My friend Doug Karr posted a note on his blog about still needing to "press the flesh" at times. We at Truffle Media use several approaches to keeping connections.

We still maintain traditional methods of attending events (World Pork Expo is next week (June 5-7, 200)! Find Ned Arthur and have a chat.). And we still use regular phone calls and emails to learn what people are saying and thinking in the ag industry. But we also use some new media channels to keep connected with those interested in agriculture: Twitter (http://twitter.com/trufflemedia), the SwineCast.com (and its sister sites for beef, dairy, poultry, and crop) blogs/podcasts, Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/trufflemedia/), and Blip.tv (http://trufflemedia.blip.tv/). Another web based connector is our use of del.icio.us for Truffle shows (beef, dairy, poultry, swine, and crop) to bring related information sites to our community.

Note that many of the young people that are coming into running operations and moving into management positions grew up with social network tools like FaceBook, MySpace, etc. It is important that those in ag leadership positions understand this and use this new experience as an opportunity to increase the connection bewteen them, customers, partners, and the ag community at large.