are not far behind, snagging nearly 4.5 hours of our monthly attention.

He points to an article by ARAnet in conjunction with Opinion Research Corporation that talks about what you can do to break through the clutter. The answer doesn’t include fancy pop up ads.

Long-shunned pop-up ads remained the least favorable option for every audience segment, regardless of age, race, income, sex, region or size of household: 87% of respondents said they were not very likely or not at all likely to read and respond to them.

Their conclusion is that brand mentions in articles is one of the best ways to reach consumers. I would call that “meaningful content” that is posted into social networking locations and on highly search engine optimized websites (blogs). That’s why public relations folks are trying to figure out ways to present information to bloggers now. We’re not your ordinary msm journalists!

Do you get it? Are you willing to venture out into the online conversation or are you going to stay inside your “safe” online house and hope someone comes to visit?

All four networks made it into the top 10, but market share for each is dwarfed by YouTube. NBC, in third place, garners a mere 3.9% of visits, but this marks the first time NBC has been in the top five. Fox Interactive Media also has a 3.9% share. ABC commands 2.8% of visits to online video sites, and CBS Interactive accounted for just 2%.

Now you know why I YouTube. Shouldn’t you? Or are you still into “controlling the visitor experience?”

I just saw some interesting new data on how Inc. 500 companies are making use of social media. Here’s a chart comparing their use in 2007 (green) with 2008 (blue). You can click on the image to see a bigger version of it.

Research Highlights:

The research suggests that companies that are using social media & new media technologies are growing faster than other companies.

The research was done by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. You can download the study, which I recommend.

Via Podcasting News.

My favorite place to keep up with what’s going on in my new media world is eMarketer. They’ve got a new report out, “The Blogosphere: A Mass Movement From Grass Roots,” which has some interesting information. Here’s a couple of excerpts:

More importantly, by 2012, more than 145 million people—67% of the US Internet population—will be reading blogs at least once a month. That is up from a readership of 94 million in 2007, or 50% of Internet users.

“Furthermore,” adds Mr. Verna, “the rates at which blog readers notice and click on ads suggest that they are a well-primed audience.”

Where are you placing your advertising these days? Same old, Same old or . . . . . .

• Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development.
• All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves: Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3.
• 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content: 55% of users have uploaded photos, 22% of users have uploaded videos.
• Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and a collective rival to traditional media – 73% have read a blog, 45% have started a blog.
• Social media has strong impacts over brand’s reputation – 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog – 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs.

Here’s the percentage of respondents who agreed with these statements:

• 56% Blogging is a good way to express yourself
• 36% I think more positively about companies that have blogs
• 33% I have a favorite blog that I read regularly
• 32% I trust bloggers opinions on products and services
• 31% Blogging is an important way to socialize with friends

There’s so much information in this report that I can’t even begin to point it all out. It’s all good. Just take some time, take a deep breath and say, “I will read it and I will try to “get it.”

Via Podcasting News

I’ve been testing the cameras I’ve got to see if I can get a better picture for my streams. Below you’ll find a test I did with my Dell Latitude and a Logitech RightSight webcam a few minutes ago. I think that a small camera is best so I’m going to get a webcam that works with my Mac and take that on the road to experiment with.

I don’t know what you think about live web streaming but I think there’s a lot of very cool applications for in in agricultural communications and I’m going to be trying it in the coming weeks.

It’s just a continuing development of the community we’ve developed and our way to be in the online conversation. If you’d like to get a perspective on what that means then you should check out this post on “From the X Degree.” via Teaching Online Journalism

You might want to say that we’re just “early adopters” and that somehow this means that since not everyone in America is doing this or consuming this then perhaps it’s not something your company or news organization should be doing. Tempting if you’re afraid of the future I guess. However, it is the future of journalism and how people will and are consuming news.

• iPod/Portable MP3 player ownership continues dramatic growth. Nearly four in ten
  (37 percent) own an iPod or other brand of portable MP3 player; up from 30 percent in
  2007 and more than two and a half times the number in 2005 (14 percent). Nearly three-
  quarters (73 percent) of those age 12-17 own a digital audio player.
• Audio podcasting usage continues to increase along side the proliferation of
  iPod/MP3 player ownership. Eighteen percent have ever listened to an audio podcast;
  up from 13 percent in 2007. Nine percent have listened to an audio podcast in the past
  month (an estimated 23 million).

The study also found out how important mobile phones are to people today:

More than one in five (21 percent) consumers said radio has a big impact on their lives; ranking second only to mobile phones (33 percent) as the audio platform/device that has the biggest impact on people’s lives.

Why do we care about mobile phones? Can you say iPhone? And what about texting to that “audio” device eh?

For starters, let’s look at a statement in chapter one, “. . . forming groups has gotten a lot easier. To put it in economic terms, the costs incurred by creating a new group or joining an existing one have fallen in recent years, and not just by a little bit. They have collapsed.”

Clay’s talking about groups. Any kind of group. Could be farmers. Could be farmers who love green tractors. Could be any group of people you can imagine. Until recently it wasn’t easy or inexpensive to belong to groups much less create and manage them. I suppose you could think of the listeners to a local radio station as a group. But how much does it cost to buy an FCC license and transmit your signal? More than you and I have. Been there, done that.

Today though, using new media tools like blogging or podcasting, which includes social networks like Facebook, I dare say most people can afford to create their own group and have global reach. This is allowing many more groups to exist. It also means companies are having to re-think how they get their message out since there are many new and different channels to do so. It also means they can’t apply the same measurement standards to the tactics they’re using. If they do then they’ll find themselves stuck in the same old, same old and wonder why others are getting ahead of them.

There was a great AP story out last week that focused on how food companies are targeting the writers of niche blogs. It helps illustrate how important this new proliferation of “groups” is becoming. Here’s an excerpt with my own highlighting added:

One blog with a couple of thousand daily readers may not have a huge impact, but marketers can easily reach several such blogs with little effort, said Debbie Weil, a corporate blogging consultant based in Washington. “Companies are paying attention to the concept of lots and lots of tiny little markets. Added up, it’s significant,” Weil said.

Food blogs “may not have the mass reach, but it’s a more engaged, specific audience,” said Greg Zimprich, a spokesman for General Mills Inc. “Their readers are going to care a lot more about a product of ours.”

I know it’s not easy shifting the paradigm of the mass audience to one of multiple niche audiences but think about the value of your investment. I suggest that investing fewer dollars to reach the most motivated or engaged customers may have a greater return that spending huge amounts of money, most of which is reaching people who aren’t interested in your product or message.

You can read a little bit about Twitter in an article on Fox Business.com.

Is Twitter the next big thing or a twempest in a tweepot? Twitter is a free “micro-blogging” service that allows users to send updates, or “tweets” — messages of up to 140 characters that answer the question “what are you doing now?” The updates are kept on the user’s profile page and distributed to friends via text messages, instant messaging, RSS feeds, and other applications.

I see applications for this that probably aren’t exactly what Twitter co-founder Evan Williams had in mind. Consider how you can quickly and easily distribute information from a meeting or an event without having to have your computer or even an internet connection. You can update your Twitter feed via your mobile phone for example. Get started and let your friends and customers know what you’re up to (that you want them to know of course).

This is going to be fun. The idea is to “Create Innovative New Ways to Communicate to the Industry, the Public, Prospective Students, Current Students and others!” I’ll be showing how to create podcasts and how we’re seeing podcasts being used in agriculture. This is on behalf of the Agricultural Education and Communication Department.

I know that more and more companies and even those in traditional media are looking for new employees with the skills to create multimedia content for websites and podcasts. These skills were once taught piecemeal but the computer tools of today are changing everything. If your school or staff would benefit from a session on the use of new communications platforms then you know who to call (the Agriblogger and Farm Podcaster).

1. From the folks at eMarketer: Heard the Latest About Podcasting? Engagement via headphones. Ever since podcasting was introduced, the question has been the same: Will anyone listen? The answer is definitely “Yes.”

2. A new media event listing.

1. The Association for Downloadable Media reported on a study done in the UK about podcasting and listening to internet radio. Here’s a couple of findings regarding podcasting:

4.3 million people have downloaded a Podcast and 1.87 million listen to a Podcast each week.

iTunes is the software of choice, used by two thirds of Podcast users to subscribe to Podcasts, while almost a quarter simply download directly from the website via their browser. 80% listen to Podcasts on their home computer and 61% listen via a portable audio / mp3 player.

2. Paul Conley has a post about changing the mindset at a traditional media company regarding the internet. He uses this example to make a point why the corporate recruiter might be the best person to change.

One of them was asked “what would make you throw out a resume?” And she replied that she wouldn’t hire anyone with a resume that said “multimedia reporter.” She went on to say that she was looking for “newspaper people.” But then, a few minutes later, she mentioned that the reporters at her chain were now being trained to carry video cameras.

The other woman, when asked about how she looks through applications, said she doesn’t look at electronic resumes and won’t follow links to Web stories, multimedia packages or other online examples of work. The reason? She said she didn’t have the time, and preferred to look at things on paper.

I wouldn’t want to work for either of the companies these people recruit for!

3. If you’re a budding online journalist you might want to check out Wired Journalists. I’ve got a page started there. Here’s part of their mission statement:

WiredJournalists.com was created with self-motivated, eager-to-learn reporters, editors, executives, students and faculty in mind.

Our goal is to help journalists who have few resources on hand other than their own desire to make a difference and help journalism grow into its new 21st Century role.

This does not mean all traditional media are declining in influence. Media that can target, be timely, and deliver value to consumers, such as coupons/direct mail, radio, yellow pages, newspapers and newspaper inserts all increased in influence to purchase as consumers are looking to stretch budgets in a slowing economy.

I think this list of key findings is fascinating:

• Regular simultaneous media consumption for online, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and direct mail is up from 1% to 35%, depending on the medium.
• Channel surfing remains the #1 regular activity engaged in during TV commercials with 41.2% doing so followed by:
  33.5% talk with others in the room or by phone
  30.2% mentally tune out
  5.5% regularly fully attend to commercials
• In SIMM 11, eating continues to be the #1 activity people engage in while using media followed by doing housework, doing laundry, cooking and talking on phone.
• Top simultaneous media used when reading a newspaper are: watch TV, listen to the radio and go online.
• For people listening to radio, other media simultaneously used are (top 3): engage in other activities, go online and read the newspaper.
  Web radio usage is up in all dayparts.
• Cable is where most TV viewing takes place.
• Dayparts which had highest number of media types increase usage over SIMM 10 – 1:00 am to 6:00 am, Noon to 4:30 pm, 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm, 7:30 pm to 11:00 pm and 10:00 am to Noon.
• Top 3 In-Store Promotions for influence of purchasing a product: Product Samples, Shelf Coupons and Special Displays.
• Top 3 Media for triggering an online search: Magazines, Reading an article on the product and TV.
• Blogging increases in all dayparts.

* Advertising Standards: Brian McMahon, CEO, National Podcasting System
* Education & Outreach: Rob Walch, VP, Podcaster Relations, Wizzard Media
* Committee Chair: Measurement: Angelo Mandato, CIO, RawVoice, Inc.
* Membership Committee: Bryan Moffett, Sponsorship Operations Manager, NPR Digital Media
* Terminology Standardization: David Rowley, VP Engineering, Kiptronic, Inc.

Subscribe to their blog using this link.

The organization has been formed to focus specifically on any content downloaded by consumers, and will work in collaboration with related industry organizations, publishers and agencies such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA).

Great idea and I’ve already submitted my name to be one of the first to join as soon as membership is available.

It’s done by Poynter Institute librarian Dave Shedden who’s also put together a timeline of New Media that goes back to 1969.

If you really want to learn more about this new media thing and get some different perspectives then take a little time to surf through some of his links.

I think it’s just part of the wackiness that’s become iPhone-Mania.

See a lot of coverage of this historic event in the news.

Here’s a video Steve did this morning which includes an interview with Mr. Number One In Line:

I’m sure Steve will have more posted on his site later.

This is outside the local AT&T store here in Jefferson City, MO. There were people lined up even here to get their iPhone before anyone else. I think the store kind of overdid it on the security thing. They were locked up tight with a police guard outside. At 6pm they let in the first nine people. You can see number one going in this photo. Then they locked it back up again.

One of the reporters outside said that a customer stopped by to pay her bill but they wouldn’t let her in. Now that’s crazy.

While I was standing there taking these pics a guy who looked like the store manage walked up in an AT&T logo shirt. Even he had trouble getting in. He wouldn’t do an interview either.

I stopped first at another local AT&T authorized dealer and they said Apple wouldn’t send them phones for today’s launch. Why?

I need to buy one for the winner of a drawing we held in our trade show booth at the National Agri-Marketing Association convention a few months ago. I’m not standing in any line to wait though.

So why should you care? Apple is going to revolutionize mobile content delivery. That means the information and way you communicate with your clients. Think about it.

I did go to the Apple Store just now and got this message saying I need to come back later. I guess that’s what I’ll do.

At last night’s dinner one of the participants wanted to use my camera so I let her and she took a picture of the photographer (me). Her name is Fran Doig and her husband, Paul received one of the CAHI “Recognizing Its Leaders” awards last night. You can read more about this on AgWired.

I thought I’d post some of the resources I’m using here and later I might add the audio recording of my presentation too just in case you’re interested and only if I think I sound okay. So linked to here are the agenda for my presentation (Word doc), my Power Point slides (PPT file) and a little resources handout (Word doc).

I’ll also be giving away a few sets of ZimmComm retractable ear buds to some lucky winners too.

A good example of event coverage is the past week’s activities in Indianapolis as we covered the activities of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council during race week of the Indy 500.

Another one is my trip to Lexington, KY to make a presentation on the use of blogging and podcasting for the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ). This was covered on AgWired.

This week I’m off to the annual meeting of the Canadian Animal Health Institute to make a presentation on new media and to show examples like these. Their members are looking for new ways to reach out to their customers and the theme of their convention is “Harnessing Technology to Expand Markets.” I think what I’ll be presenting fits in just fine.

Please let me know if you’d like a presentation for your convention or company meeting or if you’re interested in consultation or event coverage of your event.

One of the people who you might want to read if you don’t is Seth Godin. He just recently wrote an interesting post on this topic of what he calls, “liveblogging.”

The information comes from a Melcrum survey, Social Media and the Corporate Communicator. Here’s what their summary says about the future.

While only a third of communicators described social media as a priority right now, 41% reported that they were committed to two-way communication with employees/customers online, and 52% anticipated their social-media budgets increasing over the next 12 months.

Robin Crumby concluded that “It seems likely that social media is here to stay and the key challenge for corporations is likely to be how they integrate these new technologies into their existing media mix.”

Click To Play

If after watching the video you still don’t understand then let me know and maybe I can try to further clarify. RSS is what drives blogs and podcasts from a distribution standpoint so it’s a pretty important mechanism.

We’ve been receiving lots of interest in sponsorship opportunities for our own properties as well as creating custom-tailored blog sites and podcasts.

Neither one of us was out doing this two years ago. Now I’ve actually made reference to the “traditional” way to blog or create a podcast.

Another webinar you might want to check out is on blogging and being offered by PR Newswire. It’s called “Blogging: Get in? Get out? or Get out of the way?” You can probably guess what my answer is.

PR Newswire has brought together a panel of online veterans to discuss blogging as it pertains to the PR professional and the news reporter. Learn how blogging has changed journalism, how it has opened new lines of communication outside the traditional press and how PR professionals should (or shouldn’t) react to the trend.

This webinar takes place on April 12 at 2pm-edt. Here’s where you register.

The fact is that everyone who is contributing to the dialogue – be it in video, text or photos – has earned the right to be called media. Let’s can the compartmentalization and recognize once and for all the world has changed. We are all media – period.

I like the idea of being a digitally empowered individual even though I didn’t grow up with the internet. A guy I met last week told me that his professional career matches the public introduction and development of the internet. He doesn’t even know a professional world without it. That’s what our young people are doing in an increasingly electronic world.

Now why is this important to you and me? Jobs describes the iPhone as a revolutionary device. After seeing the introduction and demonstration I agree. This thing is a lot more than just a cool gadget. It’s also a great functional tool that we’re going to literally see “out in the field.” It’s an example of where things are going in the mobile delivered content arena. In fact you might want to check out this story on eMarketer.com, “The Hottest New Media Platform of 2007 Is Right in Your Hand.”

I guess the question would be, Are you preparing to communicate with your members and customers wherever they are?

I spent an hour in an Apple store yesterday getting a very detailed demonstration of a MacBook Pro. If you think I should make the conversion please email me.