We sat down with Nikole Gennari for this week’s speaker series. Nikole is a rising senior at Gonzaga University where she majors in public relations and minors in marketing promotions.

Hailing all the way from Seattle, WA, Nikole is eager to learn and passionate about a career in public relations. At Gonzaga, she is involved with the Public Relations Student Society of America and will be the organization's publicity chairperson in the fall. In addition, she is a member of Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communications Honor Society.

Continue reading to learn more about Nikole and the role she plays at Garden Media.

Topics: Public relations, branding, social media, marketing, Speaker Series

YouTube celebrated its 10^th birthday in February.  Over the course of a decade, it has transformed from a website that features a variety of videos to a marketing and entertainment conglomerate.

Located in 75 countries and available in 61 languages, YouTube serves as a media powerhouse that has more than one billion users worldwide.  

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. 

YouTube is a powerful marketing tool because videos are accessible to both domestic and international audiences. Every video posted to the site has unlimited potential. 

It is also a valuable marketing tool garden companies can use to promote their brand.

Continue reading to learn more about how garden brands can utilize YouTube to build their brand and market their products.

Topics: branding, internet media, Garden Media Group, content marketing, Youtube

For this week's Spring Speaker Series, we sat down with CEO and founder of Garden Media Group, Suzi McCoy. Suzi has run Garden Media for 27 years – an accomplishment worth noting.

After working with a range of clients in her early career, Suzi quickly discovered it was happy “ladies and gentleman” of the gardening industry that made every day enjoyable.

Continue to read more about Suzi’s career as an industry pro – from successes to lessons learned.

Topics: Public relations, branding, advertising vs public relations, advertising, Garden Media Group, content marketing, Speaker Series

Earth day officially falls on April 22 every year. This creates an opportunity for people to celebrate the planet and all it provides for its inhabitants. 

It also creates an opportunity to show how your brand cares for and supports the planet.

According to the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of Americans identify a problem with the damages humans have caused to the earth and believe there is concrete evidence to support global warming. These percentages are set to continue to increase in the next several years.

For garden brands, every day is Earth Day. 

The holiday presents a great opportunity for garden brands to teach consumers about the importance of living a green and sustainable lifestyle.

Continue reading to learn more about how garden brands can use Earth Day to promote their brands and teach consumers about green living.

Topics: lawn and garden public relations, garden marketing, audience, branding, Garden Media Group, social media, blogging, marketing

In today’s fast-paced, connected world, people are 30 times more likely to read infographics than text-based articles.

As the world becomes more visual, it is no surprise that infographics have become a standard for communicating information with consumers and the press – and there is no end in the rise on the industry horizon. 

Brands can use infographics to dispense information, news and tips to readers in a visually stimulating and cost effective way.

Continue reading to learn how garden brands can use infographics to captivate and engage audiences.

Topics: garden marketing, branding, Public Relations Trends, Digital Branding, Garden Media Group, content marketing

Topics: branding, Digital Branding, garden business, case study, Campaign

Topics: Twitter, branding, Marketing to Millennials, Garden Media Group, social media, marketing, facebook, hashtag, Social

Since 2011, Snapchat, an app that allows users to take ‘self-destructing’ pictures, has taken social media by storm.

The innovative app has a rumored 100 million active monthly users making it competitive with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

PR teams behind events like the Superbowl and the Oscars, as well as various brands and news outlets have developed strategies and campaigns to appeal to Millennials - those that use Snapchat religiously.

In addition to promoting events, Snapchat has included a “Discovery” page featuring news, trending topics and entertainment features.  

Snapchat presents a huge opportunity for garden brands, as Millennials become a target consumer.

Continue reading to learn how garden brands can utilize Snapchat to reach a new target audience.

Topics: branding, trends, gardening, social media, Snapchat, Garden Media

Everyone is talking about this weekend’s House of Cards binge - even the cast of Sesame Street. 

In a new clip titled “House of Bricks” a cruel politician named Frank Underwolf attempts to blow down the three little pigs’ houses and take over the strong “White Brick House.” 

This clip has everything, House of Cards references, basic math problems and even an appearance by the three little pigs. (And yes, Underwolf speaks directly in to the camera.)

The Sesame Street version of House of Cards demonstrates a valuable public relations lesson. Brands can reach more consumers when they cater their messages to appeal to target audiences. 

Continue reading to learn how garden brands can appeal to new consumers.

Topics: audience, branding, Garden Media Group, garden industry public relations

Last year, more than 5 million women tweeted something negative about body image or themselves.

Dove wants to change that.

The beauty company’s mission is to inspire and encourage people to feel beautiful. As a leader in positive body imaging and messaging for the past several years, Dove has teamed up with Twitter to put an end to people’s low self-esteem and discomfort in their own skin.

The company launched its speakbeauitful campaign during the 2015 Oscars. Shortly after it launched, #speakbeautiful went viral.

The Dove campaign teaches garden brands the dos and the don’ts to beginning campaigns and increasing brand awareness.

Continue reading to learn more about what garden brands should do before launching a campaign.

Topics: Twitter, branding, Garden Media Group, social media, marketing, Campaign, Dove