Organic Conversations (Pun Intended)

Jonny Hunter, via Flickr

On Friday, June 22, I'll be speaking right here in Boulder, CO at the Organic Summit Leadership Conference -- cosponsored by New Hope Natural Media and the Organic Farming Research Foundation. I'll be speaking on a panel: What makes the organic news?

Like any industry, people in the organic food & product business want to spread the word about their offerings and issues. As a longtime environmental journalist (among other things), I'm very used to talking to people in this field, so I'm looking forward to it. At the very least, the food will be excellent, of course!

My co-panelists are award-winning food and nutrition journalist Carolyn O'Neil and Kristine Kidd, food editor of Bon Appetit magazine.

Most of the people attending this panel will probably be in involved in PR and media relations for the organics industry. That's great, because it seems to me that these folks, in particular, can have a ton of productive fun with online and conversational media.

Here are some things I plan to discuss...

To set the scene, I'll start with my standard rundown on how traditional news organizations no longer define what's news -- especially for niche topics or communities. (Actually they never did, but for a long time they were able to ignore that because traditional news orgs were pretty much the only significant publishers of news accessible to the general public.)

Today, people and organizations are making their own decisions about what's news. They're gathering information from a wide range so sources and  sharing it effectively with a complex network of communities. This happens mostly online -- but these days "online" includes a wide range of media such as mobile content, podcasts, vidcasts, wikis, discussion forums, social media services, and more.

...I realize this development scares the pants off many traditional PR types, since it makes their job much more complex. It used to be they mainly had to send out press releases, schmooze with reporters, and tally "media hits" for clients or employers. Even though mainstream media still matters, other types of media are becoming as (if not more) influential -- especially with opinion leaders, and on niche topics.

My personal experience with organic product biz PR folks is that they're so used to having to prove to traditional news organizations how mainstream and mass-appeal their information is that they sometimes forget that they are, in fact, a niche. I say, embrace your nichey nature! Especially in online and conversational media -- it'll really work for you there.

And what's conversational media? (Follow that link to read my explanation.) One point for organic biz folks to consider is that their various constituencies do love to talk, especially to each other. Participating in conversational media venues that attract their relevant communities can be a powerful way to gain credibility, loyalty, and goodwill.

Many people worry about the credibility or authority of independent and conversational media. I say, caveat emptor applies to ALL media! At least in online media, you can check most facts quickly and easily -- which opinion leaders seem especially willing to do, maybe even more so than some pro journalists on deadline!

Here are some specific things organic product PR folks should check out:

FOOD BLOGS

Blogs that focus on food, nutrition, and dining are proliferating wildly. You can find an extensive list at TopSites. Also, if your company is a "social entrepreneur" type of enterprise, the blogs and forums of the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge site are an absolute must. I'd also recommend commenting on relevant posts on Treehugger and Grist.

If you want to network with food bloggers, one prime opportunity is coming up July 27-29 at the annual BlogHer conference in Chicago. Many food bloggers are women, and some of the top food bloggers always show up at this event.

The Blogher site also aggregates posts from many food bloggers.

Which bloggers are "most influential?" This isn't always a matter of traffic, search ranking, or credentials. In any niche, I think it's important to pay attention to which blogs do a good job of attracting and engaging opinion leaders in the communities you need to reach. Sometimes this equates to "most popular" blogs, but often A-list bloggers can be harder to get through to than top mainstream journalists or columnists.

I recommend spending time nurturing relationships with high-quality B-list bloggers. In the long run, that pays off more.

Of course, starting your own blog can be a good idea. It especially helps in making your information easily findable online. In my experience, it pays to first engage with the blogosphere before you start to blog.

FOOD FORUMS

Discussion forums (bulletin boards, e-mail lists, etc.) are extremely popular -- and probably will remain so. This is where you tend to see the greatest strengths and weaknesses of online community.

Bottom line: It's definitely a good idea to actively monitor and participate in relevant online communities. This is where you can most effectively build a reputation as a helpful, interesting, knowledgeable person or organization.

As with blog, find the forums that are most relevant to to communities you wish to reach and influence. These are not necessarily the largest or most popular groups.

Bon Appetit's Epicurious site has some excellent food forums. The Environment Site has a very lively organic forum. So does Sustain 360.

Search engines still tend to not index forum postings well or consistently. So if you're trying to find relevant forums to join, you're better off asking bloggers and others which forums or lists they participate in.

Regarding organic foods especially, local or regional groups can be especially influential. I discuss how to engage this community in a Dec. 6, 2006 Society of Environmental Journalists Tipsheet item on covering "localvores."

PODCASTS, WIKIS, SOCIAL MEDIA, MORE

Some of the most popular podcasts are about food and drink. If you use iTunes, you can find most of them through by searching the "description" field for "food" or "organic." You'll also find many listed at PodShow.com.

If you're in the organic wine business, Grape Radio is a must-listen show.

Wikis (online documents where communities collaborate to create information) are increasingly important to follow. Constructively (but not self-promotionally) editing relevant Wikipedia pages and engaging in community discussions there can prove surprisingly influential. Active Wikipedia editors tend to be opinion leaders.

Specialty wikis like LoveToKnow Recipes also can be useful, depending on the communities they attract.

And of course, there are social media sites like Digg and Treehugger's Hugg. These are good ways to engage a community -- both by getting your content more visible, and by sharing relevant content with others.

...That's enough for now. I'm sure other things will arise during the panel tomorrow, so I may update this post with more links.

Comments

[Paul Conley]

Hi Amy,
I wish I had known you lived in Boulder. I just returned from there. I was in town doing some consulting with the folks at New Hope!
If you haven't worked with them before, you're going to love them. They're wonderful.
Have fun.

[Kim Ethridge]

This is great info! Another type of "organic" community I'm trying to build uses Platial to map local/organic/sustainable farms, farmers markets, and restaurants and encourage people to buy locally grown food.