Recently, our fearless leader was interviewed by CEOIntroNet at ABC6 studios in Philadelphia.  Last week we shared the video, here is the Q&A. 

Introducing the new Garden Media!!

Tonight we will roll out a new visual identity, including a new logo and enhanced website, at a private party held at the 64th GWA Annual Symposium in Tucson, AZ.

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.

Last week, Suzi and I went to 6ABC for a roundtable discussion of top Philadelphia CEO's. The event was hosted by CEOIntroNet, a group of successful CEOs and serial entrepreneurs who realize the vital need for a group of decision makers to connect with each other and share business success stories and ideas.

I talk to a lot of individuals and companies about public relations and have heard every objection under the sun as to why they don't need to hire a PR firm.  I am always eager to learn from people what their marketing goals are and how their current activities are helping to reach those goals.  Most often, it's that people don't understand public relations, have had a bad experience or think it will be too expensive. 

In the end, most people quote these six reasons for not hiring a PR firm:

For the 15th year running, Garden Media Group has been named one of the top 25 PR firms by the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The list is based on revenue billed in 2011- But look out, we're still growing! Stay tuned for yet another new client announcement this week.

For a boutique PR firm located in the "cool" city of Kennett Square, PA and specializing in gardening, this is quite an accomplishment.

Years ago a long-time client in a male dominated industry told me I was part of their "good ole' boy" network - and he wasn't talking about social either. It was "the club". Needles to say, I was flattered, but I was also shocked.

I mean, I don't play golf (yet), go fishing or attend sporting events with any of my clients.

The only answer I could come up with is . . . I develop long-term working relationships with my clients. We respect and like each other. We're team mates and, most importantly, we're friends.

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.

Search Engine Optimization. AKA SEO. One of the most popular questions in the tech world (and gardening world for that matter) is, Is SEO dead?  In fact, Forbes wrote an entire article on the subject last month. 

“Google is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete, SEO will be dead in 2 years.”

After reading through the article, I learned a few things.  15% of SEO is internal - which means arranging your website so it has the best chance of being ranked high on Google. The other 85% is driven from written articles, press releases, blogs, comments, and a slew of other content with built-in “backlinks” to your website and put them all over the web.

So it's the 85% that is hard to control- harder to measure and easier to lose track of.  Google wants relevant, real content on the internet that people want to read and tell other people about.

Here's a quick "85% SEO cheatsheet" to help you: