Today is the official release of our 2015 Garden Trends Report:“Unearthing the Best Life."

“Unearthing the Best Life” identifies nine consumer trends that will shape the garden and outdoor living industry and resonate in the coming year.

The highly anticipated trends report, published annually since 2001, finds that gardening goes hand-in-hand with a healthy lifestyle.

Read on to find out the components that are fueling this sustainable lifestyle and contributing to eco-friendly gardens and outdoor spaces.

It's no longer good enough to publish ordinary content on the online universe - that content needs to be compelling to your audience. Compelling enough that they want to share it. 

A new study released by ShareThis explains how content is shared, what kind of content is shared and what platforms are being used to share it.

If you're not getting as many shares as you'd like on Facebook, maybe that content would be put to better use on Twitter or vice versa. Lets find out.

Read on to learn what your garden brand should be sharing and where.

Apology accepted, U2 – for now.   

According to Mashable, Bono recently apologized for automatically downloading the band’s new album into everyone’s iTunes library.

While some loved the idea, others didn’t appreciate the sentiment. (Honestly, who has enough iCloud storage space for things like this?)

Though U2’s cloud takeover garnered mixed responses from the public, it did serve as a valuable lesson for PR pros: Always make sure your pitches are timely and targeted to the correct media.

Nothing says “no response” like an irrelevant email sent to the wrong producer, editor or reporter. Errors like this can damage a relationship with a key influencer before it even starts.

Busy PR professionals spend a lot of time researching and crafting pitches – make sure this time isn’t wasted.  

Read on to learn how to deliver pitches to the appropriate target audience.

If you read this blog regularly you know that social media is vital to any business.

But how is participating, or not, in this type of conversational marketing impacting your garden brand?

Want a glimpse into the future of what’s hot in social media for 2015? Allow me to let you in on a little secret: the future is already here and your garden brand needs to get on board. The fundamentals of social media haven’t changed, but their execution must. 

Learn about the 3 hottest social media trends that will drive customers to your garden brand. 

Garden industry jargon is sometimes as colorful as flowers themselves.

While insiders are familiar with terms like “annuals,” “nursery” and “landscape,” other words aren’t as common.

Recently, PR Daily released a list of made-up words useful for a variety of everyday situations.

In the spirit of sharing (and ‘making things up’), here is a list of terms Garden Media Group coined to describe what’s trending in our industry.

Keep an eye out for our 2015 trends report!

Keep reading to learn more about Garden Media Group’s trend jargon.

Who doesn’t want to increase their Pinterest followers and repins?

Pinterest has become the go-to search engine when looking for DIY crafts, activities and ideas.

Now that it's fall, seasonal keywords like autumn and Halloween are in the air!

Keep up with all of the latest trends, including seasons, to attract more attention to your garden brand's Pinterest site and gain more followers. Pinterest users are all over this seasonal change!

Continue reading to learn how to get your garden brand’s Pinterest site noticed this fall.

Coca-Cola just got personal – and it’s working.

The company has seen a boost in sales in the United States since June. This recent increase isn’t attributed to a new formula or logo design, but to the Share a Coke program, a marketing campaign that labeled bottles with popular millennial names and phrases.

If anything, the Share a Coke Campaign outlines a major PR industry theme - personalization is important.

This personalization and attention to detail is the key to developing better business relationships in the garden industry. The company who takes the time to get to know and interact with their clients, customers or fans will be more successful in the long run.

It’s easy to tell when a company is insincere; impersonalized pitches fall flat, poorly managed social media accounts have a profound negative impact on any brand and ignored complaints online lead to terrible reviews.  

Read on to learn how to take the time to connect with and really understand target audiences.

Whether your garden brand has received negative feedback online or not, it is important to be prepared and understand how to handle these situations before they happen. 

The reputation management agency, Igniyte, says that more than 52% of business owners thought their firm had suffered as a result of negative posts online.

Instead of letting negative feedback hurt your business and potentially turn customers away, learn how to handle the situation properly and build trust.

Continue reading to learn 3 tips on how your garden brand should handle negative online feedback.

With the advancement of social media and the growth of online conversations, there are now many ways for your garden brand to reach its customers and for customers to reach their favorite brands.

This unlimited two-way conversation can drastically help or hurt your brand. It all depends on how you manage it.

And how your customers share it. Your customer now have the power to alter the perception of your brand with the information they post online.

Read on to learn 3 important tips to managing your garden brands reputation.

Trends are always changing. New tools and outlets are constantly being created for the public to utilize.

While we here at Garden Media are always keeping you up to date on garden trends, staying on top of the social media marketing trends as well can really give you a leg up on the competition.

Keep an eye out for new trends, and make sure your garden brand stays up to speed.

Continue reading to learn about 3 social marketing trends for your garden business.