july 2010 pride of dakota newsletter
DESCRIPTION
Pride of Dakota Day, Internet Training, Pride of Dakota Food and Wine ExperienceTRANSCRIPT
NewsJuly 2010
Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring
Business Development DirectorChuck Fleming
Marketing SpecialistsSara KelschStephanie SinnerSue Balcom
Pride of Dakota Food & WineExperience
Pride of Dakota DayND State Fair
Internet Marketing and Social Media Training
Dickinson Harvest Showcase
Featured Company: Dakota Lakes
Featured Store:Berthold C-Store
Member in the News:Mikey’s Country Candy
Pride of Dakota Day - Capitol
Technology Tidbit: Google and Gmail
In This Issue
Pride of Dakota News
Pride of Dakota Food & Wine Experience
The 22nd Annual Pride of Dakota Day at the North Dakota State Fair is Mon-day, July 26, 2010, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Last year, our Pride of Dakota Lunch attracted more than 1,200 hungry fairgo-ers. A bargain at just one dollar, the lunch includes a Cloverdale hotdogs, a bag of potato chips from Northern Plains Potato Growers and milk from Land O’Lakes. The lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For the second year, we will host a Kuchen Contest. We’re anticipating a large turn-out due to the overwhelming support we received last year, and because you can’t call yourself a North Dakotan if you’ve never tasted “German Pie.” Last year, we tallied more than 300 votes. If you haven’t signed up yet or need information on the event, contact Sara at 701-328-4766 or [email protected].
Fifteen Pride of Dakota food and wine vendors will offer samples and sell their products at the first Pride of Da-kota Food and Wine Experience on Wednesday, July 28, at the North Dakota State Fair in Minot.
The event takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. at Pioneer Village, located on the west side of the fairgrounds.
Fairgoers attending the event will receive drink tickets and a souvenir wine glass. The drink tickets can be used to receive one-ounce samples of wine from vendors of their choice. Food companies will provide samples of products to complement the wine.
Pride of Dakota hopes Food and Wine Experience will become an annual event at the North Dakota State Fair.
For more information, contact Sara at 701-328-4766 or [email protected].
Pride of Dakota Day at the ND State Fair
Consultant Scott Wild will offer two classes in internet marketing and social networking, Wednes-day, July 21, in Bismarck, exclusively for Pride of Dakota members.
Many of you met Scott at the 2010 Pride of Dakota annual meeting, when he shared with us the ben-efits of social networking, showing us how it can be used to grow a business. His 12 years of experience include software programming, corporate training and internet marketing and consulting. The creator and owner of WildInspire, an internet marketing and consulting company, he is Pride of Dakota’s social networking specialist.
For newcomers to social networking, the “Internet Marketing Strategy: Developing the Plan” class from 8 a.m. to noon is right for you. It will help you learn how to identify your audience, understand traditional and internet media, use search engine
optimization (SEO), develop keywords and learn social media fundamentals.
For members who already use social networking, the “Putting Social Media Tools to Work” class from 1 to 5 p.m. is well suited for you. This class will teach you more about Google tools, SEO re-sults, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, podcasting and RSS tools.
The classes will be held at the Comfort Inn and Suites. Cost for each class is $50. If you are taking both classes, please indicate that on your registra-tion form.
Class size is limited to 10, so send in your registra-tion ASAP to reserve your spot. If you have any questions, please contact Sara at 701-328-4766 or [email protected].
Here at Pride of Dakota head-quarters, we like to plan ahead. So, while you’re enjoying your summer vacations and time at the cabin, please don’t forget that the Dickinson Harvest Showcase is right around the corner.
The Harvest Showcase will be held, Sept. 18-19, at the Dickin-son Recreation Center. Times are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Last year, shoppers from across western North Dakota were eager to shop from 95 Pride of Dakota vendors. We had a great, first year turn-out with more than 3,000 people. This year, we anticipate even more.
Information about the Dickinson Harvest Showcase registra-tion and details was sent out a few weeks ago. Please return your registration with the $75 booth fee as soon as possible to secure your spot.
Questions? Contact Sara at 701-328-4766 or [email protected].
Dickinson Harvest Showcase
July 21 Internet Marketing Training Bismarck
July 26 Pride of Dakota Day ND State Fair Minot
July 28 Pride of Dakota Food & Wine Experience ND State Fair Minot
Sept. 16 Pride of Dakota Day ND State Capitol
Sept. 18-19 Pride of Dakota Harvest Showcase Dickinson
Upcoming Events
Internet Marketing and Social Media Training
Pride of Dakota Featured Company
Pride of Dakota Featured Store
After spending the day fishing, Darold Walls and his friend, Dave, celebrated their catch of panfish by frying it for dinner. While Darold prepared the fish, Dave talked about his wife’s breading mix, saying he had never tasted better.
Darold served Dave his dinner and after a few moments Dave said, “This is the best fish breading I’ve ever had in my life, and here I was bragging about my wife’s!” He told Darold he should market his recipe.
In March of 1994, Dar-old incorporated “Dakota Lakes Products.” As the name implies, his delicious, 41-ingredient breading is primarily used for fish, but Darold says that it is wonderful for chicken nuggets, green bean casse-role, mashed potatoes and many other recipes that are available on his website, www.dakota-lakes.com.
When Darold was offering samples of his product in Bismarck, he asked a woman to try some fish. “I hate fish,” she replied, but after Darold assured her his fish would taste great, she tried some and said, “Wow. This is wonderful,” and put a box of the breading into her basket.
Dakota Lakes is perfect for people who are aller-gic to dairy products, dia-betic or need gluten-free products. To ensure that his products meet those standards, Darold sends samples from every batch he makes to the Univer-sity of Nebraska Allergy Research Lab.
For more information or to order Dakota Lakes Products, visit Darold’s website at www.dakota-lakes.com.
Store manager Dee Carico has established the Berthold Cenex as the place to buy locally produced, Pride of Dakota products ranging from jams and jellies to dishtowels, books and candles.
“It’d probably be easier to tell you what I don’t carry,” jokes Dee, who started carrying Pride of Dakota products 10 years ago.
Today, her customers can’t miss the 20-foot-long display for Pride of Dakota products. Built by Cenex general manager Andy Fjeldahl, it features shingles along the top creating a roofline. “It’s so beautiful,” Dee said.” The display is centrally located and easily visible from all angles of the store.
Dee hosts a customer appreciation day every December, giving away Pride of Dakota door prizes and samples of Pride of Dakota food. Three or four vendors usually attend the event to sample their products to over 800 of Dee’s loyal shoppers.
During March, Pride of Dakota month, she offers a 10 percent discount on Pride of Dakota products.For Dee and the Berthold Cenex, having Pride of Dakota products in the store has shown them that the people of North Dakota appreciate what is made from their state.
One request Dee has had from customers is a Pride of Dakota ketchup—so, if you have one, please contact Dee at 701-453-3481 so that she can keep her customers happy.
The fourth Annual Pride of Dakota Day at the Capitol sponsored by the Council of State Employees (COSE) will be held September 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This event is always a highlight during State Employees Recognition Week because state employees, as well as people from surrounding communities, are able to shop from over 50 Pride of Dakota vendors throughout the day.
As in the past, the event will be held in the Legislative Hall, Memorial Hall and ground floor of the Capitol building.
For Pride of Dakota members, this is an opportunity to attend a free showcase that receives a lot of traffic; state employees are loyal Pride of Dakota shoppers.Pride of Dakota staff is working to coordinate a Pride of Dakota lunch in conjunction with the event. In the past, the Pride of Dakota lunch has been a huge success in driving people to eat Pride of Dakota food in the State Capitol Cafeteria and then shop from Pride of Dakota vendors.
This event fills up quickly because it is free of charge. Registration forms will be sent out soon, so please be speedy with returning your registration forms to save your space. If you have any questions regarding this event, please contact Sara at 701-328-4766 or [email protected].
Pride of Dakota Day
Cindy Yale and Nyla Sorensen, co-owners of Mikey’s Country Candy, have many new and excit-ing things planned for their company.
The business partners, who met through church some six years ago, complement each other. Nyla, a former 4-H member, enjoys making the candy, while Cindy, who has a long history of owning small businesses, promotes and markets their products.
They credit their company’s positive image to Mikey Wilkins who founded the company more than 20 years ago. “Mikey cre-ated wonderful products – many of them we continue to make as she originally made them,” said Cindy. “Because she did a good job, we walked into a great repu-tation.”
Mikey’s first creation was the Dakota Crunch, a butter toffee dipped in milk chocolate and sprinkled with al-monds. It remains their number one seller. “We have not changed one single ingredient in that recipe.”
Pride of Dakota Member in the News: Mikey’s Country CandyCurrently, they’re working on turtle and crème-filled candies as well as Pride of Dakota chocolate bars. The Pride of Dakota bars will be sold in white and milk chocolate with crispies and dark chocolate. The bar is 2.5 by 4 inches with the Pride of Dakota logo is imprinted into the chocolate.
The company is also working on producing candy bars with com-pany logos stamped into them. They are responsible for the 25th Anniversary Norsk Hostfest candy bar. “We’re ready now to put our own twist on things.”
Cindy and Nyla are working hard to promote their product through-out the state and region. They are always happy to hear their customers’ suggestions and com-ments. Their favorite comment came from a customer said their candy was “like heaven wrapped in chocolate.”
For more information about Mikey’s Country Candy, visit their website: www.mikeyscountry-candy.com.
Pride of Dakota Social Networking
Technology Tidbit: Google and Gmail
Pride of Dakota is working with social networking consultant, Scott Wild of Wild Inspired, to increase mar-keting opportunities for our members.
Pride of Dakota now has a Facebook© page, Twitter™ account, WordPress blog, Ning network and You-Tube account. Our Facebook fan page reaches nearly 3,200 people daily with feature stories about our mem-bers, little-known facts about the program, status updates and feature videos.
If you want your company to be featured on Facebook, please take the following steps:1. Call or email us and ask to set up an interview to be the featured company of the week. Pride of Dakota
retail stores are welcome and encouraged to do the same.2. Fill out the “Tell us about you” form and email, fax or mail it back to us so we can share some “Little
known facts…” about your company.3. Let us know if your company has been in the news.
If you have questions on social networking, email Sara at [email protected].
Pride of Dakota recently signed up for a Google Mail (Gmail) account and now wants members to know about the benefits of this free,easy, email service.
To sign up for a free Gmail account, visit www.gmail.com and enter your information. We encourage you to use your company name as your username. For example, Pride of Dakota’s Gmail username is prideofdakota and the full address is [email protected].
Once you have signed up for Gmail, you can take advantage of three valuable features: Google Alerts, Trends and Calendar.
Google Alerts allows you to track uses of your com-pany name over the Internet. To sign up for Google Alerts, visit www.google.com/alerts. Sign into your Gmail account, then use the “Search terms” box to type in the name of your company and click “Cre-ate alert.” Google will then track the name of your company and send you email alerts when the name of your company has been said.
If you would like to sign up for additional alerts, just click on “Create alert,” and enter the information you would like to receive alerts about.
Google Trends lets you compare the words people use to describe your product. To use Google Trends, visit www.google.com/trends and type in two or
more words that you would like to compare. Google will generate a line graph for you indicating the more popular term.
For example: If you make kuchen, type “kuchen, German pie” to see which term is more popular. Not surprisingly, the graph will indicate that “kuchen” is a much more popular term than “German pie.”
Google Trends is a great tool for creating publi-cations or written materials about your company because you learn the vocabulary your audience uses to describe your product.
Google Calendar schedules events that are important for your company such as meetings and trade shows. After you sign into your Gmail, look to the upper left hand corner and click on “Calendar.” Automatically, a current calendar will be pulled up.
To schedule an event, click on a date and time that correspond with the event. A bubble will appear on the screen in which you enter the event name and details into the “What” section. The event will then be saved in the calendar, and an automatic email will be sent to you on the day of the event to serve as a reminder.
If you have any questions about your Google Mail, Trends, Alerts or Calendar, please contact Sara at 701-328-4766 or [email protected].