Business
AgLife
B
Thursday, September 16, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
All in the
name of
‘science’
GREG
SMITH
DOING BUSINESS
Build an
eff ective
social media
presence
n today’s world, it is essen-
tial that your company has a
strong social media presence.
Given that well over 90% of busi-
nesses utilize a variety of plat-
forms to market their products or
services, it’s essential to fi nd the
right strategy and a way to stand
out from the competition.
First, it’s necessary to decide
which social media networks
will best reach your desired
target audience. Using a social
media platform that your cus-
tomers don’t begin to understand
or will never access, obviously,
won’t drive sales. For many, Face-
book is the best place to start
simply given the sheer volume of
users (over a billion daily). Insta-
gram and Pinterest are additional
options.
Engaging with customers by
fostering an open-ended dia-
logue helps create organic con-
versations. Inform them about
an industry-related topic, share
ideas and even ask for advice or
allow them to share an opinion
about your products and services.
While it’s important to remain
professional, you can also show
your sense of humor and post
a picture of your favorite four-
legged friend. Make it real.
Interesting photos of what’s
happening at your business (even
a sneak preview or behind the
scenes photos) are a great way to
attract attention. It’s not always
necessary to accompany the
photo with text — a compelling
photo just keeps that top of the
mind awareness rolling. Find cre-
ative ways to demonstrate your
expertise through “how-to” con-
tent — informative videos are a
great way to accomplish this.
Be down to earth. It doesn’t
always have to be about you
... take advantage of National
Observance Days to create inter-
esting posts. These can be used to
raise awareness or to simply have
a little fun. And who doesn’t need
a little levity these days? Inter-
national Peach Pie Day, Polar
Plunge Day, Festival of Sleep Day
... you get the picture.
If customers are looking for
a product or service you cannot
provide, it’s a great opportunity
to off er recommendations for
other businesses — perhaps those
with whom you shop person-
ally. This helps build trust with
your customers and will foster
valuable business-to-business
relationships.
Always be gracious. Take
the time to show appreciation to
your customers and remember
that not everyone is going to love
you. If someone has a complaint,
acknowledge their concern and
express how providing excep-
tional service is always your goal.
Contact them offl ine to explore
options to resolve the issue and,
of course, if someone is being
vulgar or socially inappropriate,
the delete and block buttons are at
your ready.
The bottom line is social
media is an excellent, aff ordable
and eff ective way to market and
brand your business. Whether
you undertake this yourself or
employ the services of a profes-
sional, fi nding ways to set your-
self apart from your competi-
tion and engage your clients to
increase revenue is a key part of
your continued growth.
———
Greg Smith is the director
of the Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity Small Business Development
Center in La Grande.
Researchers take
15 days to potty
train calves
BY SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
I
CORRECTION
The Page B1 story “As COVID hits again,
businesses plod along,” published
Thursday, Sept. 9, gave the incorrect
job title for Clint Lion. He is a data
coordinator.
The Observer, File
A Ziply Fiber technician works on a cable in this undated photo. The company is working to make its fi ber optic internet service
available to everyone who wants it in Union and Wallowa counties, said Dan Miller, a Ziply spokesperson, in September 2021.
Filling a critical need
Ziply Fiber helping small towns get in the
fastest lane of the information superhighway
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The need
for fi ber optic internet service in
Union and Wallowa counties is
growing due to factors like the
COVID-19 pandemic.
It is a need Ziply Fiber
is taking a big step toward
addressing.
Ziply Fiber is launching a
drive to make its fi ber optic
internet service available to
everyone who wants it in La
Grande and Enterprise, where it
already off ers some fi ber optic
service, plus in Cove, Elgin,
Imbler and Joseph, according
to Dan Miller, a Ziply spokes-
person. Ziply’s goal is to make its
fi ber optic internet service avail-
able to 38,000 homes, apartment
complexes, businesses, schools
and other sites across Union and
Wallowa counties.
Miller said Ziply hopes to
reach this objective within a year.
“Every single person who
wants fi ber optic service will
have a chance to get it,” he said.
Ziply Fiber, a telecommu-
nications company, purchased
the Pacifi c Northwest portion of
Frontier Communications on May
1, 2020. Since the purchase, Ziply
has focused much of its eff orts on
bringing fi ber optic internet ser-
vice to small rural communities
in Oregon, Washington, Idaho
and Montana.
“It will fi ll a critical need,”
Miller said.
The COVID-19 pandemic
has heightened the need, Miller
said, by increasing the number of
people who use the internet to do
school work, receive health care
or work remotely.
The pandemic has boosted
awareness of the fi ber optic void
in rural areas but has not changed
Ziply’s focus.
See, Internet/Page B6
Got food? Insecurity takes a dive in last year
Food insecurity
fell since 2020,
but still higher
than pre-pandemic
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
SALEM — Thir-
ty-eight million Amer-
icans lived in food-in-
secure households last
year, a 9% increase over
the 2019 level of 35 mil-
lion, according to a report
from the USDA.
About 7.5% of U.S.
households with chil-
dren — 3 million fami-
lies — didn’t always have
enough adequate, nutri-
tious food for their kids
last year. That’s up 6.5%
compared to 2019, the
agency found.
“Food insecurity” is
measured as not having
enough food over a sev-
en-day period.
Prior to last week’s
report, COVID-19’s
impact on food insecu-
rity had been measured
only anecdotally and in
smaller samples. This is
the fi rst complete federal
data available formally
documenting the full
extent of hunger and food
hardship.
“While hunger was
already a massive, sys-
temic problem in all 50
states before COVID-19
hit the U.S., domestic
hunger surged during
Alex Wittwer/The Observer, File
Tom Houck readies his forklift to pick up the fi rst pallet of food to be delivered to the Northeast
Oregon Regional Food Bank’s new distribution center in Island City on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021.
the pandemic,” said Joel
Berg, CEO of Hunger
Free America, a nonprofi t
that tracks and addresses
hunger in the U.S.
In the midst of the
crisis, USDA’s domestic
food aid spending also
reached a historic high
of $122.1 billion in 2020
See, Food/Page B6
AUCKLAND, New
Zealand — Turns out
cows can be potty
trained as easily as tod-
dlers. Maybe easier.
It’s no bull. Scien-
tists put the task to the
test and 11 out of 16
cows learned to use the
“MooLoo” when they
had to go.
Just like some par-
ents, the researchers
used a sweet treat to
coax the cows to push
through a gate and uri-
nate in a special pen.
And it took only 15 days
to train the young calves.
Some kids take quite a
bit longer.
“The cows are at
least as good as chil-
dren, age 2 to 4 years,
at least as quick,” said
study senior author
Lindsay Matthews, an
animal behavioral sci-
entist at New Zealand’s
University of Auckland
who worked with col-
leagues on the tests at an
indoor animal research
lab in Germany.
What started with a
half-in-jest question on
a New Zealand radio
talk show about the very
real problem of live-
stock waste resulted in a
serious study published
in the journal Current
Biology. And it wasn’t
just a “wow, this could
be fun” academic ques-
tion. Massive amounts of
urine waste is a serious
environmental issue,
Matthews said.
Urine contains
nitrogen, and when
mixed with feces
becomes ammonia,
which is an environ-
mental issue with acid
rain and other problems,
Matthews said. It can
also taint the water with
nitrates and create the
airborne pollutant nitrous
oxide, he said.
And cows do pee a
lot. A single cow can
produce about 8 gallons
of urine a day, Matthews
said. In 2019, nitrous
oxide comprised 7% of
all the U.S. greenhouse
gases, according to the
Environmental Protec-
tion Agency.
“I am not surprised
they can train calves to
urinate in set locations,
but I am surprised no one
has demonstrated this
before,” said Duke Uni-
versity animal cogni-
tion scientist Brian Hare,
who wasn’t part of the
research. “The critical
question is can it and will
it scale?”
If it could be done,
toilet training ani-
mals makes it easier to
manage waste products
and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, said
Donald Broom, a pro-
fessor of animal welfare
at the University of Cam-
bridge in England.
There are a
couple caveats to this
experiment.
No. 1, they gave
diuretics to the cattle
to get them to urinate
more because they had
limited time to run the
experiments under ethics
guidelines.
And No. 2, they didn’t
do No. 2. They only
trained cows to use the
MooLoo to urinate, not
defecate.