Anti Social Media and Old Fashioned Nursery Folk

I am one of those forty-something Gen X’ers who sort of grew up with technology and sort of didn’t. My generation was the in between generation. People born before me had no computers in school. People born just a few years after me were required to have a computer to enter college. We had computers, but only the brave, overachieving students took the classes.

I was one of those…

I took classes in college that forced you to do your homework on a computer. My freshman English class and many Calculus classes were all computer based. We had to trek over to the “computer lab” to use the computers, though. That’s becoming a dinosaur term in colleges. Every student today has a laptop. They take notes on a laptop; they read on a laptop, they watch videos and lectures on a laptop.

Even this is becoming passé. Starting now and into the future, students will communicate mostly through their phones. Even email is passé. College students have Blackberries or iPhones, and now ipads and e-readers, so there won’t be a need for laptops.

Who wants to lug those heavy things around anyway? Times, they are a changing…

On Sunday, May 2nd there was a terrific article in the New York Times called Antisocial Networking? The article talked about this generation and even younger kids, like 8 to 10 year olds who are having issues with face-to-face conversations because they don’t have them anymore.

Sad, isn’t it?

I remember running home from the school bus just to talk on my red princess phone for hours to the girlfriends with whom I just spent the entire day. Talking about everything. There was no texting or chatting or Facebooking. We talked on the phone.

I don’t really like to talk on the phone anymore. Sadly, it’s often inconvenient because it means I might have to stop what I’m doing to concentrate on the conversation and there’s really no time for that in my life.

It is sad, isn’t it?

Back to the New York Times article.

Studies found children who find it difficult to make friends in person are able to make many more friends online. They are not as shy on line. These children have lots more friends than they would if they had to make friends the old fashioned way.

Studies also find people feel they are more social than they used to be because they spend more time talking to their friends online, but the reality is they’ve lots the art of face-to-face conversations. My parents rarely call. My friends never call. Everyone texts me when they need me. They used to email me, now they text. It’s so much easier because you can answer them anytime.

My entire business is online. I have plant information sheets and other handouts I take to tradeshows, but I never do mailings or print a catalog of all of the plants. It’s a waste of paper because not everyone wants them. Some would rather receive e-copies of everything. Some would rather just have what they want, so why waste all those trees sending everything to everyone?

That’s my philosophy.

If your business is all online and having no paper is sustainable and everyone texts or emails you requests, what do you do when someone contacts you the old fashioned way?

It truly throws my whole day off. It’s happened twice. There are still nursery folks out there who don’t even own a computer.

Can you believe that?

It’s hard to imagine in this day and age, isn’t it?

I’ve had only two old fashioned requests for information in almost five years. One was a hand written letter, requesting information about Echinacea purpurea ‘Pink Double Delight’ and one was a phone call from someone who possibly had a new plant.

How did they find Plants Nouveau if they don’t have access to the Internet?

Ads. Old fashioned, printed ads in magazines that they can hold in their hand and read.

In the last few months I’ve run several ads in our traditional trade magazines. Since then, I’ve received many calls about ‘Pink Double Delight’, which was featured in one of the ads. These were calls from people who have never heard of the plant and worse yet, some that had no idea there were perennials that bloomed all summer.

What?

That’s exactly what I was trying to convey in this print ad. It was meant to be very specific. It worked. It worked for people who still read ads and I do believe many of those people don’t know perennials can bloom all summer.

So even though I have a Facebook fanpage, a Twitter account where I talk about my new plants, and an e-newsletter I send out each week to everyone who IS online, I must still advertise the old fashioned way.

I’ve made sure there’s plenty of searchable information about Plants Nouveau and the plants we’ve introduced online, but when someone called and asked me to send them information about the new plant introduction process, I had nothing. I had a few things, but the real story and the information about the process is on the website. Most people find me that way… just search for new plants and you’ll find me.

The man who called about finding a new plant found me through an old fashioned print ad in American Nurseryman magazine. He called and wanted more information. I asked him if he had Internet access and he said, “No.” I was shocked.

I had to restrain myself from saying, “Really? Are you kidding me?”

I forget not everyone is able to embrace technology the way I have. I had to print information from the website and mail it to him. It took me a few hours, but now I have hard copy versions of everything in a format that is easily sent by mail.

I’m now prepared for the next phone call. I certainly don’t want to miss out on the latest, greatest new plant introductions.

These situations reinforce the need for both social media AND regular old print advertising. They also reinforced to me that you must always convey your message in everything you do because you have no idea who is reading the words you write in any message or ad.

I am a huge fan of social media and new technology. We have a tool at our disposal that can reach more people, more quickly than any advertising generation before.

Here’s a link to a video that’s been posted on YouTube called Social Media Revolution. I love this because it shows how quickly people have adapted. For instance, did you know…

• The largest audience on Facebook is women 55-65 years old? Isn’t this also one of the largest gardening audiences??? (And you thought advertising on Facebook was a waste of money.)
• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the World , so taking videos of plants and sales items and events in your stores (garden centers) doesn’t seem like such a waste of time does it?
• Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US. Makes that fanpage for your company seem a bit more relevant, doesn’t it?
• Social Media has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Internet. Just think of all those missed marketing opportunities. If people are spending all of their free time on this, they have no time to read traditional media.
• 1 in 8 married couples today met through social media. If they met online, they probably do their shopping online, so having an online shopping site would really attract these folks.

To wrap thing up I’ll say I love social media. I also love a good print ad too because in this industry, there are many ludites and old timers who just plain refuse to jump on the technology bandwagon. Until they do, we must have a strategically placed presence in both.

Speaking of ludites, meet Miss Violet Bearegard, or Violet for short. She’s our new dog. We rescued her from a no kill rescue organization not far from Longwood Gardens. Vets are guessing she’s a German shepherd/Australian cattle dog mix. We’d like to do a DNA test to see what she’s made of. The tests are cheap, so we’re planning on it – just for kicks.

Can anyone guess the origin of her name?

Violet is about one year old. She’s incredibly sweet and kind – just what the kids needed. She’s no Scully-girl yet, but maybe she’ll grow into the role. Porter adores her. Our vet says Violet is his wife. They are real pals and were instantly. We couldn’t be more pleased.

Except…

Except for the fact that she appears to be somewhat jealous of and willing to accept all things technology. In record time, she ate two TV remotes and my iphone. We all now know to keep them away from Violet. It was an expensive week for us.

Happy weeding and good night.

Angela Treadwell-Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau

P.S. If you’d like to hear more about online marketing and social media, come hear my guru, and husband, Andrew Palmer speak at the Perennial Plant Symposium in Portland, Oregon this July 22nd. He really is the master of all things Internet. He runs businesses entirely on the Internet and makes them loads of money. Plants Nouveau would not have such an online presence without his vision. Of course, I have to come up with all of the content he makes available for the search engines and social media sites, but that’s no work at all, is it? Haha!

While you’re at it, please make plans to attend the largest tradeshow in the United States for new plant introductions, The Ohio Short Course, held each year in Columbus, Ohio by the Ohio florists Association (OFA). This IS the place to see all of the industry’s new plants and technology in one place. It really is the best summer tradeshow. The dates are Sunday July 11 to Tuesday July 13th.