To be truly effective, ag marketers need to tell stories. And we need to do it well. With the tools at hand, we have the potential to tell our story as never before. We can do it through word of mouth, print, web sites, social media, video blogs – well, the list goes on and on.

But the tools are as only as good as the person wielding them. As my Dad often said, just because you own a hammer doesn’t mean you know how to build a house, or in the case of ag, a barn. It takes passion and discipline, creativity and ingenuity.

With that in mind, I’d encourage you to bookmark two sites that turn good stories in effective marketing.

Take a stand

First is Michele Payn-Knoper’s gate-to-plate blog. http://causematters.wordpress.com/. A passionate advocate for primary producers, Payn-Knoper has been doing the heavy lifting that so many of us in agriculture should have been doing for years. She’s not afraid of taking a stand and admitting when she’s wrong. But for the most part, she’s usually right. Top marks for tenacity! Be sure to check out the video blogs on http://www.facebook.com/causematters

Grab a plate

The award for dominating in the Show, Don’t Tell category (if there is one) goes to Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. http://thepioneerwoman.com/. Like her namesake, Drummond does it all – wife and mother, writer and photographer, cook and rancher and it’s paid off with the publishing of her first cook book. She, too, celebrates all the things that make agriculture a way of life that is so worthwhile and her site conveys that in myriad ways.  And the recipe for chicken fried steak is a thing of a beauty all on its own.

Tell a story

Just as there are no uninteresting lives, there really are no uninteresting stories. The difference between boring and captivating is in the telling. And that’s why great stories well told can make for great marketing.

So we’d like to hear who your favorite storytellers in marketing are. Post a link. Send a Tweet. Tell us a story.