The Digital World: Social Media, e-newsletters and Partner Gardens – Ian Reynolds, Digital Marketing

Newsletters (Monthly/Welcome) Social Media -Facebook -Twitter -Pinterest -Instagram Website* RHS Digital, Vincent Square, London

RHS Digital work  E-newsletters and social media  To support and promote RHS activities, share our gardening knowledge, and encourage garden/show visits  To display the ‘fun’ side of the RHS, and make us more approachable and relevant to a wider audience  Working to ensure our digital output accurately and fairly represents the whole breadth of the RHS:  RHS Shows, advice, science, RHS Gardens, PGs, horticultural news, fun/other!

Monthly e-newsletter  Sent to ~180k people every month (~6k in Scotland)  Shares the best from the RHS; content split between RHS Shows, advice, RHS/Partner Gardens, events (& member offers)  Lets people know about the latest goings on at the RHS (e.g. NGW, seed scheme), plus seasonal advice and events calendar  Main aim is to drive people to the website for more information/tickets, and to remind people about events and gardening jobs  Around 10-20k people click through on the  600-2,000 of these go direct to RHS Partner Garden pages  In the past 12 months, 535k people have been driven to our website from s  RHS Partner Gardens are the 10 th most visited landing page from  Partner Gardens also feature in the Welcome (left)

Promoting RHS Partner Gardens  Links both to main RHS Partner Gardens page, and individual featured gardens  Prominent position in top row of boxes – ‘above the line’  Different version for Scotland

Social Media Facebook 92k followers Average reach: 40k Average engagement: 5.5% 1 post a day Top referring site to RHS website Twitter 78k followers Average impressions: 6k Average engagement: 2.7% 3-10 a day 3 rd highest referrals to RHS website Pinterest 95k followers 88k followers of PG board Average daily reach: 18k ~1500 clicks through to website pcm 1 update a month 3.5k followers Average engagement: 11% 5 posts a week Instagram

RHS Partner Gardens on social media

Social Media Tips  What social media IS:  Conversational and friendly i.e. use the tone you’d use to chat to friends online  A way to make contacts  A way to raise awareness about activities or campaigns  A way to reach a wider audience  A way to portray oneself as ‘first to know’  A highly effective way to promote any topical and engaging content you have e.g. news, research, polls, blogs, website content and campaigns

Social Media Tips  What social media ISN’T:  A place to talk and not listen or engage  A way to directly sell  An additional space to repeat offline marketing messages verbatim

Social Media Tips  Facebook  Image-led, about 3-5 a week  Be concise  Share other statuses, and tag partners  Twitter  Quality not quantity, but don’t go too quiet for too long!  Build a community; tag, RT, #  Use images and links for maximum impact  Pinterest  Link to site  Instagram  Importance of #  Other  Video becoming privileged…

Ways of Working  Importance of photography and videos: don’t underestimate the value for you and for engagement as well as press  Never forget your phone/camera!  For the RHS, any ideas, thoughts, discussions for editorial coverage talk to Sian Thomas (Garden Visits Editor)    Will share information to The Garden, online etc.  For specific social media questions, please