The PR seeds blossom
Hello everyone!
The final chapter of my journey with Wanda’s Gardening and Landscaping, and what an exciting journey it’s been. I’m absolutely stoked with the opportunity I’ve had to work with this local family business, even though at first I will admit I thought the industry was far from my comfort zone. One aspect of my placement was being able to take the reigns of the online platforms for the company was a big responsibility that I’m happy I got the chance to do, and feel like I leave them now with some new and up to date content, as well as a platform to build on, and a basis to work from.
Online socials are so important in PR and marketing because it is an awesome communication tool to your publics. These days there is such a great visual element and need for this to create audience engagement and also assist with your story telling, helping to gain a greater audience. One online campaign that we ran through my time at Wanda’s was a before and after photo series, getting pictures of old jobs before they had been there and comparing them to after, in a simple few photos. This helped build our reach because it’s simple, aesthetically pleasing, and showcases our business. This photo series, accompanied with hashtags was able to get us more online traction, and increased the frequency and relevancy of our social media platforms.
All though social media was a strong aspect of my placement, I am happy with everything I have developed on the way, and the chance to be in a real work environment, with pressure and deadlines, and an attention to detail in my work. All the team were exceptional and encouraging and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my placement and look forward to taking the skills I’ve learnt and improved in to the work force.
Over and out.
Josh.
Snags, Camera, Action
Hi all,
checking in again to update you on what I’ve been up to at Wanda’s Landscaping and Gardening. The big day was upon us, myself with the help of Wanda had organised a staff day where we would speak get all the staff on board with the new marketing plan, and what they would have to do on their end, when they are out in the field that can help us boost our image. We also got the whole fleet of vehicles down and did a photoshoot for the website, with the whole team, as well as individual shots for a meet theteam section, to try move more towards that friendly and approachable style of landscaping business.
This did take a few weeks of organisation, to get everyone on the same page and to get all the vehicles ready and looking their best for the photos. This was a bit of a task in itself, of course everyone had busy schedules, and we didn’t want to cut into work too much so we had to discuss through the business and find the best day, time, and place for the shoot. In the end It all ran smoothly, with a little bit of tricky choreograph from me trying to get the best line up of people and vehicles that we would use.
Wanda and I had discussed this day for a while leading up and we thought it really needed to be done to give a strong professional image, and an up to date outlook on the company, as they hadn’t had any photos of the company or staff in over 6 years, and the whole staff and business is completely different now. From a PR sense it is important for people to be able to look at the business and get a sense of personal connection, you see the faces instead of a blank entity of a business, and it draws you in to want to invite them into your home or wherever it is to do work.
Afterwards we went back to the main site office and had a bbq and we spoke about my role and how we are trying to shift the company in a certain direction, and we encouraged the workers to be hands on as well, and any content they might gather in the field or ideas they have to send them through and put them forward, to go towards keeping our socials fresh and active. This day was also good for team cohesion and brought me and everyone a bit closer, and on the same page to work towards our goals.
(For some reason it won’t let me attach my images correctly, that’s me and technology done for today)
Best, Josh.
Keeping it fresh
Hey again readers,
back to fill you in on my placement so far at Wanda’s landscaping and gardening. As you all are aware social media and marketing/public relations go hand in hand, so early on in my placement when I was handed the reigns to the companies social media pages I already had a few ideas and felt comfortable talking to the team about how to operate the social media pages to make it more engaging. At Wandas we wanted to increase brand visibility, engage with a wider audience, and also showcase our services in an exciting way.
Wanda and I discussed having a translating story across all the social media platforms and discussed the use of different posts at different times on different platforms could be used to give us the most benefit. We also discussed with the workers about getting footage and photos while they were out in the field so we could use it back at the office to create content that would showcase the companies skills in an engaging way, to hopefully be shared around. This included reels, posting more stories, and more frequent posts, mainly through instagram but also Facebook. We encouraged the team to have a bit of fun with it whilst at work and to see what we could come up with.
Overall the use of social media isa great tool for marketing and public relations, and coming in to Wanda’s and giving it a fresh new look and take on the companies socials will help build a bigger following and reach more people which in turn will hopefully mean more customers in the future.
All for now.
PR’s a garden, dig it!
Hello readers!
I started my placement mid August with a gardening and landscaping company called Wanda’s and looked forward to how I could use my PR and marketing wisdom to help grow (pun intended) their business.
I know what you might be thinking, the how useful can PR be to a landscaping company, surely it’s all hands on and out in the field work right? Wrong, I soon found out huge areas in which their marketing could be improved, and even though the contrast in the line of work between PR and landscaping is vastly different, it is an important tool to use for any business to have success and build a solid image.
Building an Image
It was great to meet all the team and sit down with Wanda the business owner and her son Josh and go through the ways they wanted to rebranded and shape their image with theirs being overgrownand in need of a bit of sunlight. We spoke about the importance of perception and shaping the company in a certain way to attract more customers, and build a trust and positive connection associated with our brand. We came up with a few short term goals we wanted to hit, which started with a rebranding and focusing on a particular image company wide with a common theme that translates across all platforms. We decided that being a family business we would hone in on that angle and portray the company as a tight knit friendly and approachable unit, who doesn’t love supporting a local family business right?
The company website is also outdated and they are in the slow process of makinga new one, which came at perfect timing for me to come onboard. We want to translate this new company image onto the new website as well. One way we are going to do that is through a new photoshoot, with the family, the fleet or machinery and the team, showcasing a smiling tight knit crew that you’d welcome in to your home to work.
On the agenda also was some of the bigger competitors, we looked at how they market themselves and the things we like and don’t like about them, to take away some pointers for the future.
Keep up to date to see the blossoming relationship of PR and landscaping/gardening and how we can both work together to grow gardens and branding.
Best,
Josh.
