GROW! Marketing and Public Relations Tips

On our personal Instagram feeds, the accounts we follow fall into a few categories. While we obviously keep up with our IRL friends (and some memes), we also love to double-tap on inspiring indoor and outdoor posts.

And there are some accounts that we could endlessly scroll through and get our inspiration fixes for both.

A few designers and gardeners have a passion for plants that they love to foster within their Instagram accounts. Whether they are photographing their own beautiful gardens or posting curated pictures, they never fail to make our scrolling a little brighter.

Want to see what members of the garden set you need to follow? Read ahead and find something new to like (or double tap.)

Facebook and Instagram are visual mediums. And lately, they have turned the focus from photos to video. If you ask most marketers which content dominates social media, we say video.

BuzzSumo studied 777 million Facebook posts and says, there’s no better way to boost engagement than through video content.

Video posts generate 59% more engagement than other post types.

It’s not just organic posts that see higher engagement from video on Facebook either. Rounding up content from all of our clients shows, video is queen. 

Do some types of video work better than others on Facebook? Yes. Facebook Live has 10 times greater reach than all other forms of Facebook content and earns 6 times more interactions than pre-recorded video.

So whether you share video in an ad, an organic post or by live streaming, videos on Facebook and Instagram can be a great way to build an audience, as well as to kick off your customer journey…but how do you get started?

Read more to learn how to use Facebook and Instagram videos to build an audience.

For nearly 20 years we have peered into the crystal ball searching for future industry trends. This year is no different. The 2020 Garden Trends Report, Seeing 20/20, offers a peek into what will trend in horticulture in 2020 and beyond.

Why trends? Staying on top of trends allows garden-focused businesses to take advantage of new opportunities and stay on the cutting edge.

Read more to learn about the 2020 Garden Trends.

Here at Garden Media we are huge fans of podcasts. From How I Built This, by Guy Raz, to the true crime genre, we are hooked.

In fact, we've written a post about our favorite blogs of 2018, why you should start podcasting, and we've created a list of our favorite PR and marketing podcasts.

But today, we are going to dive into our favorite gardening podcasts. And, we want to hear from you, too! What are your favorites podcasts? What are your favorite episodes? Let's hear it!

Read on for our eight favorite gardening podcasts of 2019.

This month, garden industry insiders gathered at Cultivate’19, AmericanHort’s annual conference in Columbus. Garden Media Group’s Katie Dubow explored what the future holds.

Press releases: You can often hear me saying, the press release is dead. But yet, we still write them, We still pitch them, and we still syndicate them.

And most importantly, they still get picked up and reprinted.

No, the press release is not dead. There’s a right way to do it, of course. 

A press release acts as a way for you to get a message out, especially when you have some great news to share. Or, if trouble comes up, it’s best to stay on top of the story and shape the narrative.

Read more to learn the right way and time to write a release up and send it out.

July is National Blueberry Month, a perfect time to celebrate the delicious and nutritious fruit.

We invite you to grow, eat, and cook with this powerhouse nature provides.

The health benefits of blueberries are widely known and continue to get attention as studies find even more super benefits from blueberries.

Among fruit, blueberries have the highest total antioxidant to help us fend off disease. They reduce belly fat, prevent hypertension, improve memory, and help to reduce the risk of colon cancer. 

And let's be honest, they are delicious!

Read more to learn the Four P's of growing blueberries and two recipes.

For years, garden businesses measured their social media presence by how many “likes” they acquired. Particularly on the platform that first introduced “likes” — Facebook.

Facebook has undergone numerous changes over the past decade. Just a few years ago, you needed to have more page likes to have your content served to people — it wasn’t even an option for people to comment on a brand’s post unless they liked the page. As Facebook grew, a larger number of page likes meant that more people would see your content and possibly engage with it.

Social media marketing continues to evolve as newer platforms like Instagram and Snapchat bring new features. Metrics that were once relevant, have lost their luster in light of news feed changes and competition for finite amounts of news feed space.

Having social influence online and in-person is still necessary for brands to thrive. Users look to one another to validate brands and what they have to offer, however there are more relevant ways to measure your garden brand’s impact on social media than page likes and followers.

Read more to learn why...

Those familiar with HBO know that there are no commercials during their shows.

It’s also less than likely a modern product will show up in an episode, especially in Game of Thrones. But this past Sunday, somebody left a coffee cup in a major scene. And it did NOT go unnoticed.

If this was a normal product placement deal, Starbucks would pay for the ad and then pay more to promote the ad.

But since HBO does not pay for product placement or ads during their show, this is now considered earned media. Lucky for them.

Read more to learn what the value of this accidental mention is to Starbucks in terms of PR.

Kelli Rodda's in-depth article in Garden Center magazine about marketing to under -served audiences, Hispanics and particularly Hispanic females, was much needed information for the garden industry.

While it's no secret that the face of the garden industry is largely white and male, the consumer and so often the workers look very different.

In fact, the United States looks different. Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority group in the US. According to Simmons Research, 17.4 percent of Americans 6+ identified as Hispanic or Latino. 

And with a buying power totaling $1.4 trillion, the Hispanic consumer carries significant economic clout.

Read more about how to make your garden marketing more multicultural.