Soft Management

Today I had the great pleasure of speaking at the Diversified Agriculture Conference in Layton, Utah.

I met so many nice farmers and ranchers, it was my pleasure to discuss one of my favorite subjects: Social Media!

Below is my Prezi and I made a SWEET handout which is downloadable in PDF format. I've also included my talking points:

Everybody Eats
• This is what we all have in common: Farmers, Hippies, City Slickers, Urban Cowboys
• However, views are distorted because Ag is so removed from consumers

Is There a Disconnect Between Consumers & Farmers?
• Farmers are now <2% of the population
• Does the average consumer know where their food comes from?
• Who’s got some funny stories?
• Homer Simpson Video on: bacon, pork chops & ham
• See how far Ag has come over the years with Monsanto Video

WTF?
• Without The Farmer…There Is No Food!
• If you’re not in it for the money, why do it?
• Farmers work because of: Tradition, Passion, Fun & Price in feeding the world

What’s the Issue?
• There is currently a BATTLE for INFLUENCE on the Internet
• Most of Ag does not even know it’s going on because they’re so busy PRODUCING everyone’s food
• Right now Ag is the Silent Minority

Anti-Ag Groups
• These groups have an AGENDA: Peta, Humane Society, Greenpeace, Farm Sanctuary, Sierra Club
• They have great POWER & INFLUENCE online throughout social media forums. 
• But do they see the big picture? Think about horse harvesting laws?
• They are controlling the image of Ag & making it harder for Ag to feed the world

Is Social Media a Fad?
• So what if Anti-Ag groups are big in Social Media?
• Does this really matter?
• Is it a bubble? Will it go away?

Social Media Stats
• FYI: It’s here to stay
• BTW: the world is going MOBILE
• If you disagree, throw your cell phone in the trash on your way out because Facebook reached 50M users 3x faster than cell phones did

Mass Influence
• Social Media is now the “Great Equalizer”
• This is how Obama won the Whitehouse in 2008 & how his campaign raised over $750M to defeat Clinton and McCain
• This is how Obama will raise $1B in 2012
• Liken Social Media adoption unto adoption of Telegraph: LINCOLN vs. LEE

1. Lincoln used the telegraph, Lee did not
   
2. Lincoln controlled all battles through quick communication with his generals, Lee wrote letters 
   
3. Lincoln nationalized railroads and mobilized troops faster, Lee struggled to keep up and went on the defense
   
4. The North beat the South
   

Old Media
• TV & Newspapers are losing their footing, struggling to adapt, fighting change
• Declining in trust and credibility because they’re really slow compared to news from blogs and social media networks
• Learn about the “New Media” – watc the  AgChat Video

What is #AgChat?
• This is the most important takeaway: Join the Conversation
• From 6-8pm MTN time in Utah
• Tip-toe in first, listen + learn…then share
• Twubs.com/agchat click on the links, read, learn the issues
• Get comfortable and eventually participate!

Now, Tell Your FARM STORY
• This is how we can influence the conversation
• Consumers deserve to have farmers answer their questions about food...right?
• How else can you contribute?
• Farmers know what BS smells like…so DISPEL MYTHS
• Start with ONE Social Media tool and get to work

Thank You

I've found Twitter most useful for professional networking with fellow Cooperative Extension/4-H professionals across the nation. I think I have three friends that are actually on Twitter, so I don't use it to post about my personal life. 

Here's a Prezi I used to teach about networking through Twitter at a recent conference.

Also, I made my handout downloadable below.

Start tweeting, it's really fun! Never in history could a young geek like me converse with nationally recognized CEOs, large corporations, celebrities and really anyone with similar interests from around the world. 

Drop me a line and let me know if you have any questions.

Today I attended the monthly "Dixie Techs" meeting with like 80 other geeks, freaks and nerd-jocks. It's a luncheon from 12-1pm that takes place every first Friday of the month at Dixie State College of Utah. They always have a great speaker and you get free pizza too!

I found this networking event very intriguing. I noticed that every software, web and mobile app developer was hiring. A friend of mine is a computer science professor at DSC and he had a dozen business owners asking him who he had in his program that was graduating soon. These guys were salivating over computer science talent – they were even interested in kids who still had a year left in their undergrad. As I found out, there were not a lot of students in the computer science program.

Then this evening I came across this article about online ads for computer science jobs in Utah being up more than 15% in January. As I read on I learned that “while there are more than 25 job seekers for every open position in fields like construction, the exact inverse is true in technology, health and science-related jobs.”

My friend and I believe our First Lego League (FLL) program, which is a partnership through the University of Utah, Dixie State College of Utah and Utah State University (my  4-H Robotics Program) is a feeder program to these higher education institutions. The demand is so high right now for tech jobs, if you have a kid that is even moderately interested in techy stuff then I encourage you to help him or her find their inner geek and get them involved in Lego Robotics – it’s a great platform for youth to learn engineering, design, and programming.

I am proud to announce that one of Utah's 4-H Robot teams in SLC won one of the top awards given at the Utah FIRST Lego League Championship State Finals!  The team “Lego Bistro” earned themselves the "Innovative Solution Award!"
VOTE HERE

This award is given to the team who comes up with the best idea and presentation on this topic: “Can FIRST® LEGO® League teams improve the quality of food by finding ways to prevent food contamination?”VOTE HERE

Learn more about their project by visiting the Lego Bistro Blog. Lego Bistro has an incredible idea, but we need your help to take them to the next level.  The next step is earning a development grant that will allow them to take their idea to market. Here's the scoop:

• Lego Bistro is eligible to win big--$250,000 -- through the FLL Global Innovation Award.
• We are asking you to vote daily to ensure their idea makes it to the top 10 competitors. You can help by voting as often as you can.  I believe the voting continues on into March.
• The top teams are reviewed by a panel of judges for the final award. We need to get them in a place where the judges will even look at them.  How cool would it be if our Utah 4-H team won this award!
• Please send this out to everyone you know. Post it on your website, blog Facebook page, on Google+ or in Twitter.  Just get the word out that a Utah 4-H team needs your help.
• You can vote once for each 24 hour period!

VOTE HERE

"We each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before." 
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf  

Anyone can create, we're all creative. I encourage everyone to get to work on creating. 

Here I am getting all religious, but I believe if you rely on God you can increase your capacity to create. 

Discover what your interests are, spend time deliberately practicing them and you will become talented. Use your talents to make your community of family, friends and neighbors better. 

This past week I shook a lot of hands. I attended several planning meetings, went to an economic summit for my county and last Saturday I weighed and tagged dozens of lambs and hogs for my 4H Livestock Program. 

I had the opportunity to meet so many nice people. But then I got sick and couldn't hold a thing down for 12 hours. I don't regret meeting new people because folks from Southern Utah are the salt of the Earth in my opinion. Nevertheless, I feel obligated to report on my day's accomplishments.

It's rare when I actually get so sick that I'm stuck in bed, but I was able to spend my sick day becoming further enlightened by listening to TED Talks, one after the other all day long. If you're ever in a situation (like being ill) where you can't do much and you have Internet access, I highly reccomend listening to as many TED Talks as possible.

Here are a several that I enjoyed:

While I was listening to these talks, I still felt somewhat unproductive so I decided to crochet (yes I crochet, and I'm really freaking good at it too!) this cool beanie for my ski trip on Friday. It required 2688 stitches and took me about 6 hours.

WeFollow is a cool site for anyone who's into Twitter. It's a social directory, so if you're in an industry and want to look for other people who have the same interests as you, search by key words and find those most followed folks. 

I searched for a term that didn't exist and this was what came up:

Now I'm blogging about this not only because I'm a huge fan of Back to the Future, but because I believe that everything a company does needs to go back to marketing. Instead of returning a lame response like "Sorry, the page you are looking for does not exist," I got this hilarious response and here I am sharing it with you. 

This is a cool puzzle that will make your mind boggle. I got a bunch of ping-pong balls and hot-glued them together in these pieces:

If you do it right it should look like this:

Just a fun craft I thought I'd share since I was working on it. Hope someone will pin it on PINTEREST!

Some might wonder why business is slow? Why are sales lagging? How come no one responds to the ads in the paper anymore? Marketing is a waste, right?

I remember this quote from somewhere:

"I'm absolutely sure at least half go my marketing budget is wasted...I'm just not sure which half."

This is what I understand about why marketing to the masses is a complete waste of time and money:

Over time, we as consumers have become so inundated with Choices that we don't have the Time to pay attention to everything. There is not enough time in the day to pay attention to all the mass ads vying for my attention. They are everywhere and they are generic so I tune out, everyone else does too...that is, unless they don't have enough going on in their lives.

If you want people to pay attention to what you have to offer then you need to be remarkable...OR get their permission. Instead of marketing by interrupting people, try marketing to people who are listening.

Recently, a company called Neenah Paper, a high-end paper manufacturer, discovered it was becoming increasingly difficult to attract new customers. Marketers at the company realized that conventional mediums like face-to-face meetings and phone conversations were not as prosperous as they used to be and they felt like potential customers were ignoring their efforts to attract new business. Sound familiar?

In this case, the marketing manager at Neenah decided to engage customers through social media. This was a good path to follow since it was observed that a majority of the company’s prospects were spending most of their day in front of a computer. Under his direction, the marketing department at Neenah began finding prospects by searching for keywords in Twitter and joining in on the conversations. They learned that social media is simply a more effective way of engaging with their prospects and one sales person expressed, “It’s an invitation to have a conversation. You’re getting permission to have a conversation—a conversation that used to only happen in person.”    

Some of the best advice I ever read about public speaking is PEP and EPE, but treats are another concept I've found to be helpful too. 

Last month I spoke about "Image Matters" (get the pun?) in front of my bosses and 30+ new colleagues who'd been doing their jobs longer than I've been alive. 

I wanted my ideas to stick so I told stories and made cinnamon roasted almonds to share with them. It's a good idea to tie the treat into what you are teaching and to make the packaging cute - women appreciate thoughtful stuff like that. 

It was my first impression to people I plan on working with for many years and the feedback I received at the lunch following seemed positive. Even if no one agreed with that I was presenting, at least they laughed at a few jokes and enjoyed the treat.