Social media has become increasingly important over the past five years as an integral part of your overall trade show strategy.

Social media can be a great way to drive traffic to your booth at the show when used properly. It is in your best interest to cut through the noise and not only be active on the show floor, but also active online in the coming weeks and days before the show. 

By taking a proactive approach before the show, you are allowing yourself the opportunity to meet as many people as you possibly can.

During the show, we suggest assigning someone to “real-time” social media monitoring. This person can monitor the show chatter as it’s happening, drive traffic to your booth and quickly respond to photo tags and direct messages. This is usually someone who is not onsite, but able to dedicate his or her undivided attention to reaching out to as many people as possible during the show. It is an investment in time and resources, but one that can make a huge difference in your brand’s visibility during the show.

Read on to learn five ways you can utilize social media to start spreading the word and drive foot traffic to your booth at the show before you’ve even set it up.

We love trends. Mostly garden trends but we are also suckers for social media trends. This year, the team behind social media management tool Hootsuite has released a list of what they deem to be the most likely social media trends in 2020, following a survey of over 3,000 marketers.

As the new year starts many of you are busy in your content marketing planning. First, stop and  plan for the next big moments in social.

Their top picks included personalized messaging, bold political statements and the continuing rise of TikTok as a platform giant, among others.

Read more for a deep dive into the four game-changers for social media, according to Hootsuite.

It's a new decade and a new chance to revamp your social media strategies.

When it comes to social media, does it feel like you’re throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks?

Brands today are having a harder time getting visibility, engagement and conversions from social media than years prior.

Facebook shows about 1% of your organic posts to your fans. Additionally, once a fan likes your page, you only have 2 weeks to get their attention of they are lost as an organic fan forever.

Luckily, there are strategies you can use to see more results with your social media efforts (and investment).

Read more to learn how you can start the year off strong by making these 4 changes.

On our personal Instagram feeds, the accounts we follow fall into a few categories. While we obviously keep up with our IRL friends (and some memes), we also love to double-tap on inspiring indoor and outdoor posts.

And there are some accounts that we could endlessly scroll through and get our inspiration fixes for both.

A few designers and gardeners have a passion for plants that they love to foster within their Instagram accounts. Whether they are photographing their own beautiful gardens or posting curated pictures, they never fail to make our scrolling a little brighter.

Want to see what members of the garden set you need to follow? Read ahead and find something new to like (or double tap.)

Facebook and Instagram are visual mediums. And lately, they have turned the focus from photos to video. If you ask most marketers which content dominates social media, we say video.

BuzzSumo studied 777 million Facebook posts and says, there’s no better way to boost engagement than through video content.

Video posts generate 59% more engagement than other post types.

It’s not just organic posts that see higher engagement from video on Facebook either. Rounding up content from all of our clients shows, video is queen. 

Do some types of video work better than others on Facebook? Yes. Facebook Live has 10 times greater reach than all other forms of Facebook content and earns 6 times more interactions than pre-recorded video.

So whether you share video in an ad, an organic post or by live streaming, videos on Facebook and Instagram can be a great way to build an audience, as well as to kick off your customer journey…but how do you get started?

Read more to learn how to use Facebook and Instagram videos to build an audience.

For years, garden businesses measured their social media presence by how many “likes” they acquired. Particularly on the platform that first introduced “likes” — Facebook.

Facebook has undergone numerous changes over the past decade. Just a few years ago, you needed to have more page likes to have your content served to people — it wasn’t even an option for people to comment on a brand’s post unless they liked the page. As Facebook grew, a larger number of page likes meant that more people would see your content and possibly engage with it.

Social media marketing continues to evolve as newer platforms like Instagram and Snapchat bring new features. Metrics that were once relevant, have lost their luster in light of news feed changes and competition for finite amounts of news feed space.

Having social influence online and in-person is still necessary for brands to thrive. Users look to one another to validate brands and what they have to offer, however there are more relevant ways to measure your garden brand’s impact on social media than page likes and followers.

Read more to learn why...

As the end of the year approaches, many brands have already begun preparing their social media strategies for the new year. 

Social media continues to evolve and if your brand doesn't follow the trends and changes, your efforts may fall flat. 

Thankfully, there are a few social media trends coming to light that brands should consider as they prepare for the new year. 

Read on to learn about 7 social media trends that can help boost engagement. 

Instagram is shaping up to be THE major marketing platform, compared to it's beginnings as a photo sharing platform. 

With over 1 billion monthly active users, utilizing Instagram for your business has never been more important. They have taken strides to create a desirable space for both customers and business owners alike.

With updates to Instagram stories and creating shoppable posts, it's no wonder engagement is higher there than on Facebook and Twitter. 

Reach on to learn more about what your business can do to utilize Instagram.

Instagram is constantly changing and updating to appeal to their audiences. While there are some updates that have brands and users up in arms, they have come out with one thing that has everyone talking. 

Instagram TV. This update to Instagram's platform let's users post videos from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Those who have a bigger following can post videos up to an hour. 

With more of the younger generation "cutting the cord" and heading to YouTube, platforms need to keep up to stay relevant. It is projected that by 2021, mobile video will account for 78% of total mobile data traffic. So the media world is changing direction, literally. 

YouTube is all about horizontal videos, where Instagram is vertical videos only. It helps that it is a growth of Instagram stories, which also work best in the vertical format. 

Read on to see how you should be using IGTV.

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?