When trying to get your garden business and brand exposure, you can’t rely exclusively on the tried and true methods. Yes, they work, but they’re also over done.

To be a true leader in the lawn and garden industry, you’ve got to be leading the pack—that means you’ve got to stay afoot of PR trends and garden trends. Luckily, we can help you out on both fronts!

Induated by e-mails and cold phone calls, reporters and editors at the local and national level are looking for new ways to find stories. 

Take hold of social media, and make it work for you! Using a fresh, new approach to pitching stories may be just what you need.

Below are easy ways you can bring your pitching strategies into the 21^st century.

Way back when, Facebook used to just be a tool for connecting with friends, but the social media mogul is branching out in new direction: e-commerce. Presently, a few large companies (Pottery Barn, Victoria’s Secret, and Neiman Marcus) are testing out the new “want” button.

Right now, it’s only being tested, but if the want button is adopted, the effect on your garden business could be huge!

Read on to find out just what the want button is and its potential effects on your garden business.

October is finally here. The brisk air and shorter days give way not only to the fall season, but also, to the Garden Writers Association (GWA) Symposium and the introduction of new garden products and plants for 2013.

The GWA Symposium is the most highly anticipated event of the year for professional communicators in the lawn and garden industry. This year the 64^th annual Symposium, held in Tucson, Arizona from October 12^th -16^th, will be attended by some 600 print and broadcast garden communicators and bloggers from around the world.

As if the media didn’t have enough political coverage, KitchenAid wiggled their way into the spotlight as well. During the first Presidential debate, the appliance maker tweeted,

“Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! She died 3 days b4 he became president.”

The tasteless, offensive “joke” was broadcast to the company’s 25,000 Twitter followers.  Before the tweet was deleted, a few of their followers were able to retweet it.

KitchenAid needed crisis communication—and fast! Their tweet was all over the news, so they had to take action quickly. The head of the company apologized and contacted various media sources to discuss the debacle, but despite their profuse apologizes, many customers on their Facebook page have vowed to never again use KitchenAid products! If only KitchenAid had a concise public relations media plan, the crisis could have been avoided!

Ensure you and your garden business don’t make a mistake like this by creating a fool proof public relations media plan!

Below are five tips to prevent (or recover) from a social media crisis.

The Lawn and garden industry knows how to work social media; it’s free and a fantastic way to get the word out about new products and to foster a conversation with both new and loyal customers. Yet, there’s a major split on how garden businesses use social media.

Lately, social media has been the buzz of our blog and the garden industry; after all, there are many ways social media can help your business, and they’re easy!

But, Garden Media Group has been around for a long time—over 20 years. During our time, we’ve learned the importance of keeping up with new trends while still using the tried and true methods that have been around since the beginning! It’s like the Girl Scouts say, “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold.” 

Today, we’re going to get back to the PR industry basics. Below are the four essential elements of a classic (and modern!) public relations media plan.

Social media is an ever-evolving (and increasingly important) medium! LinkedIn changed their pages a few weeks back and now, Twitter’s spicing their platform up a bit.  Below, we’ll fill you in on how to use and master the new profile all while creating a cohesive message.