QUEENSLAND Country Life's livestock sales manager Sharon Howard notched up another technology milestone last Friday when she launched the inaugural live bull sale blog from the Wilangi Invitation Brahman sale held at the Charters Towers saleyards.
QCL readers would already be familiar with many staffers tweeting and Facebooking results, and uploading pictures and video grabs from bull sales, conferences, and special events.
"Live blogging is a popular tool for covering sporting events, and QCL decided to trial the concept for stud sales," Mrs Howard said.
"Our readers love to see sale results on social media, and I hope live blogging can take sale coverage to another level.
"The brainchild of the blogging format came from Queensland Country Life's digital editor, Melody Labinsky, who suggested there were a lot of people interested in what I was doing on Facebook and didn't have access to it.
"It was becoming difficult when video grabs where placed on my Queensland Country Life Facebook page because they were only available to those in the Facebook network."
The blog was very successful with hundreds watching it live last Friday, and more accessing it over the weekend.
"We are considering offering this blog as a service to other benchmark sales depending on the feedback our readers give us," she said.
"Indications tell us timely results from sales really matter to our readers and our website is an important communication tool, and now it can be used to give the highlights of a sale immediately."
Mrs Howard urged readers to visit the blog, and leave a comment about what they thought of the experience.
Helen Walker
Journalist for Queensland Country Life at Rockhampton.
Journalist for Queensland Country Life at Rockhampton.
