Blogs & Podcasts…Do They Have a Place in Agriculture?

Lane McConnell

Marketing Specialist

Missouri Dept. of Agriculture

What You Will Learn

Blogs & Podcasts Define and how created? How do you use as a marketing tool? Data

Impact on the Ag Industry Examples of each

What is a Blog?

A blog is webpage that is updated daily with short diary-like inserts (posts)

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write on an ongoing basis. New posts show up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you (OPTIONAL).

Blogging Definition Cont’d. A blog gives you your own voice on the web. It's a

place to collect and share things that you find interesting— whether it's your political commentary or information about your farm.

Many people use a blog as a business website or an addition to their website to post photos, news information and their personal views.

Places to Set-up Your Farm Blog Many available sites

Blogger.com (free) Typepad (monthly fee) Both sites guide you through the step-by-step

process to start your site (takes less than 7 minutes to step-up your blog)

Who’s Blogging

Purina Mills (Pet Podcasts) Food Companies (Whole Foods: Podcasts & Blogs) Missouri Organic Association (Podcasts & Blogs) Many tv and radio businesses (Brownfield Farm

Radio Network) Agritourism operations (Carolyn's Country Cousin) LOTS of Farms….just Google Farm Blogs…

1,920,000 different farm blogs

What is a Podcast?

A podcast is nothing more than a digital audio file, just like any other song or MP3 file on your computer.

What Makes Podcasting Different? The most common podcast format is a MP3 file…so

as long as you have a music player (Windows Media Player) on your computer you can listen to any podcast.

It’s basically a radio show. The real difference is the variety. Mainstream radio

has to appeal to broad audiences to cover the cost of licenses and transmitters, whereas podcasts can cater to any niche you can imagine. Anyone can make a podcast about anything they like, there are no rules and no limits, all you need is a computer and a microphone.

But I don’t have an iPod

Despite the name, you don’t need an iPod to listen to podcasts. All you need is an MP3 player.

Your computer is a MP3 player. It’s audio entertainment when and where you want it.

Subscribing to Podcasts

So now you’ve found some podcasts you like, why not subscribe? When you subscribe to a magazine a copy arrives in your mailbox every time a new issue is released. Subscribing to a podcast is just the same, but instead of a mailbox, you have an aggregator – a program that runs on your PC and automatically downloads your favorite podcasts ready for you to listen to.

iTunes (no you still don’t need an iPod) and Juice are the best known.

Get to Listening

Get out there and find some podcasts about the things that matter to you. There are plenty of places to find podcasts, but here are a few to get you started:

Some good podcast sources: iTunes - come with a huge podcast directory PodShow- The premiere network of podcasts IndiePodder - a huge independent podcast directory Podfinder - "Your guide to the podcast universe"

Blog Facts… The blogosphere is big and its readers spend more

time and money online than Web users who don't read them.

Fifty million Americans (30%) of all American Internet users, visited a blog in the first quarter of 2005, Comscore .

The average blog reader viewed 77 percent more pages than the average Internet user who doesn't read blogs (16,000 versus 9,000 for the quarter), the report found.

Blog readers are 11 percent more likely than the average Internet user to have incomes of or greater than $75,000.

Blogs Continue to Flourish Six of the major hosts report growth of greater

than 100% on a year-over-year basis. Blogs.com had the highest growth rate at

241%, followed closely by TypePad with 240 percent growth.

Overall, BlogSpot holds the top spot in terms of the greatest number of unique visitors, at 19 million, up from 7.7 million a year ago.

Podcast Facts…

Podcasting is the start of a new media content revolution that is empowering individuals with the ability to globally distribute their ideas and create a following of like minded fans.

It is impacting traditional industries such as journalism, education and entertainment allowing anyone to freely create and distribute news and media.

More Facts…

An Internet podcast star can potentially reach a much larger audience than any traditional radio personality ever could. With potential numbers in the millions it’s easy to see why there is so much hype behind the technology and many business folk eager to get behind it.

Podcasts and blogs are leading a new content distribution revolution on the web that you are going to hear a lot about in the future.

How farmers can use Blogs? As a farm website to list contact info, your

day-to-day operation, growing procedures, photos of the farm….anything you want.

Blogs provide a tie between the consumer and farmer and a path to recruit new customers

Examples: Selling at Farmers’ Market, Organic, Grass-fed beef operation, Agritourism operations

IMPACT on the Ag Industry: Blogs & Podcasts…

Tell the story of ag Promote the positive side of agriculture and

provide positive news on the internet and to consumers

New marketing tools Market your products to a new audience Consumer can learn about farmers lives,

becoming connected Blogs can serve or replace a website (for FREE)

If you sell ag products you HAVE to be online today

Blog & Podcast Examples Missouri Farmers’ Market Blog Missouri Organic Blog & Podcasts Tiny Farm Blog Carolyn's’ Country Cousin Missouri Beef Council Blog &Podcasts

Questions

Please feel free to contact me with any

questions…

Lane McConnell

Missouri Dept. of Agriculture

Phone: 573-526-4984

Email: Lane.McConnell@mda.mo.gov