Agriculture & Hollywood on the Same List?
A Brazilian popstar, Hollywood celebrities and an agricultural speaker are side-by-side in the race for an internationally-recognized social media award. Mashable, The Social Media Guide, announced the nominees for the 2009 Open Web Awards today and Certified Speaking Professional Michele Payn was one of the top five nominees for Twitter User of the Year. There are over two million “tweets” sent daily on the micro-blogging site Twitter and celebrities attract the largest number of followers, so agriculture’s representation on this list is an exciting opportunity for the agrifood business. Payn was nominated by members of an agricultural community, “#AgChat”, which Payn founded in April.
Take a look my video response about why this type of ‘exposure’ is important for agriculture, even when it’s painful to be the name involved. It is true that many in our #agchat community launched a campaign to make this nomination happen while I was overseas. Believe it or not, this has been a really good lesson for me to practice what I preach about agriculture folks to get over self-consciousness if it means we can tell our story to a wider and more diverse audience.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF4XaU-oWBs]
Again, thanks to those who have chosen to vote and participate to put agriculture in the spotlight. I really believe this is about the community and not any given user name. Regardless of whether you choose to vote daily at https://mashable.com/owa/votes?v=247&c=50 or not, I’m thankful for your interest in food and the people who raise it this Thanksgiving season.
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Michelle,
This an honor of which you are completely deserving. Thanks for helping agriculture’s voice be heard!
Michelle,
Congratulations and deserving! I encourage you to embed the html code on your website to promote yourself (and make it easier for us to vote for you). This is not a time to be humble (as we’re known in agriculture) but a time to be proud of the recognition you deserve for much of your hard work in bringing agriculture to the forefront in the world of social media. We support the agricultural cause and we support you.
As the Mashable site says, “We encourage self-promotion and all promotion.”
Here is the code…
Here is the image…
http://cdn.mashable.com/owa/img/OWA_125x125_vote_me.png
Best of luck and keep up the good work!
Edward
Congratulations on great work on behalf of agriculture from Lebanon Pa. It waa great meeting you in person at 2 of the ILAC meetings that we mutually attended. Keep up the good work!!!
Gene
[…] Agriculture & Hollywood on the Same List […]
I just sat through your class in Las Vegas, at iafe . Great job! Your speaking was so in touch with real life. I wish I could bottle up some of your talent and take it to our sponsors….i coordinate livestock, children barnyard, 4h and ffa competitions for fairs. I could relate to your story in so many ways. and I so enjoyed your fresh approach to community involvement.