Editor’ s note: GWA invited Lori Greene to share some of the points she made during her keynote address at the inaugural GWA NextGen summit in Philadelphia in August.
The Future of Horticulture Communications Has Arrived: Are You Ready? BY LORI GREENE
How do you stay relevant and add value to the conversation while technology is disrupting the very idea of communication? Keeping up can be a riveting pastime, yet it helps to discover what’ s most important. Here are 10 crucial trends that I spoke about at GWA’ s NextGen summit. They can help you sculpt your destiny.
PHOTO COURTESY GWA
1. Data: The Secret to Super-Serving Your Audience Data is now everywhere and is a hot topic, but what does it mean for gardening communicators? It’ s about really and truly knowing your audience. This knowledge can help you with much more than just your target’ s demographics. You can use it to find their psychographics, as well as behavioral and transactional information. Don’ t forget, there’ s also nothing quite like studying your audience in person to gain ethnographic insights. Once you have all of this covered, you can create audience personas or muses to help you develop the most engaging and informative content for their needs.
2. Mobile First, Last, Always The numbers are staggering:
• Two-thirds of digital media consumption is now spent on mobile.
• There are more searches on mobile than desktop.
• Eighty-seven percent of millennials are never without their phones.
• There are now more tablet sales than TV sales in the US.
• For millennials, 73 percent would rather give up alcohol than their smartphone, 33 percent would rather give up sex, and crazy as this is, 22 percent would rather give up their toothbrush.
So, everything, and I mean everything you do, must start with mobile. Think about your headlines, your subheads, your video and your photography from a mobile mindset.
Lori Greene talked about communications and market trends at the NextGen 2016 Summit.
3. There’ s a Screen for That
Speaking of mobile, there is now a screen for pretty much any occasion. Your audience probably is consuming media on four different screens, so you need to develop content that works on those particular devices. Smartphones are about time and place. Tablets are more for browsing, seeing beautiful visuals and relaxing. Laptops are for working, information-gathering and viewing videos. Gaming consoles do everything, but they’ re built for fun and games. And, let’ s not forget that trucks, billboards, taxis and even bridges now have screens.
4. Social Media: All Grown Up
Social media might not yet be in middle age, but most of the platforms we use every day have matured. They’ re generating revenue, collecting data, morphing and improving daily. What that means for you is that you must change with them. Delete is no longer the default for Snapchat, Facebook has hashtags, Instagram just launched Stories, and Yik Yak is still big on college campuses. Do something different. If not, the effectiveness of your posts will decrease. Make incremental improvements, stay current on upgrades and keep refining your content.
5. Video is Everything Right now, 100-billion video views are consumed on Snapchat daily. By next year, 74 percent of all internet traffic will be video. Mobile video viewing increases 100 percent annually. So, what should you do? Double down on video production; experiment with formats, lengths, and new technology; and most importantly, learn how to tell innovative and effective stories with video.
6. Live Streaming: You’ re a TV Network
Tap a button and you can be live to the world in an instant. That is powerful. When Twitter’ s Periscope came on the scene last year, it revolutionized the world of live streaming. You no longer needed expensive, specialized equipment to enable anyone to see your events and activities. If you are interviewing a high profile person, live stream it. When you’ re doing an event, live stream it. While you’ re planting, pruning, designing, cooking, eating, live stream it. And don’ t forget Facebook Live with the platform’ s audience in the billions.
7. AR / VR: Enhanced and Alternate Realities Augmented Reality or AR has been around for years, but it caught fire a mere month ago with the launch of Pokemon Go. Suddenly, AR was the next big thing. It’ s about using a mobile device to enhance the environment around you. This is the ideal tool for horticulture communicators, as you can explain the plants, flowers and environment that you created and
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