infOpinions?

AgWired is a site I’ve been impressed with for some time now. It is the brainchild of Chuck and Cindy Zimmerman. They had this funny idea about “Talking News Releases.”, long since renamed to AgWired or the ZimmCast podcast.

…farmer podcasts seemed a bit of a novelty, at first… but, Chuck and Cindy changed my mind about that quickly..

I first wrote about the site in December 2004. Then, after their redesign, I revisited the site in February 2005. They had finished experimenting and now had a full-blown site with all manner of blogs, social media and multimedia.

Examples?

• ZimmCast Podcast
• World Dairy Diary
• AgNewsWire
• Domestic Fuel
• ZimmComm New Media

Well, fast-forward about a year later and they are really proving quite successful using social media in agriculture marketing. And, let us remember that success (as in metrics) is a relative thing. For Chuck and Cindy’s key stakeholders, their stats from the link above seem - to me, at least - to be quite impressive.

Now, as role models to other agrimarketers, Chuck and Cindy have influenced others to follow suit in the agriculture marketing sector. Meet Evan Slack of Denver, CO. He has been a member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting for 50 years and now has a blog. And, he’s advertising on Chuck and Cindy’s blog, too. Question: Chuck and Cindy, is Evan one of your clients?

Today, Evan Slack may be heard on 50 radio stations in 9 states - KS, MT, NE, WY, ID, OR, NV and UT.

This could be a lot of fun. I did farm reports years ago on radio. Evan has a 50 year history in the business. Wonder if he has any recordings of those old broadcasts? Wouldn’t it be interesting to post, for nostalgia’s sake, some of those old broadcasts? I’d listen to a few.

Evan, here’s some unsolicited blogging / podcasting advice. Agrimarketing and agriculture news are a natural fit for social media. Honest. The audio, video and images of the people and topics are ripe for sharing.

I’m really writing this for anyone, but Evan wrote to me about his new site. So, I’m using him as an example. Evan didn’t ask for the advice, but - then again, I didn’t ask for the email. Evan seems like a nice guy. Maybe this will help.

We’re going to briefly cover digital audio, video and photos.

Do you have a digital audio recorder? Many are available for less than $100 and allow you to easily transfer the files to your computer. Get the free opensource Audacity editing software to get them ready for uploading. Also, get Filezilla for FTP-ing (uploading) your files to your server. So far, you’re using all free software. Cool, huh? There’s more, too.

You’re using WordPress for your blog, so why not add the PodPress plugin and start uploading your many programs as MP3s. Do them every day, after your programs air. Take some of those old programs and digitize them, too. For nostalgia’s sake, a farm report from 1956 would be quite a hoot, I think. Surely you have some old tapes, right?

Submit your podcasts to every directory from iTunes to Blubrry and Podcast Alley to Podcast Pickle and everything inbetween.

Don’t have a lot of storage space in your hosting account? Go get a libsyn hosting account just for your audio files.

Evan, it turns out, is a pilot. Well, if you can afford a Mooney 252, you can afford a digital video camera. Get yourself a simple to use JVC Everio digital hard drive camera. You can get a 3CCD version for less than $600. You’ll be amazed at (a) the quality of the video and audio and (b) the simplicity of shooting, editing and posting the videos. On your trips, grab some video interviews and post those. Video yourself doing your broadcasts and while you’re flying. Add that visual spice of your quite interesting lifestyle to your blog’s multimedia offerings.

Seriously, it is quite easy to do. With the JVC Everio GZ-MG50, for instance…

Don’t tape it. Don’t worry about reloading discs either, because the palm sized GZ-MG50 records over 37 hours of video on its high-capacity 30 GB hard disk drive.

I use one and it is sweet. With that and a computer, you’re ready to go. The editing software that comes with it is all you really need. But, you can upgrade for about $60 and get some extra graphics bells and whistles for the mini productions.

Still have a storage problem? Well, for videos you can upload to YouTube, Google Video or ifilm and let them handle the hosting. Then, in your WordPress blog, use the Viper Video Quicktags plugin to present the videos in your blog posts. It, too, is an easy to use (and free) plugin for WordPress, just like PodPress.

Here’s how Chuck does it with YouTube, for instance. Hey, who doesn’t want to watch Tanya Tucker drive a big blue Holland tractor around an obstacle course.

Then, get a Flickr account. The pro version only costs $25 a year. That JVC Everio will allow you to take still photos, too. Load those, and any old photos you scan, into your account.

Now, there are many other ways to accomplish all of the things I’ve described here. Look around and you’ll see that there are many free resources and the others are relatively inexpensive. Evan, you’ll be another star podcaster / vlogger in no time. With your travels and history, you’re a natural for this. Best of luck.

P.S. Um, I’d ditch the AOL email account, Evan. I know it is free to everyone now, but there is a certain stigma associated with AOL accounts. If you aren’t going to use the email with your domain (something@evanslack.com), which I would strongly suggest, then go get a GMail account and use that. Some people will react poorly to an AOL account. I know. It is silly, but a reality. I think some people actually blacklist AOL accounts. So, why suffer the goofy backlash.