10 gardening social media content ideas that build loyalty

A recent survey discovered that nearly 84% of people make shopping decisions based on a business’s social media content.

And that includes gardening businesses like landscapers, garden centers and nurseries, too.

For your gardening business to succeed, your social media marketing strategy needs authentic content that represents who you are as a brand.

And with 4.2 billion people using social media around the world (almost 60% of the world’s population), staying authentic is the only way to create a successful gardening social media marketing strategy.

What should your garden center or landscape business post on social media? Here are 10 content ideas that you can use today.

10 social media content ideas for garden centers, landscapers and gardening businesses

1. Tell the story of your garden

Your followers aren’t just interested in your pretty flowers, they also want to know how your garden or landscape business became popular, what the origin is, and where you aspire to go in the future.

If you tell the story of your garden and love for plants through photos and videos, your audience will not only be engaged and interested, but they’ll also want to see the story in real life. That means more in-person visits coming your way.

How to do it: Think in short clips – not a full-length documentary.

On Instagram, post a picture of your favorite part of your garden. In the caption, talk about why you chose that location – was it the connection to the plants there or the amount of sunlight it gets every day? Tell similar stories about the logo you chose or the name of your business.

You know these stories – your audience doesn’t. Share them.

2. Give a behind-the-scenes look at your garden

People love to see how the gorgeous flowers and displays they see on Instagram get made. Don't believe us? Just think about all the popular gardening shows on TV right now.

You can easily attract new guests by sharing how you (and your team) grow gorgeous plants all year long. You’re already doing the work, all you have to do now is film and share.

How to do it: Choose one of your favorite plants and film your and your team taking care of it. It’s that simple.

If you don’t want to give away your growing secrets… do a quick explainer video on how to propagate, how to fertilize properly, or what flowers last the longest when cut.

The goal is to show off your skills and let your guests (even future ones) connect with you on a different level.

3. Highlight the people on your team

Sure, your flowers and plants are beautiful, but why else should customers come to your garden center or choose your landscape business? Sharing photos of your staff working together behind the scenes gives a personal insight into the garden. And it shows that you care about your team.

How to do it: Dedicate one post every week (or month) to a team member. Post a picture of them working in the garden or greenhouse and include their favorite plant or top tip in the caption.

4. Bring attention to your vendors

Highlighting your vendors and suppliers is a great way to showcase your plants and attention to detail. Give a shout out to your local farmer where you buy your compost or the business where you buy fresh cut flowers.

This shows your followers and guests that you care about what’s growing in your garden.

And if you’re lucky, the vendor will reshare the post. This puts your gardening business in front of their audience as well and may lead to more visitors in the future.

How to do it: To keep it simple, ask your vendor if they have photos you can use and share on your social media. Add a caption explaining why you chose their product and why guests love it.

You can also create an Instagram Story or an Instagram Live event of you going to the place and how you choose the plants and flowers that you love.

5. Interact with your followers with questions

Social media doesn’t have to be a spectator sport. Involve your followers by asking questions. This stops them in their scroll and gets them to engage with your content.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are great ways to create a dialogue with your guests. Instagram has a poll function that’s easy to use, and it’s a great way to learn from your audience or highlight a product or event in your garden without seeming too salesy

How to do it: Start by creating a poll on Instagram asking your followers if they prefer to water their gardens in the morning or at night. Or use the same poll feature to find out when to hold an upcoming live event at your garden center – Friday or Saturday night.

6. Respond to online comments

If you’re going to interact with your followers and guests, you have to be ready to respond. You can’t just ask a question and not reply to the answers – this goes for positive and negative comments, too.

When you respond to negative comments, it gives you a chance to explain yourself or defend your reasoning. This is not where you get in an argument or tear someone down. Remember, there are trolls on the internet and they’ll love watching you get angry. Always stay above that.

At the same time, address positive comments and reviews with gratitude and humility.

7. Take advantage of user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the easiest content ideas to incorporate into your garden business’s social media marketing strategy. UGC is any content made by visitors to your garden that highlights your plants, flowers and space.

How to do it: Go through your Instagram and see if anyone has tagged you in a recent post or story. If so, share that to your feed or your story. Remember to give them credit by @ them and include a short message like “thanks (user name) for your support” or “we couldn't have said it better ourselves”.

8. Use Instagram Stories and Instagram Live

There’s so much more to Instagram than photos. When your garden center or landscape business goes live on Instagram, your followers are notified and can interact directly with you as you create live footage.

The point of Instagram Live is to keep your garden’s social media content fresh and engaging for your customers, patrons and fans.

How to do it: Go live in the greenhouse to show people what you’re busy growing. Or go live during a special planting event to have viewers tune in and feel “exclusive” – because once the live video is over, it’s no longer available.

9. Update your website with new plants and flowers

If your garden’s Instagram profile is gaining followers each day, it’s most likely because you’re staying up to date with posts and taking the time to make the most out of each post.

Whether it’s a photo of the latest flower you’ve planted, or a promotion on seeds, or just a photo of you in action, your followers want to stay engaged and will remain loyal if they aren’t bored.

In many cases, gardeners and garden-related businesses use Instagram as their main point of guest communication alongside their website. The platform is ideal for sharing updates and giving your customers new reasons to take a look at what you’ve got growing.

10. Encourage guests to share their experience

Your garden can gain traction across Instagram by having your customers use a specific # (hashtag) to represent your business and tag your profile in their photos.

This not only gives your garden free publicity, but it also gives customers new insights that aren’t just from your profile.

When customers search your gardening business on Instagram, they’ll see your profile and all of the photos that you’re tagged in. If they see others posting about your garden and services, they’ll have a better reason to check it out themselves.

How to do it: This type of social proof is organic (that means you don’t have to do anything). You can encourage a # by sharing it in your posts and stories. I like to use #perennialgarden for that very reason.

Give it a try by encouraging guests to use # and the name of your gardening business.

Why social media is important for gardening centers, nurseries and landscapers

Your guests and customers are online. Social media helps define your brand and lets you communicate with the entire world.

Here are 4 reasons why your gardening business should start a social media marketing plan:

1. Boosts customer loyalty and trust — Social media is a great way to be transparent with your customers. Allowing them to leave reviews, ask questions and share in your day-to-day makes them feel a part of something bigger – your actual garden. Creating that type of trust and loyalty will lead to repeat customers.

2. Turns guests into ambassadors — There’s nothing better than free advertising. Encouraging guests to post pictures of the flowers and plants that they got from you is a guaranteed way to increase interest in your garden. Remember that you can also use this content (UGC) to share on your site. And encourage guests to use a hashtag # when they post images from your garden center or planting school.

3. It’s free advertising — Speaking of free marketing, social media doesn’t cost a dime (unless you run paid ads). For most purposes, you can use Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook for free. Combine that with #2 and you’ve got a free social media marketing strategy.

4. Keeps you connected with your guests — This is probably the most important reason for using social media – it connects you with your guests. The average person spends around 145 minutes per day on social media. If you want to reach them with up-to-date information on what you’ve got going on, you’ve got to consider meeting them where they are — online.

What social media do landscapers and garden centers use?

Instagram for gardening businesses

Regular feed: Probably the best platform for any gardener or landscaper to use in terms of aesthetics. Instagram revolves around pictures and is a great way to show the actual plants you grow. You can create a profile with a creative grid of pictures. Take a look at my Instagram here for inspiration.

Additionally, Instagram is a great place to create a community around your garden. The following you generate will be full of people who appreciate your aesthetics and possibly become great customers.

Instagram Stories: Instagram also has a feature called Instagram Stories – this is a feature that lets you create small stories with pictures and videos that’ll be shown for 24 hours only, in the style of Snapchat.

Instagram Stories has become vastly more popular than Snapchat. If you don’t know whether to choose Instagram Stories or Snapchat, we recommend Instagram Stories, simply because more people use it worldwide – and it keeps the number of platforms that you have to use down to the minimum.

Facebook for landscapers and gardeners

Regular feed: Your Facebook account can have many different roles. It can be your announcement channel, your second customer service, your information page or all of the above. You can post competitions, special offers, pictures and stories from the garden. The possibilities are endless.

The only thing that really matters is that you have an updated Facebook page. Visibility is key. As with Instagram, your Facebook following is a part of building your community and the bigger your community, the bigger the reach.

Facebook Stories: This can be used in the same way as your Instagram Stories. This is not a must since the number of users is very low compared to both Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories.

Pinterest for gardeners

Pinterest is another social media platform that requires you to stay active. Experts suggest that you pin up to 11 times a day. Unlike Twitter, it is much more visual. For starters, you could create a seasonal board or divide flowers by colors.

How do I promote my gardening business on social media?

1. Set up a business profile on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest for your garden centers or landscape business.

2. Add your logo so guests can easily recognise you.

3. Update your bio or profile and link to your main website. A great bio includes your name, address, hours of operation and contact information.

4. From there, start posting. Use the 10 social media content ideas above and have fun!

How often should gardeners post on social media?

This is the question that plagues all of us plant lovers – how often should we post on social media?

There’s a sweet spot between engaging your audience and driving them crazy, but that sweet spot is often difficult to find.

To help, we scoured the research and asked a social media expert (my husband's colleague, actually) for help to discover the right number of times a day to post for each social media platform.

• Instagram – post between 3-7 times per week (IG Stories can be more frequent)

• Facebook – post 1 time a day

• Twitter – post max 5 tweets a day

• Pinterest – 3 pins per day

Start with these suggestions and see how your followers respond. If you feel they want more, give them more. If you notice that engagement (how many likes, comments, etc.) decreases when you post too often, then back off for a bit.

The most important part is that you’re posting content that celebrates your garden and the gorgeous flowers you work so hard to grow.