I was recently asked to speak to a group of landscape designers on alternatives to social media that still remain effective. 

You know what I found out, traditional forms of marketing still work.

The same strategies such as direct mail, newsletters and gasp, face-to-face meetings, can be reliable ways of keeping your business in the public eye and generating new business without breaking the bank.

They keys to success in traditional marketing are the same in internet marketing.  You need to send the right message to the right people, and have a compelling offer. 

I wanted to share a few things from my talk, and the first is a guide to creating targeted, compelling newsletters.  And these tips can apply to e-newsletters, too, if you so desire! 

At Garden Media, we’re all about the latest social media trends. So today, we’re introducing you to our favorite new social media tool, Vine. We love Vine not only because it’s a great name (c’mon, vines... gardening… get it?) but because it’s a great tool that can help you market your business.

The morning after: your hopes crushed or validated, your stomach full, your jersey messy as anything, your hands still have a bit of dirt on them, and your head's buzzing with PR lessons learned.

It’s none other than the Monday after the Super Bowl and Super Sow Sunday.

Being lovers of yummy food and beautiful flowers, we had to take part in both. Yup, I sowed my seeds this year with the brawling noises of the Super Bowl in the background. Which seeds, exactly? Sustainable Seeds, of course!

With our seeds planted, let’s reflect on the Super Bowl and the hysteria that surrounds it every year.

The Super Bowl is PR GOLD. It’s the most watched sporting event of the year, it has its own culture, and each year, the paper is chock full of Super Bowl articles for weeks.

Recapping the best Super Bowl PR lessons of 2013 below. 

Been on Linkedin lately? If you haven’t, you are missing out! Linkedin just unveiled a more modern, visually driven layout after a major mile mark. 200 million working professionals are now mingling on Linkedin. Their membership has grown over 20% since November!

Keep up with the times; resumes and networking are no longer reserved for job interviews and conferences.

Networking is happening around the clock thanks to Linkedin, but to truly stand out, you need to understand how the new profile with affect you.

We’ve scoured the site and have highlighted the biggest changes below. Of course, we aren’t going to just leave you hanging. Below we’ve included a few tips to make sure you’re at the front of the pack of Linkedin!

Today is the first day of Inbound 2012 and with 2,500 other marketers attending, I am stoked to learn some new tricks for our Garden Media bag. 

People like to buy from friends.

That's a fact. I'm not talking about virtual friends either. I'm referring to real professional relationships with people where you work and live.

But how do you "make friends"? By getting involved. The more involved you are, the more people you'll know and the more who will know you and want to do business with you, their "friend."

Involvement in the community takes many forms--joining the local Chamber, sponsoring a Little League or bowling team, or getting "locked up" for a cause. Whatever your involvement, make a good impression. It is not advisable, however, to get involved simply for the business contacts. This could backfire and give you the reputation of being unreliable or indifferent to the community.

Trying to wrap our head around the social networking phenomena has been a challenge for most people.

Blasting news releases out hoping to get coverage simply doesn’t work. In today’s wild west media show, you need to do your homework, be strategic and set up media opportunities in your favor.

If social media is making your head spin, you're not alone. Social media and other Internet tools are still in the wild west stage. There are no rules. There are little analytics. And the players can pop out of nowhere, even surprising themselves with their instant Internet fame.

I'm not a math wizard, but this makes sense to me. 1X1 equals what? One! That's old media. No dialogue. No conversation. No engagement. Now let's say you share some news with 100 of your closest friends . . . and they share your news with 100 of their closest friends. Now that 1X1 becomes 1X100X100 or 10,000! That's why you want to put social media in your marketing tool box. You can reach incredible numbers with the click of a mouse.

If that's not convincing you to ramp up your social marketing, check out these facts: