Have you ever wondered how some brands seamlessly collaborate with influencers, show up regularly, and capture their audience's attention effortlessly? Navigating influencer partnerships requires strategy, research, and finesse. Social media influencers and content creators wield unprecedented power in today’s digital marketing sphere, especially in the green industry.  

Our 2024 Garden Trends Report highlights the gravity of the movement towards influencer marketing, especially when trying to reach Gen Z audiences. Growing up in a wholly digital world, Gen Z are digital natives, and these creators are now more trusted regarding product reviews over social ads and celebrity endorsements. According to LTK’s 2023 Gen Z shopper study, creators are 3.5x more influential than social media ads - so influencer marketing and promotions through short-form videos are vital for reaching Gen Z.

Did you know colleges now offer social media influencing majors? It’s a testament to how quickly this industry is evolving and why your company cannot afford to overlook it. Many factors go into finding the right influencer, which can be overwhelming. 

Read on to learn more about how to navigate influencer partnerships with ease.  

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!

With gardens and houseplants shifting from white-hot trend in 2019 to full-blown national obsession in 2020, the faces at the front of the new wave are social media influencers with legions of followers and backyards that make us—yes—green with envy.

Why should businesses in the horticulture industry pay attention to garden influencers, who range from tattooed and pierced ‘plant dads’ to proud grandmothers with enviable backyards? Because they have a direct line to the eyes, ears and wallets of millions of consumers. And the numbers tell us that these customers trust and take their buying queues from social influencers.

Smart companies are asking two questions:
• What are garden influencers doing right?
• And how can we work with them?

Read more to learn the 1-2-3’s of influencer marketing to green industry businesses.

Plantfluencers are taking social media by storm.

These expert gardening influencers are popping up on every channel making posts on everything outdoors/indoors to more niche plant varieties like orchids or carnivorous plants.

Here at Garden Media we love working with plantfluencers. Our clients have partnered on a tremendous amount of video and blog content, co-hosted and sponsored events and worked with influencers to simply grow brand awareness.

Before we jump ahead of ourselves, let’s start with the basics.

Read more to learn about working with plantfluencers.

In a recent interview for Oregon Association of Nurseries magazine I was asked about influence. Who has it, why is it important and how do you get it. The interview got me thinking about the future of social media influencers.

And then I read a New York Times story about the rise of the nano-influencer and Ellen Wells' Buzz in which she pointed out a great article about the future of social media marketing.

"Influencers will need to prove more value as brands question inflated vanity metrics driven by bots and sophisticated click networks." - Susan Beebe thought leader with a background in technology, project management, and corporate communications.

It seems I'm not the only one questioning the model.

Here at Garden Media we love working with influencers. Our clients have partnered on a tremendous amount of video and blog content, co-hosted and sponsored events and worked with influencers to simply grow brand awareness.

While not abandoning our favorite influencers, we also have to look to the future. Where are we going and what are the best ways to acquire new customers?

Read on for alternatives to influencer marketing that will help grow your brand in 2019.

PR professionals and influencers alike know the struggle of social. We put time and effort into posting on social media for who to see?

Social media experts determine the perfect time to post, the perfect length of video, the best picture to post with it and yet it can still fall flat.

Audiences can stay the same, but platforms change their algorithms all the time, and often with no warning. 

What are social media professionals to do?

Public relations professionals wear a lot of hats and develop a wide array of skills needed to make their clients successful.  Things like pitching and social media contribute to stellar campaigns, but did you know there’s a lot more that goes into refining one area of expertise?

This infographic from PR Daily shows exactly how to achieve the most success in the field.

Continue reading to learn the best tricks of the trade.  

Layered Landscapes are the new industry trend taking over yards in 2016. A 3-D yard rich with wildlife defines a true layered landscape according to the 2016 Garden Trends Report.

While the term quite literally applies to the landscape itself, the essence of the trend also applies to PR.

Successful PR industry leaders serve a well-defined purpose, create a team that maintains a diverse skillset and avoid blind spots.

Continue reading to learn why the PR industry is layered landscape.

Instagram is a powerful marketing tool that helps connect brands directly with fans though the use of images. And particularly in the garden industry, Instagram is a powerful tool for sharing beauty. 

For this week’s speaker series, Garden Media was thrilled to sit down with a true garden rock star over lunch. Doug Tallamy discussed biodiversity, native plants and the future of the industry. 

Tallamy is the Professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He’s the author of Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape and an op-ed contributor for the New York Times.

He has authored 80 research articles and has taught Insect Taxonomy, Behavioral Ecology, Humans and Nature, Insect ecology and other courses for 34 years.

Tallamy answered questions and stressed the importance of supporting food webs, pollinators and native plants. He said we need to create living landscapes where life thrives, not "dead zones" that do not support ecosystems. 

Continue reading for more information about Tallamy and his visit with Garden Media.