Ag Communication Web Services

Had a great conversation with University of Minnesota Extension forester Eli Sagor (@esagor on Twitter). Eli is a "tree guy" and a social media guy. He's the creator and manager of the online resource My Minnesota Woods.

You can find out more about Eli's work on My Minnesota Woods and in digital communication at http://z.umn.edu/WDpodcast.

• Open/revisit a Twitter account: Find at least 50 accounts to follow. Check the account twice a day. Add more interesting people/organizations to follow.
• Subscribe to a blog: Since you can do this in Outlook, there’s no excuse any more. Blogs are everywhere on the Internet. Do a Google search and put the RSS feed in Outlook. Don’t know how? Google that too.
• Start your own blog: There are several options for starting a blog, including one from Ag Comm Web Services. It’s easier than you think. And make it your resolution to add something to it at least once a week.
• Subscribe to a podcast: If you’ve got an area of interest, there’s a podcast (an audio/video blog) on that topic. iTunes has an entire section devoted to podcasts, but you can find them elsewhere. (Once again, Google is your friend.) And, you don’t need an iPod to listen to them. You can listen right on your computer.

Where do you go with questions about grammar, spelling, and punctuation? Do you look to a tattered dictionary? Perhaps the Associated Press Style Guide?

Ever heard of Grammar Girl?

For many people comfortable with the online and social media landscape, Grammar Girl is a more definitive authority than Webster, Oxford, or the AP. Why? Because she is where they are - online. She has a podcast, an email newsletter, a website, an RSS feed, a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, and yes, even a few books. She delivers tips and tricks in short, specific, topical chunks once a week. You can listen, read, download, or otherwise ingest the information in pretty much any way you might prefer. And many people turn to her first when they have a grammar, spelling, or punctuation question.

So?

Well, if you want to check out Grammar Girl and use her as your literary resource, I encourage you to do so. But I think the bigger lesson is how one person changed the landscape in such a time-honored (some would say stodgy) area by taking information that is readily available elsewhere and repackaging it. Providing the information in multiple formats and letting people choose how they prefer to receive it had the effect of seeing her around every turn which built up both visibility and authority. She served as the filter and the expert. 

It’s something that Extension folks could learn from.

-- Julie Kuehl

I consider this an oldie, but a goodie, but I also know that many of you have never tried the Mail Merge feature in Microsoft Word. It’s a real time saver and can be used in so many ways.

Mail Merge is when you take data (most often contact information) from a source (such as an Excel spreadsheet) and place it within a Word document. It can be used to create personalized letters, emails, or labels as well as other things. You can add any bit of information that you’ve got in Excel.

Examples:

• Recently, the Fall Conference was held. Mail Merge could take the registration information from the Excel spreadsheet and print out an invoice or a registration confirmation.
• Mail Merge can be used to set up label that includes name, title, organization, address and sort those label by zip code.
• Mail Merge can be used to just personalize email messages. Rather than a generic "Hello" you could use Mail Merge to have it say "Hello Julie" as a greeting. Small difference perhaps, but important.

The Microsoft website has information on how to use Mail Merge that you can follow. NDSU ITS also had information on how to use Outlook with Mail Merge. If you have any questions, you can contact the ITS Help Desk. Or Ag Comm Web Services can help steer you to additional online resources.

-- Julie Kuehl