Ag Internet.....The New Frontier

I saw a story the other day regarding the media world and their panic over the pull back in online advertising. As many companies get nervous about where the general economy is headed they have pulled back not only in print advertising but also web advertising on popular sites like Yahoo, Google, etc. I believe this is a real concern for "mainstream America" but I am not convinced this applies to the agricultural industry.

Farmers & Ranchers have been challenged with connectivity issues over the years. That gap is slowly but surely catching up and is allowing them to get online with a reasonable speed. I have spoken to many farmers at trade shows who state they would use the web more often as soon as they have high speed. Couple this with the fact that our industry is experiencing a strong economy and I think this is an incredible time to reach this "new audience" via the web. Now, as a guy who works for a print publication you may think I am crazy to say," use the web!" But the good news is at Fastline is we have been preparing for this shift for many years. We are weeks away from a new website re-design for fastline.com and we have been working with a Search Engine Optimization company to help us be on the front lines of those in need of ag products and equipment. Our web numbers have been growing at an average 40% increase year over year and we are close to reaching the 4 million page view mark per month.

So the bottom line is that ag online advertising is the new frontier for those in our industry who want another touch to reach prospective customers. We have had our site up since 1998 and we are the leader with the largest searchable database of equipment in the world.....but the last year tells me that we are just hitting our stride and that the best is yet to come.

Touching Them All

I know I am bit late in posting a blog on this story but there may be some who are not yet familiar with it. I think it is worth repeating for all our benefit. It's an uplifting moment from which we all can learn a lesson.

Sarah Tucholsky had never hit a home run in college softball. As a member of the the Div II Western Oregon State team, fate would have it that in a scoreless game she would hit her first home run with two runners on giving her team a 3-0 lead in a crucial playoff game. The only problem with this storybook scenario is that when rounding first and heading to second she realized in her excitement she had missed touching first and turned to go back and touch first base. That's when her knee gave out and she tore her ACL. She crawled back to first, hugged the base, and everyone watched in disbelief at the unfolding drama.

The umpire stated that the rules would allow a pinch runner but that Sarah's home run would be recorded as a 2 run single instead of a 3 run home run. Any assistance from her teammates would result in her being called out. That's when a player from the opposing team asked, "Can we carry her?". This wasn't any player. This was Mallory Holtman, who owns almost every major offensive record they have for Western Washington State. She thought it was the right thing to do....to help someone who had earned the right to have her first home run count. So she and a team mate picked up Sarah and carried her around the bases "touching them all" with her left foot and allowing Sarah to enjoy the thrill she deserved. So why post a sports story on a business blog? I think there are a tremendous amount of lessons to be learned here that can be applied to so many aspects of sales, marketing, and business. Who do we have on our business team? How do we use the rules and regulations in our industry to our advantage? But the overwhelming thought I had here was about competition. We all face tough competition in business and it is important to win in the business game. But the reality is, we as marketers and sales people, need to "do the right thing" not only for our customers & clients but for ourselves. The ultimate victory is in knowing you won by "touching them all"...whether by yourself or with the help of others.

By the way, the assistance given to Sarah by Mallory ended up having a major impact to the game. Western Washington did rally for 2 runs on the bottom of the 2nd....runs that would have tied the game had it not been for their gesture. The final score was 4-2. But the final score was not why this game will be remembered for years to come.

How do you Rank?

Is it just me, or does it seem like every two days there is someone coming out with "Best Places in America to Live" or "Worst Traffic Commutes in America" list? Add in the occasional "Best Colleges in America", "Best Cities to Work In", yada, yada, yada, and it could really make you feel pretty good or pretty crappy about where you live, work or went to school. My thought to all of this is this: Forget these surveys! Be content with your current community or work commute.

This is kind of running joke between me and my sister-in-law who lives in upstate NY. We have often joked about who lives in the better community and I have even on occasion taken one of these surveys and used it to my advantage! Did you know my community ranks #3 in the U.S. for playground equipment? Take that Fairport, NY! Your kids are never going to amount to anything!(Just kidding...I think they are # 2 in Nuclear Physicist Graduates) The reality is, these are all quite subjective and I would venture to say that when a list comes out with the greatest places we expect our town's to be on it. We look in disbelief to find out we didn't make the "Prettiest Landscaped Towns" list. We also look with fear that we may be on the "Worst Sewer Smelling Cities in the U.S." list.

I wonder if you were able to take the data from all of the "lists" if you would really find Utopia. I actually think that Utopia exists in many areas of the U.S. Most of us care about our communities and are happy to be a part of them. We all have many things to be proud of in our towns. So let's stop reading the "Best of...", "Worst of..." Lists!

This did get me to thinking though, about the "Best Agricultural Publications in America" list and guess who is # 1 on that one?!