I haven’t posted anything for a while and it’s been bugging me. It means I’m not practicing what I preach when it comes to social media policies. When I tell my clients that you should be updating your blog at least once a week, it doesn’t look good when I’m reduced to updating my own company blog once a month.

As I hang my head in shame, I can only say that my negligence in this area is because we’ve been very busy lately. In fact, we’ve been so occupied with various projects that we’ve had to bring in additional help to get it all done. On our plate right now is ongoing media relations and grassroots outreach for a major manufacturing and retail client, some media relations and crisis communications planning for another client, ongoing corporate communications, social media and advertising for our friends at Keystone Processors and the Manitoba Cattle Enhancement Council. And we’ve been busy with writing copy for Wellington West and Access Credit Union.

It’s fantastic that we’re able to call on the services of experienced, seasoned colleagues such as Karen Ilchena and Caroline Traweger. And I’m really looking forward to welcoming our intern from Red River College’s Creative Communications program, Lisa Bernstein, next week.

All told, it’s been a very busy spring and we look forward to keeping it all rolling with our customary attention to client service and results.

Good branding requires companies to tell a good story. And the sign of a good story is when others start retelling it for you.

That’s what we’re attempting to do for Keystone Processors Ltd. It’s a new beef plant in Winnipeg. For now, it’s selling beef solely within the province, but it has big plans to reach premium niche markets internationally.

So what? Well, Keystone Processors is the first new beef plant in Manitoba in a generation and it also happens to be owned by Manitoba farmers. When the US shut its border to Canadian beef in 2003, Canada’s beef plants in Alberta and Ontario were swamped with local livestock. With no access to local plants, Manitoba cattle farmers were devastated. A handful of them recognized they had to change the way they did business. So they united behind a vision of marketing a new brand of Manitoba beef to the world - and to own every stage of production from farm to distribution, gate to plate.

Instead of rewarding massive multinational companies, profits will go to farmers - many of them running farms that have been in their families for generations. At the same time, the new plant could mark a turning point in the Manitoba food processing sector too, which has been shrinking in recent years.

We raise great beef here. That shouldn’t be any surprise with our clean air, wide open spaces and history of agricultural leadership. And we want Manitobans to be proud of the company and the farmers behind it.

The company has come a long way in just a few short years. Thanks to dogged determination and countless hours of hard work, the farmers’ dreams of a brighter future are becoming reality. In fact, just last week, the plant received major new funding from the federal government and the Manitoba Cattle Enhancement Council.

For our part, we’ve begun telling this remarkable story wherever we can. We’ve had considerable success with media relations across Manitoba and in agricultural media across the country. Several international publications have also started following the company’s progress. These efforts are crucial as the company has to build its brand outside of our borders, but advertising is cost prohibitive to reach all the jurisdictions they need.

We’ve also been repeating the story locally, because we need Manitobans to buy in to the Keystone Processors success story first. To do this, we’ve been building a successful Facebook fan page, blogging and Tweeting all about the company. We’ve also run some small advertising campaigns, which we expect to ramp up in the months to come.

Early results have been encouraging. On a limited budget we’ve seen growth in Facebook fans, Twitter followers and, more importantly, traffic into the Keystone Processors’ online and real store to buy premium Manitoba beef.

That’s when you know the story is working: when people are buying.

Like most public relations firms, we’ve been incorporating social media into campaigns for a while now. Blogging is a great way to differentiate corporate websites (as long as it fits your objectives and your culture).

We’ve also been experimenting with social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. One example of our work in this area is with Keystone Processors here in Manitoba. We’ve recently established a Facebook fan page for the company and will soon begin a test-run advertising campaign on the social network to gain a larger local Winnipeg and Manitoba audience. Meanwhile, we’ve also been helping with a Twitter feed (@MBBeef).

Slowly, but surely, our audiences are growing. The more work we do integrating blogs, social networks and our other PR and marketing activities, the more  success I predict we’ll have.

Throughout this, we remained focused on delivering timely, useful and interesting information for our audiences… which is the best way to find an audience in the first place.

Dooley Communications is pleased to announce the hiring of Dustin Plett as Communications Specialist. Dustin is a recent graduate of Red River College’s Creative Communications program.

Dustin will be working on a wide variety of projects for Dooley Communications as the company continues to grow as a service-oriented public relations firm serving Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northwestern Ontario. He has been working with Dooley for a number of months, blogging for client ICUC Moderation Services on its user-generated content daily news blog snoo.ws. He is also working on other accounts including Keystone Processors, UALocal 628 of Thunder Bay and UNICEF Canada.

In addition to the skills he brings from Red River College, Dustin also has a great deal of other varied experience. Growing up in rural Manitoba just outside of Portage la Prairie, he began working at the family welding shop and learned his father’s trade through watching him. Dustin became a Journeyman welder and spent time in both Manitoba and Alberta working on a number of large and small scale projects and owning and operating his own company while doing so.

Dustin shifted his focus to communications after years in the welding trade. He brings a unique point of view and skill set to the field of communications where his creativity, intelligence and client-centred focus is put to good work.

There was good news for fans of quality, locally-produced food and supporters of the Manitoba cattle industry earlier this week: Keystone Processors Ltd. opened its doors and announced it was shipping Manitoba-raised beef to local stores.

Dooley Communications organized an official “tenderloin cutting” ceremony (in lieu of a ribbon) that generated a significant amount of publicity. Media covering the event included: Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Sun (I love that print reporters make video now), CBC English TV, CBC French TV, CTV Winnipeg, CKX Brandon, CITY TV Winnipeg, Global Winnipeg and the Manitoba Cooperator. The story was picked up by a number of other print and radio outlets across the province.

So why is a new beef packing plant a big deal? Well, if you’re a fan of high quality, locally-produced food, then you’ll be pleased to learn that Keystone Processors is planning on launching a new premium-quality brand of aged, Manitoba-raised beef this spring. It’s difficult to find premium, aged beef as it is and nearly impossible to find Manitoba-raised products.

But more important is the potential impact the plant could have on the provincial cattle industry. The company plans to make this the first sizable, federally-inspected beef packing plant opened in this province in a generation. That federal licence is needed to sell to national retailers and to export our beef products to the world, including fast growing markets in Asia (where forecasters are predicting most food demand growth will be in the next 50 years).

It also marks the start of the creation of a Manitoba brand of beef. Keystone Processors has an opportunity to capitalize on consumers’ demand for high quality, premium products.

Having a local plant will also be a great benefit to local cattle producers who currently are forced to truck their animals across the continent (Alberta, Ontario or into the U.S.) to get them to market. Once Keystone Processors ramps up its operation, there’ll be another local option that will create more competition among buyers of cattle and one that will save local cattle producers significant transportation costs.

Dooley Communications is working with Keystone Processors on its branding and public relations efforts. Stay tuned. We cooking up some good things together.

For the past couple of months, Dooley Communications has been working to help Manitoba’s newest beef plant get up and running with some branded materials including a new website (www.KeystoneProcessors.com). Keystone Processors Ltd. is in the process of renovating and upgrading the former Maple Leaf pork plant at 663 Marion St. By 2011, the company plans to become federally-inspected, which will give it access to growing export markets as well as to national grocery chains.

It will target the vast and promising Asian markets where rapid economic development in recent years has led to the creation of more affluent middle classes. That economic growth has spurred a surge in demand for more nutritious diets which include more meat.

At the same time, Keystone Processors will also work to process beef for kosher and halal markets in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

I’m very pleased to be working with Keystone Processors. It’s always exciting to develop public relations and marketing strategies for a start-up because the potential of a great idea extends in front of us with nearly limitless possibilities. The Manitoba cattle industry has been hurt badly in recent years. The U.S. border closed after BSE was discovered in Alberta; transportation and feed costs skyrocketed; and last year rains washed away farmers’ fields.

With a new beef plant closer to home, Manitoba cattle producers will have an option in the event out-of-province plants close to them again. More importantly, the new plant makes long term business sense because it will save both producers and Keystone Processors money on transportation. That will also leave a lasting environmental benefit as the carbon footprint of the industry will decrease.

But best of all… Manitobans will have a new source of quality, locally-raised beef to buy. I can’t wait to throw a steak on the barbeque this spring!