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. 

I n a year of  unpredictable challenges and incredible growth for the garden industry, early signs are  indicating that – as we suspected – it’s going to be a holiday season like no other.  And with holiday shopping well underw ay, major changes in consumer shopping habits are playing out in real time.

Read on for the four surprising finds of the 2020 holiday season.

If the sight of Christmas decorations next to Halloween candy on store shelves makes you raise an eyebrow, you may want to get used to it – because a trend has arrived that garden retailers can’t afford to ignore.

In recent years, 43% of holiday shoppers planned to start shopping in November. But signs are indicating a major shift this year, and retailers need brace themselves: holiday shoppers are shopping EARLY in 2020, and their preferences have changed.

Read more to learn 3 must-have tips for positioning your brands this holiday season.

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.

Our office has been hit by the KonMari Method, the tiding-up craze inspired by Marie Kondo.

Kondo is the successful author of the New York Times’ bestselling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and star of her own Netflix series, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.” She applies the act of mindfulness to possessions in your home, and teaches how to keep your space tidy with only things that ‘spark joy’.

Suzi attended a workshop on the KonMari method and was inspired not only to practice this in her home, but at the office as well. And the method doesn’t just apply to stuff, Marie says you can cleanse your life of bad relationships, as well.

What would Marie Kondo say if she looked under the hood of your business? What sparks joy for you? What is the clutter? What isn’t working that you keep doing over again? And what are the important things you’re just not getting to?

Today we are exploring how to KonMari your job, team, office, clients and media.

Read more to learn how to get rid of the things that aren’t serving you, and free up more time for the important things.

We recently watched a webinar entitled Top PR Trends to Watch in 2019 and were not surprised to learn high buck influencers may be slipping off their pedestals a bit. But micro influencers will have more, well, influence. New tools to prove the ROI on marketing. Hallelujah. And finally, more individualized pitching in place of “Spray and Pray”. Something we’ve already identified at Garden Media.

Yet throughout the webinar, they kept referring to an Edelman Report about Belief Driven Buyers. This report outlines the fundamentals of how brands need to shift their mindset in order to fully capture the right audience to purchase their products or services.

Read on to learn more about the Edelman Report and webinar.

In today's culture, customers ideas, passions and wants change at the drop of a hat or at least at the drop of a new trend.

Companies have a moving target they are working hard to please - their customers. 

Today's culture of self-care has some companies and industries in trouble. 

So, what are they doing to change that? Read more to find out.

It is necessary for the success of any PR campaign to know the demographics of the target audience and, most importantly, to not leave any key demographics out.

In the United States, we have an extremely large Hispanic population, accounting for 18 percent of the nation’s total population. Their consumer spending power, totaling $1.4 trillion in 2016, is reason enough to adjust your company’s marketing strategy to appeal to the Hispanic demographic.

To learn more about how culture affects the marketing and PR industries, read below!

Here at Garden Media we are huge fans of talk radio and NPR is our favorite.

So when the podcast medium went through a resurgence, we were thrilled. Our fascination started with Serial and grew with the countless episodes of How I Built This, by Guy Raz.

We've written an entire blog about why you should start podcasting. And we've created a list of our favorite garden podcasts. But today, we are going to dive into our favorite business podcasts to listen to. And, we want to hear from you, too! What are your favorites podcasts? What are your favorite episodes? Let's hear it!

Read on for our eight favorite business podcasts of 2018.

The most important step in creating content is figuring out what your audience wants to read. 

Audiences come to trusted brands for their information. In fact, 65% of daily internet users read blogs. It could be YOUR blog if you make it easy for them to find it.

And yes, while blogs can assist you with the effective promotion of a service or product, they do more to build your businesses credibility, trust and authority. 

However, if you're still about the ROI:

• 63% of people turn to blogs to influences their purchase decisions.
• 60% of U.S. online consumers say they've made a purchase as a direct result of reading a blogger's recommendation.

Continue reading how to build content your readers want.