Social media has been a big play for over five years. Whether you’re a public relations professional or a member of the garden industry, you know you have to be on social media.

It’s the absolute perfect blend of advertising and public relations. Plus, it’s FREE. Social media outlets of all kinds let you connect with your key demographic on a daily basis. Here, you get to interact with your clientele in a cool, friendly, funny manner.

Managing social media is without a doubt one of my favorite aspects of the job. But, realistically, it’s also one of the hardest. It seems like there’s always another social media site popping up, and to stay trendy, you and your garden business have just got to be on it.

How in the world can one business, especially a new, small, blooming business, manage all of these sites?

First, load up on social media tools. Next, take the advice of the pros at Garden Media Group to make sure the social media element in your public relations media plan is realistic and effective.

Balancing social media is an act you’ve got to learn to master quickly—before you burn out.

Our latest guide for mastering public relations strategies is out!

Growing Your Business with Public Relations explains the differences between advertising and PR, offers tips on creating public relations media plans and how to write a mission statement. It also includes a guide on writing a modern day press release.

Public relations is a powerful tool more businesses should be using to grow their bottom line. With public relations, you can fast track a product, build a credible reputation and drive demand. Our new eBook covers PR 101: how to get started.

We broke down the things we do on a daily basis and chose what were the most important to include in the eBook. Our insider tips will help businesses understand how to incorporate PR into daily marketing operations.

Vine is a beautiful, beautiful app. Video creation is finally as easy as it gets. Now, if they could just make it for Android...

Nonetheless, Vine has amazing implications for the world of public relations--and for small businesses. 

Vine was launched by Twitter in late January; since Vine was made by Twitter, the videos are embedded directly into the social media site. 

Vine has the potentional for an unforgettable pitch; below, we'll detail how to use Vine to create an easy, visually-driven public relations pitch.

I love this cartoon! Recovering from a public relations disaster is really such a mix of emotions. But, of course, we know that nothing is going to blow over—and your business’s Facebook page will never be left out of it! Keep dreaming, bud!

I’ve been waiting to write this blog for quite some time… In February, we saw an overload of public relations disasters: Anne Hathaway after the Oscars, Burger King’s Twitter getting hacked, or Senator Marco Rubio incredibly awkward water break during a speech.   

Disasters are no longer just broadcast on the front page of newspapers around the country; instead, instantly people flock to social media to share their opinions.

Rebounding from a public relations catastrophe looks a bit different than it used to. Make sure your company is ready to react if you end up being the target of an infamous misfortune with these smart public relations strategy tips.

By Chuck Bowen

Editor, Lawn & Landscape

One of the things we do at Lawn & Landscape is provide landscape contractors with practical information that helps them run their business better. And the best way to do that is to help you better understand your customers.

So late last year, we conducted the first major post-recession survey of homeowners’ perceptions of the landscape industry. We asked more than 850 homeowners across the country why they buy landscape and lawn care services, what they think of contractors, and how they decide what to spend on improving their green spaces.

Their answers might surprise you.

FINALLY! It’s March. As soon as the sun peeks out and the temperature rises above freezing, my spring fever hits in full force.

Already I’m thinking about my fresh veggie seeds, which are currently sprouting, but before long, they'll be delivering crisp, colorful, intoxicating flavors! 

Before I can enjoy spring, I’ve got to do a spring cleaning on my winterized apartment. Then, I had an epiphany.

My apartment isn’t the only aspect of my life that needs to be refreshed and fluffed. Writing can get stale too.

Go into the spring season with confidence, and spring clean your newest press release. You’ll feel better about your work, and your readers will love the fresh, new twists.

We live in a 24/7 world, where there is always a conversation going on Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Youtube.. People are going to be talking about the latest ending of a Phillies game or posting reviews about the newest Modern Family episode.

Memes give the people yet another avenue to express their thoughts; memes are a cultural sensation that have been growing exponentially. If you don’t know exactly what a meme is, don’t fret! We’ll cover that in just a second.

Memes and social media unite us as a nation and as a global community. Here, we’re able to connect, converse, and laugh about the same cultural icons.

Yet, memes can be an extremely valuable tool in your small business. Learn just how easy it is to become the next viral share on social media with a laughable, sharable meme!

As new flowers are blooming, Facebook is attempting to stay fresh as well. The social media platform never stops evolving.

This time around the site is making a few BIG changes that will begin hitting the web in just a few weeks.

As Facebook continues to transform, how your brand utilizes the site will change as well.

To ensure your garden business keeps up with the changes, we're going to outline the upcoming Facebook changes while also looking at how they'll affect your brand's presence on the social media site. 

In order for your garden company to really be using digital communications to the fullest, you’ve simply got to have a garden industry blog. Your company blog is your chance to have your voice heard! Here, you have no character limit, no restrictions as to what you can talk about. Your company blog is totally in your control—and how sweet it is.

Blogging allows your garden company to establish itself as an expert in the field. At Garden Media Group, we have two areas of expertise: public relations/marketing and gardening. To have our voice heard in each niche industry, we have two blogs, which allows us to double our audience, SEO keywords, and content. Ah, the beauty of the internet.

But, what if your horticulture blog is stellar, but no one’s reading it? The whole purpose of a company blog is to reach your key audience, and if that’s not happening, your garden company has got to make a few changes.

One easy way to up your page views is using Twitter. Below are three, quick tips to tweet your way to more page views on your blog!

I recycle everything. Why should an item be used only once? One of my favorite necklaces was made with old soda tabs. Recycling is only one aspect of sustainable living, but it is certainly the aspect that translates to public relations best.

We work hard to create thoughtful copy that will be of interest to multiple audiences, so why would we only use it as a press release? Exactly, we wouldn’t; it's just as wasteful as trashing a plastic bottle.

As an innovative company, we’ve got to keep moving forward.

One way to do this is by repurposing content. With oodles of outlets, recycling content looks just as chic as ever.

All your garden business has to do is implement these tips to ensure your content doesn’t look stale.