Business as (Un)Usual

Think about the cell phone. When it was first developed, the cell phone was a pretty bulky thing, but still allowed people to have phone access from remote locations. However, the only purpose for the first cell phones was to make and receive telephone calls. Then a few years later we found out that we could send messages with our phones without making a call. We saw that we could put a small camera on a phone and integrate it into the phone’s system. Then phones were developed that could access the internet. We know have access to millions of apps online. We can send emails fast from our phones than we can most computers. There is almost nothing that we cannot do with a cell phone these days. The point I want to make here is that cell phones started out with one purpose and evolved into something we would never have imagined 20 years ago.

The same thing is happening to social media right now. You could say that the origins of social media lie in the chat rooms of the late nineties. Now there are many different social networks with different purposes. Sure, the central goal is still about connecting people, but the types of people using social networks is no longer limited to teenagers and college kids. People from all over the globe are logging into social sites for many different reasons. People are looking to find old friends, they are looking for deals on different products, some are looking to unite others around a cause, and some are looking to do business. Over the last few months I have been looking at social media from a B2B perspective (business selling to business perspective). I have been entrenching myself into both this non-consumer based culture and trying to see if there is any way that B2B businesses could fit into the scheme of social media. My answer: B2B companies need to be involved in social media. It’s not just about fitting into the picture, it’s about completing the whole puzzle.

The whole deal here is that as time goes on more people turn to social media for different reasons. This creates opportunities for businesses to jump in to the blender for a wealth of different reasons. Here are my top three:

1. Talent Acquisition – As generations move through the workforce more and more people will take to the internet to find a job. Speaking from experience, I can say that LinkedIn was the first place I went to look for a job before graduating from college. I’ve even seen people put “Looking for Immediate Employment” in their headline on LinkedIn. Also, by being active as a company on LinkedIn, people can find you. You do less searching for desirable candidates. LinkedIn is a place for people interested in being professional (somewhat at least), and it lets you see a person’s connections and past experiences before wasting anytime with interviews or phone calls.

2. Create Your Own Press – If you own a business and don’t have a blog of some sort or a way to address your customers and their customers I urge you to immediately find a way to rectify the situation. Even if you are a grower in the horticultural industry or the owner of a family farm it’s important to have a way to address your customers and their customers. Situations may arise in which you need to say something quickly to large amounts of people. In the green industry we can’t really hold a press conference and it can take days for industry media to type up a story. You need an outlet for damage control. In the fast moving digital world that we live in it’s important to act swiftly in those situations. Blogs are also great tools to keep people coming back to your website!

3. Customer Support – You may sell strictly to businesses, but your customers still sell to consumers. What does this mean for social media? The end consumer is connecting to those businesses that exist on social media. Pages like Facebook and Twitter are where consumers go to connect with the brands they love. So if your customers are on top of things, they should be connecting with the consumer in those places. However, where does your customer get the content to post on their social page for their business? How do you ensure that your plants or products are being represented correctly? Businesses have to be involved with the social media content of their business customers. For B2B companies it’s about providing a content service for all of your customers’ pages. It isn’t about posting a picture that gets 20,000 “likes” it’s about getting 20 other businesses to share your content on their pages. You get to market your plants by providing a content service for your customer. Businesses often get too caught up in how many likes their page gets. However, a better measurement of success is the dollar value behind those likes. If 20 businesses use your page for content and each business is worth $50,000 of business, 20 doesn’t seem like such a low number.

At the end of the day social media will continue to evolve over the next few years. Be ready to use things like Facebook and Pinterest in ways that you had never imagined. The key is to understand that even though you may not sell to the end consumer, your product still has to get there someday, and because more and more businesses are seeking to blur the gaps in the supply chain, social media is a must to maintain relevancy for the future.

- Mason  Day

www.twitter.com/mday55

mday55@gmail.com 

www.facebook.com/nextgenhorticulture

The Logic of Local

I’m back after a long hiatus and a couple life changing events! Sorry that I’ve been gone for so long. I looked on here the other day and it said I hadn’t posted in a month. I will admit I felt guilty when I saw that. I’m always telling people to blog as much as possible, and I had been silent for almost a month, but trust me if you had to deal with the things I’ve went through this month I think you’d understand. Anyways, enough of that let’s talk shop.

This past month I have spent over 75% of my days on the road. I have been to just over ten garden centers and to about five small farms. Everywhere I would say that 90% of the places that I’ve been to were active on social media. Were they utilizing it to the best of their capabilities? Most of the time the answer was no, but they were still believers in this new channel. In past blogs I’ve talked about how to get started on social media, how to set up accounts, even a little bit on how to engage the new consumer in and outside of social media. Today I want to talk about finding your customers and potential customers with social media. Today we’re talking about generating your own leads.

Being active in reaching out to your potential customers can help you show that your business cares about the community. Having a great deal of followers from around the globe can be great and you can learn a lot from people all over the place, but if you’re a local business and all of your followers are from over 100 miles away you aren’t reaping all of the benefits of social media. The key to local success is to think local. Put yourselves in the shoes of your customer.

Let’s start with Facebook for example. The first thing to know is that your business is not the only business in your town that is on Facebook. Hopefully by now you know where your target customer shops. Maybe they shop at a local hardware store, maybe they go to a bakery up the street. The point is they go to other businesses. They shop at other businesses that have Facebook pages. Search these stores. Like them, connect with them. Maybe you work out a deal with the bakery. Buying a birthday cake gets you a dollar off of their purchase at your location. It’s all about being connected locally. Offer an exchange post on your pages where if you share something of another local business they will share content of yours. Also many chambers of commerce have Facebook accounts today. Connect with them to increase your visibility.

If you have a Twitter account and are looking to connect locally, it’s even easier. Sure you can still follow local businesses and try to connect with them and work on cross promotion, but Twitter is an even sweeter deal than that. Twitter gives you access to all of the followers of any given user. Therefore if there is a famous business in your area that is followed by everyone in town. You can then go and follow all of the followers of that business (www.tweepi.com makes this task extremely easy). It puts your name in front of people. Maybe before they didn’t know where your business was or maybe they simply didn’t know you had a Twitter account. Either way you’re advertising directly to your target customers.  Most of them will probably follow you back. For the ones that don’t you just unfollow (if you’re concerned about ratios). It’s simple it’s effective and it gets those local customers thinking about your local garden center or farm.

Another way to tap into that local scene on Twitter is to use hashtags associated with your region or area. If there is a summer festival in your area that’s using a hashtag find a way to tap into it. Find a way to say something relevant that would be viewed in a positive light if someone stumbled across it in a hashtag stream. Some cities even have hashtags that are populated enough to draw attention.

Again the biggest lesson in this post is that if you make your money locally, it’s time to find a way to tap into the local social media. The channel is great for making worldwide friends, but sometimes it’s best suited for making friends right outside of your back door.

Contact me for any reason here:

mday55@gmail.com

www.twitter.com/mday55

www.facebook.com/nextgenhorticulture

The Sustainability of Sustainability

Sustainability. What does it mean? According to journalists, speakers, bloggers, students, and whoever else can write or talk it can mean a lot of things. We hear about environmental sustainability, we hear about cultural sustainability, even economic sustainability. I have even heard people us it when regarding something in a positive light. Whatever the case, sustainability is generally used to refer to making something last, and creating something that benefits all of the groups involved. You might even have a sustainability focus in your business already. If you do that’s great, if you don’t I’ll fill you in on why you NEED to become more “sustainable” (in the general sense of the word).

Now I could get up on my soap box and tell you that you have to become sustainable for the good of the planet. I could go on about climate change, but I won’t. I know that those are topics that people have strong views about. I’m not looking for some debate, or threats emailed to me. I’m here to tell you that becoming sustainable is more than just beneficial for the environment; it’s beneficial to your business. If you were in show business we’d say “It puts people in the seats”. It’s the bait for an audience that businesses in the horticultural and agricultural industry so desperately want to reach: Generation Y. As overused as the term may be, Generation Y digs sustainability.

The connection between Gen Y and sustainability lies in the fact that one of the main interests of the generation is giving back. These young individuals are coming up in a world that is extremely connected, and though older generations may feel rooted in specific communities, Gen Y-ers feel strongly that they are a part of a global community and they believe that everyone has a part to play in making this world a better place. If you’re a part of something that they see as a value to the planet and all the people on it they see value in you.

Becoming more sustainable gives you the ability to give back. It gives you something to talk about. Sustainability becomes woven in the story of your business. It gives your business a cause. Something Generation Y can stand behind. From there leave it to them and they will champion your business. Who knows maybe you could even go viral! Recently watching a TED talk by Simon Sinek, a message was left that resonates perfectly with this example. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

When I say “more sustainable” I’m talking about different things. It’s all about what’s sustainable for your business (see what I did there?). If you can get a grant or have the money maybe it is about doing big things like buying new systems or technologies. If you’re a local business maybe it’s about starting a small compost operation to incorporate into the soils that you use. In this industry it’s so easy to become just a little more sustainable because more and more developments are being made every day from peat-free media to compostable pots.

Also becoming sustainable doesn’t even have to be about the environment at all (What?). Maybe your angle is about the people. Maybe you want to give back to the community. You stand for cultural and community sustainability. Maybe you don’t have to give away anything at all. You could simply start a program that gives talks on Saturdays to kids about the benefits of gardening. Becoming sustainable isn’t about saving the planet. It’s about everyone doing their part. That’s what Gen Y loves. If you want to appeal to them, give them something they can help out with too. Give them a chance to get involved. They want to help you make a difference. Start your own revolution.

At the end of the day, sustainability isn’t about breaking the bank to change the way you operate. That’s not “sustainable” at all. It’s about doing what you can, with what you have and trying to do things to benefit others. Chances are the things you do to benefit others will come back in the long term. You get twice what you pay in....maybe more.

If you want to connect you can always find me here:

mday55@gmail.com

www.twitter.com/mday55

www.facebook.com/nextgenhorticulture

or search for me on Klout, LinkedIn, or Google +

The Future of .... stuff

“Social media is just a fad.”

I love it when people say this. I love it when I tell them that I work in social media and they give me that look like “Really? That’s a job?”

I hate to break it to you but social media and the underlying concepts for its creation are not fads. Then again I imagine that there were people that said that the internet wouldn’t stick. There were also those people who said nobody would trust information from Wikipedia.

In the horticulture and agriculture industries social media will only continue to gain in prevalence and necessity. The reason that social media exists is that people want to be a part of something. It’s in our nature. We all want to be accepted, be a part of a group, and connect with other individuals on a global scale. We want people to know that we as individuals exist. Social media offers a way to connect like never before. Now we can connect not only on a person to person level, but on a person to business, or business to business level.

Individuals in upcoming generations will be using the internet solely to access social media sites. I will even admit that I rarely use the internet for “real” websites anymore. I use Google, but never click on a link. I use it simply to answer questions. Other than that I spend all of the rest of my internet time on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other blogs (which I am lumping as social pages). I’m 22. If you’re not on social media of some sort, you aren’t reaching me online. Does that scare you as a business? It should. If you were to go on the street to anyone under the age of 25 and ask them to list 5-7 website addresses that weren’t social media sites or Google, you would be hard pressed to find someone who could rattle five off in a couple of minutes.

Does that mean that websites are dead? No, not quite yet at least. Links often take me to websites and sure I may become interested but never enough to stay very long. What does this mean for the future? Should you pour all of your marbles into the Facebook jar? No, not at all, analyze first and then divide your marbles (never all in one jar!). Not all social media sites are the same and new ones are created every day. It’s not the actual site that matters but the concept of why people are there. As a business social media must be in your plan for the future. These three reasons show you why:

1. People want all of their information in as few places as possible. If people can’t find you on social media sites your business is missing out. If a customer is on Facebook and thinks about your business and can’t find a company page, their thoughts are now “dead” they aren’t willing to give up their focus on Facebook and go to your website. It simply isn’t worth it to them. If they search for you and you do pop up on Facebook it’s a different story.

2. In the near future the majority of talent acquisition will take place in some form on social media. Look at LinkedIn. Everyone on there is either trying to get a job or trying to help people get a job. People are getting references and giving references more than ever before. Building a digital resume that is available to anyone at the click of a button will become most valuable as job searching and talent hunting become more high tech.

3. The youth. If you ever want to even think about reaching anyone under the age of thirty you have to start using social media. I never used to believe this until I started looking at my actions and the actions of my friends. I remember more brands from tweets that I saw for five seconds than I remember the giant billboards that I see every day on my way to work. More and more my friends’ wall posts on Facebook are shares from something this brand or that brand posted on Facebook.

To be honest I could give you about 100 other reasons as to why social media will continue to grow in the next several years, but I’ll save those for another day. This was just meant to get the gears churning. What does your business do? How can you utilize social media? Do you at least have a LinkedIn company profile? If not make one….now!

Send me a shout!
mday55@gmail.com www.twitter.com/mday55 http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233

Pushing Buttons

If you walked into any sort of industry think tank today you would likely hear people discussing ideas to “reach Generation Y”. It’s true of every industry out there. Everybody knows that in the next ten years purchasing demographics are really going to start shifting. Some industries are looking to just maintain engagement. Anybody in the technology industry is sitting pretty right now. They are nailing the younger demographics, whereas in the horticulture and agriculture industries we are really trying to find a foothold. We want to engage these younger consumers. We want to be able to connect these people to gardening. We try marketing with social media and we develop apps for mobile devices. Sure we are picking up some new followers, but are we really seeing a swing in the amount of Gen Y individuals who are interested in gardening or farming? Are we merely catering to the same audience that we had before?

I know that I have talked about Generation Y before and about how we really need to focus on what I’ve deemed the “new consumer”, but today I want to take the discussion back to getting younger individuals involved with what I will call “green activity” (not necessarily environmental, just activity associated with plants or food production).  What are we missing that the rest of the world is offering people? What aren’t we doing to get new faces in those garden centers? We have Facebook pages and Twitter profiles but if our only followers are people that are already loyal supporters and avid gardeners, we aren’t achieving what we wanted to through those channels.

I’m going to say it plain and simple. The reason why more people aren’t interested in “green activity” is because we’ve made things in our industries boring. We aren’t exciting, and if people are excited it may simply be for other reasons (the whole GMO debate). To non-plant people gardening is boring. It’s a waste of time and money. Sure you and I may think the latest color of geranium is breathtaking, but to the average Gen Y individual it’s just another flower. Honestly sometimes to me it’s just another flower. I can actually understand how people get bored. When I used to listen to kids in college talk about plants (using Latin names that I’ve never heard of) it often seemed like a foreign language and I’d zone out. I’d lose interest.

You know what people don’t lose interest in? Shark Week, South Park, Taco Bell.  They don’t lose interest in these things because they are edgy. Honestly sometimes things get pretty crazy. That’s what these industries need.  We need to do something crazy to break us out of the shrinking consumer sphere that we seem trapped in. We are too reserved when it comes to getting our ideas out there. I mean I’ll admit there have been some attempts to get something going. Those guys who did “I’m farming and I grow it” were on to something, but that flash has died and nobody carried it on.

 If we really want to reach the younger generations we have to become something that we’ve never been before. We have to be risqué in a way. We have to create content that makes people go “Woah I can’t believe they just said that”.  We can’t sell plants like we always have. We have to make something of it. Honestly we need to take more risks! I’m not talking about the risks with growing more or less or changing products, I’m talking about taking the risk of offending someone. Too often I feel we are so reserved that we will do something someone will find distasteful. I’m not saying we should go nuts, but hey selling plants that “Kick Ass” might not be a bad idea. It’s a thin line but it seems right now we are staying as far away from that line as possible. In order to sway any of those younger people into gardening we have to walk right on that line. Look at the Oscars this year. You’re telling me that Seth MacFarlane wasn’t a simple ploy to get Gen Y individuals (especially males) to watch the awards show? Whether or not it succeeded is in the air, but at least they took the risk!

Just thought I’d open up a can of worms tonight. I’d be interested in hearing what people have to say on the topic. I’m not saying that the hort and ag industries need to become the bad boys of the business world. I’m just saying it might be ok to get our first tattoo.

Reach Me!

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http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233  

Ahh, Tweet Success

What do you do now? With the busy season coming up for many people in the horticultural and agricultural industries, businesses are finding themselves scurrying around trying to make sure that everything is going according to plan. Everybody is trying to stay in line with the big picture. Where does that leave social media? Often social media strategies can fall by the wayside this time of year. It’s often a last minute thing, or the kind of thing that people don’t put much thought into. Is that a good idea? What do you think? My obvious answer would be “NO!”, but we can agree to disagree if you want to be stubborn about it.

You have a Facebook account; it’s got quite a good following. Your customers see it as a valuable resource for pictures and a good way to let you know how they feel.  You aren’t so concerned about Facebook. You want your business to expand its social media horizons, so you turn to the next biggest thing: Twitter. You might even have a Twitter account. There are probably a few random tweets here and there. You might even have a decent number of followers. You sit down and look to post something new, but you find yourself staring blankly. You have no idea what to do with Twitter.

Take a deep breath. It’s going to be ok. I’m going to help you with that.

When looking to post on Twitter, you first have to ask a few questions. Who am I talking to? Is it customers?  Industry leaders? Suppliers? Or is it some twisted combination of all of those? No matter what the case may be there are a few things you have to remember about this social media monster.

1.  Twitter is one giant conversation. Think of it as a constant ongoing networking event. Everybody has a name tag and it’s really ok to talk to anyone. It’s ok to ask questions. You might not get an answer from some people, but generally if people are active on Twitter they are looking to be a part of an active conversation.
2. Think of it as show and tell. You only get 140 characters per tweet. That’s really not a lot of room to say something. That’s why you will see links all over Twitter. If you want to talk about a topic, state your brief opinion and link to a webpage that goes into further detail. Use Twitter as the bait to your own hosted content. Because you are limited in what you say. You have to make it count. 
3. It’s ok to share. Twitter was built for sharing. See that “Retweet” button? Use it. People LOVE it when you retweet their content. It lets people know that you’re interested in what they have to say, and it gives them exposure to your followers.
4. Be personal. Nobody wants to follow a robot (well normal people anyway). Don’t post useless drivel. If you have something to say then say it. If you don’t, then go out and find something cool that you think your followers would be interested in and share it. Unless you’re a celebrity nobody wants to hear all about you all the time. Sales pitches get boring, and boring gets un-followed.
5. Thank people. If somebody follows you actually take a look at their profile. If they are someone who might interest you follow them back! I don’t suggest following everyone who follows you but at least look into them as a candidate. If someone retweets you acknowledge them for it.

By following those five tips tweeting can actually become pretty simple. It lets you “show off” to a lot of people. It can help you become a business that is known as an industry leader. Twitter has the ability to give your followers the feeling that sometimes they are getting a chance to interact with you on a one on one basis. That’s the biggest thing to learn here.

Twitter is all about give and take. You really get what you give, and it can be a lot of fun. Maybe it’s just because I’m a social media FREAK, but Twitter is where I go to hang out. It allows me to be myself and I get to chat with some really interesting people that maybe otherwise wouldn't know that I existed.

Find me here:

Email: mday55@gmail.com

Facebook: www.fb.com/nextgenhorticulture

Twitter: www.twitter.com/mday55

LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233

Change In location!

Hey everybody. I just wanted to let you know that this blog has moved for the time being.

I am now located at  http://socialshortage55.wordpress.com/  . I hope that everyone is able to find it and that I have your continued support. Email me if you have a problem at mday55@gmail.com . Also be sure to keep an eye on the Facebook page for the new movement http://www.facebook.com/NextGenHorticulture. See you all at Wordpress!