1. To Connect with Other Ranchers

Blogging brings like-minded people together. Starting a blog can help you find those people and share your opinions and thoughts. Blogging helps establish acquaintances, which turn in to contacts that develop in to more more business opportunities.

2. To Establish Yourself as an Expert

Blogs are wonderful tools to help ranchers establish themselves as experts in a field or topic. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses.

By sharing things you are knowledgable about you'll attract others seeking that information - Who in turn may be inclined to learn more about you, what you do, and share this information with others. The end result is more people that know more about you and better business opportunities as your reward.

3. To Market or Promote Something

When done correctly, blogging is a powerful tool to help you sell. Without question, the biggest hesitation most have when buying is that they do not know much about who they are buying from. Through blogs this barrier will diminish as others learn more about you and your operation.

4. To Have Fun and be Creative

Many start a blog simply for fun. Perhaps a blogger is a fan of a particular breed of cattle and wants to share that passion. One of the most important keys to successful blogging is having a passion about your blog's topic, so you can write prolifically about it. Some of the best and most interesting blogs started out as blogs that were written just for fun and to give the blogger a creative outlet.

5. Blogs are Search Engine Friendly

By nature, the fresh content in a blog, coupled with being a part of a larger network such as CattleGrower.com, make blogs search engine friendly.

As others search on various topics related to what you have to share, the chances of them finding your post on a larger network such as CattleGrower.com are far greater than any smaller individual web site.

As you continue to actively post over time your content will continue to build, grow, and work for you.

6. Because it is Easy

A Blog is nothing more than a collection of writing such as mine here. Easy enough to do, with many potential rewards over time.

Members: To post on your Blog at CattleGrower.com simply log in and select "Blog" from the "My Apps" icon on the top menu bar.

Ever wonder who did the best job of marketing last year?

Well before I tell you, it shouldn’t be a real stretch to come up with it. In fact most of you probably won’t guess who it is, and most of you will not recognize his name, but you will know who hired him.

To start this off, you have to know that the consensus was made by a national group study looking over all the major companies and players in the industry. The individual that is the top marketer did so by making the entire “social marketing” field his own tool.

He built up his marketing presence the same way that you and I can build up our marketing presence online; using "social marketing" tools like CattleGrower.com.

Who Is He?

Our winning marketer’s name is Chris Hughes. Recognize him? I didn’t think so. Maybe you would recognize the company he co-founded . . . Facebook.com. But that is not how he won this award. This marketing savvy actually was built off of the knowledge of Facebook and then used by all the other Web 2.0 tools to rally millions of others.

The quest was a campaign. A particular Presidential Campaign. Okay, now you know. The historic victory of president elect Barak Obama is the largest event of 2008, and perhaps of the century. Mr. Obama ran such a successful campaign because he relied on connecting with people by any means possible. The campaign relied heavily on “social media” outlets to reach out to potential voters, increase their knowledge of Mr. Obama and rally their votes.

Chris Hughes was at the heart of that campaign.

"Social Marketing" Creates "Grass-roots"

Chris took his intimate knowledge of social media to create My.BarackObama.com, The Obama’s campaign's official online social networking website.

They mobilized supporters and organized communities. Registering 1.5 million volunteers through myBarackObama.com and raising $600 million from 3 million people. 

How Can This Affect Your Ranching Operation?

These tools used to elect the nation’s first African-American President can be used to market you as well. Done on the right scale, anything is possible.

You might also re-call that Obama had millions left over after running his successful campaign. Not only is social networking highly effective when done right, but its cheap. For most, all that's really needed is a connection to the Internet, a desire to reach out to others, and a nominal investment of time.

There are not many ranchers involved in this form of networking - But mark my words, it won't be long. While CattleGrower.com is the first professional online social community that brings all types of livestock producers together, many others will be soon to follow.

Get your toe in the water now and become a Charter Member of CattleGrower.com.com if you haven't already. It is a pleasant and non-intimidating community where there is much to learn from others and many ways to create exposure.

If your already a Member here, congratulations! But know that you'll only get from giving. While logged in use the "My Apps" icon on the top menu bar to post a video, create a Blog like this one, add an event, or post a classified.

Most important... reach out to others here and invite your friends to join. As your friends invite their friends to join, and you connect with them, you'll grow your sphere of influence fast.

Over time it will pay off and you and your business will be far better for it.

Members: To receive instant email notice on future Blog posts of mine please use the "subscribe" link underneath my picture.