Great Grow Along (GGA), an annual ten-day virtual festival, aims to connect and inspire gardeners with influencers worldwide while educating them on cutting-edge content. The 2023 festival, which ran in March, featured sixty+ educational sessions and virtual garden tours. A record-breaking 56k people logged in to see the speakers and chat with the community.

This event is for gardeners of all experience levels and is free for live streaming during the event. Every day of the festival is packed with expert education, practical advice, and creative inspiration from industry leaders and top influencers.

Now that the event has passed, viewers can subscribe for an on-demand session here.

Catchy names for each day, such as Wildlife Wednesday and Sustainability Sunday, aim to bring attention to the topics covered. Big-named brands like Park® Seed, Sunset® Plant Collection, and Garden For Wildlife™ sponsor the event to keep the content current and free of charge for viewers. 

Whether this was your first year attending or your third, everyone left the event with a wealth of information about various gardening topics. Sessions presented ranged from water-wise plantings to supporting hummingbird species and creating a healthy gardening ecosystem.
 
One of the festival's creators, LaManda Joy, believes the world would be better with more gardeners. "I am thrilled to empower individuals to reach new heights in their gardening journey," says Joy. "This festival allows us to share our expertise and advice and puts education at the forefront, giving new gardeners the confidence and tools they need to succeed."

Read on to learn more about the Great Grow Along and highlights from a few sessions!

Meltwater, an online media monitoring company, recently launched a report that shared current trends in social media for 2023. 

The report offered findings from over 1,700 marketing and communications professionals globally. The short: paid and organic social media are expected to increase in 2023. Garden businesses must stay at the top of their game and adapt while also increasing their skillset. 

In the report, social media platforms were ranked by usage and popularity. Facebook is still holding the top ranking, followed by LinkedIn and Instagram. YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok remain relevant while being slightly less popular than the top three. Short-form video is hot right now on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Read on to learn more about how social media has maintained and even gained importance during the current economic development. 

Gardening is on the tip of everyone’s tongues as unprecedented millions took to plants during the pandemic. Are you speaking the new gardener’s language?

This report analyzes millions of social media posts and articles written across the course of the pandemic. These gardening posts reveal key patterns in language and sentiment – and represent a significant shift in the way the public talked about plants before and after COVID-19.

Navigating emerging pandemic trends and topics, Mind the Gap helps readers better relate to the gardening public – and gain the trust of the new gardener.

Today on Grow! With Katie, we had the pleasure of welcoming Maria Failla!  Maria is a self-proclaimed "Plant Killer turned Plant Lady" on a mission to help every person successfully care for houseplants- no matter how small their home is.

2018 is officially here!

This year Garden Media Group is taking a break – a mental break that is. Our focus for this year is mental wellness and with that comes a few resolutions to make that happen.

Before we jump into what resolutions we are looking forward to, let’s take a look back in 2017.

Brands did some great things and some not so great things. In the spirit of growing, let’s see what we can learn from 2017.

Use Your Voice: Thousands of women stood up and spoke up with #MeToo. This led to a cover of Time magazine as “Person of the Year.” As Trump took office, companies raced to get their brand in order to see what they were going to do to help immigrants have a voice of their own.

Using your voice doesn’t mean speaking out against every issue – it does mean backing the issues your brand, customers and employees might be dealing with.

Podcasts and Videos: It has been shown time and time again video marketing is here to stay! How-To videos are great for millennials and vlogger influencers are trending like crazy. Podcasts are picking up quickly. Branded video content being featured or even sponsoring a podcast is a great way to get your name out there in a new niche.

Narrow it down: Brands that have narrowed down their audience and created content for specific people have hit the nail on the head. Netflix did a great job of this while promoting the newest Stranger Things season. They used era specific photos and hints to really drive the nostalgia of the 80s.

Continue reading to see what resolutions to follow in 2018.

October 2017 - (Philadelphia) IMPACT Marketing & PR, Inc. was recognized in the Philadelphia Book of Lists as a Top Woman-Owned business and Top PR firm for 2017. Suzi McCoy founded IMPACT Marketing 30 years ago.

Garden Media Group, a subsidiary of IMPACT, was founded 20 years ago to serve the horticulture, gardening and outdoor living industries. Our boutique public relations firm gets results fast because we have our finger on the pulse of the industry and the ear of influencers from top outlets – from Better Homes & Gardens and Magnolia Journal to the sweeping social media outlets. Our clients are both national and international and come to us to make them popular with their target market. We also publish an annual garden trends report, one of the most widely read reports in the industry.

Continue Reading to learn about our Queen Bee and how GMG was born.

Brainstorming can be a great way to come up with the best new idea, product or solution. But how often do you get stuck with “been there done that” or “it didn’t work in the past”? 

I know I get caught up in my own head and cannot get past an idea until it is a confirmed “No” – or I say it out loud to someone and then realize it was probably not the best idea.

Richard Tait knows this all too well. As a creative consultant, he has held brainstorm sessions for countless companies to help solve issues they were facing. He told us an old story about a major department store chain and how they were able to turn around sales with a simple sales conversation and a strategically designed piece of paper. Crazy, right?

During our monthly ‘Lunch with a Pro’ workshop, Richard returned to our office to help our team figure out the best way to brainstorm.

Continue reading to find out what can jumpstart your brainstorm and what not to say to any idea during a brainstorming session.

Do you encourage your staff to pursue professional development on a regular basis? Do you allow them time to improve their skills while on the clock? If not, why?

The ROI when a staff member can improve themselves is a low investment with a high rate of return for the company.

When I first started working in public relations, I had no idea that relationships were going to be such an important part of my career. After the first year of handling PR for a high-tech company, I quickly learned that earning media coverage requires strong working relationships with journalists.

Even after more than twenty years, I still keep in touch with many of the journalists I met early on in my career.

Now with even more platforms to cultivate media relationships, making these connections has become easier than ever.

Continue reading to learn how you can build strong relationships with journalists.

Hiring new team members can be an extensive process. After browsing countless resumes, making tons of phone calls and holding multiple interviews, you finally find the perfect fit for your team.

However, the work doesn’t stop there.

The next step – training. Properly training an employee can have a huge impact on the role they play in the company. A well trained employee will be more knowledgeable and motivated, as well as more comfortable in their new position. But, all training is not created equal.

Read more to learn how you can improve your training process.