Recently we have come under attack for opinions expressed on our different social media platforms. Some readers have felt that other reader’s opinions should not be expressed. For us that is completely OPPOSITE to what we believe in. We believe that everyone should have the right to express their own opinion. We not only believe in it, we encourage it!
Two Way Conversation
Since starting the Bullvine there is no question we have not been short on stating our own opinions. We have dealt with issues “too touchy” for the others to even think about covering (Read more: Select Sires vs. Semex – A contrast in cooperatives, Empty Chairs At Empty Tables, Lance Armstrong, Drugs and the Dairy Industry, The Hot House Effect on Sire Sampling, Rumors, Lies, and Other Stuff Salesmen Will Tell You What Happens If Genomics Doesn’t Work and Reality Check – Who Is Really Controlling The Dairy Breeding Industry). We have also certainly posted who we think are the greatest animals, sires and breeders of all time (Read more: Top 10 Most Influential Holstein Breeders of All-Time, 7 Sires To Use In Order To Breed The Next World Dairy Expo Champion, and Who’s Next? World Dairy Expo Holstein Show and many other mating recommendations).
The thing that makes The Bullvine different from all the rest is that we have also made this a two-way conversation. We have run many contests and polls asking the dairy community for their opinion on different issues. Highlighting this was the 2012 Breeders’ Choice Awards (Read more: Vote for the 2012 Breeder’s Choice Awards, The 2012 Breeder’s Choice Awards – The Tanbark Trail Edition and The Winners of the 2012 Breeder’s Choice Awards Are).
Then there are the daily conversations that we have on the different social media platforms. Instead of locking down what is being said, or worrying about the legal ramifications of comments made by breeders, we have actually encouraged dairy breeders to express their opinion. Our number #1 goal here at The Bullvine is not to control the industry like some other publications try to do. Our goal is to make breeders think and to get breeders talking. Yes we want to know your opinion. Yes we want you to feel you have the right to express it … Even if we don’t agree with it.
Bring It On!
An interesting thing has happened over the past few months. The Bullvine has gone from the hunter to the hunted. When we first started The Bullvine we were the hunter. We were the ones gunning for the bigger publications with the larger readerships. But now that has all changed. We are now the ones with the largest daily digital dairy readership and we find ourselves in the cross hairs. We listen. We learn. We share. Now everybody is shooting for The Bullvine and that’s just the way we like it.
Our very first post on The Bullvine clearly laid out how we were going to be different and how we thought others were missing the boat (Read more: Twice The Bull – Half the S**T). But we didn’t stop there. We continued to highlight things we felt relevant along the way. Including how other dairy magazines are old school (Read more: How Social Media Is Changing the Holstein World) and how our readership is more engaged and larger than the others (Read more: The Fakebook – Our Secret Is Exposed). So it’s only fair that when the others start gunning for us that we accept and deal with it.
Gandhi once said “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win!” A pattern we have seen perfectly since starting The Bullvine. When we first started many ignored us. After a little while they started to laugh at us. And now more recently they have started to fight us. We surmise that we are starting to take the next step. (Read more: I’m Sorry But I’ve Had Just About Enough Of….)
The Bullvine Bottom Line
Who are we to be very opinionated and then not let others express their opinion? If we tried to control what others say, it would make us hypocrites. What makes the dairy industry so amazing is that everyone is so passionate about what we do, and we all have our own opinion. So please share your opinion. What issues would YOU like to target? Take aim. It’s good for all of us.
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