Tesselaar builds buzz for its brands via social media channels

A year after its entry into the world of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and mobile
marketing, Tesselaar Plants has built a large and engaged online
community of followers.

Many of Tesselaar‟s „Your Easy Garden‟ blog posts have been tweeted by
influential garden experts, with exposure to thousands upon thousands of
highly targeted gardening consumers. Just one such post – ways to garden
with children – was tweeted by several people with a total of more than
30,000 followers. Another post, chronicling a trip to Maui that inspired
thoughts about how to use tropical plants in cold-climate gardens, was
noted by About.com (with a monthly audience of more than 60 million!)

On Twitter, Tesselaar has hundreds of followers, with new ones joining daily,
and its company page on Facebook is “liked” by 613 people. Tesselaar has
also joined the mobile marketing movement by listing its products on the
GardenPilot smartphone application. And it has reached hundreds of
thousands of viewers online each year via Dave Epstein‟s how-to gardening
videos (featuring Tesselaar products) on Growing Wisdom.com, YouTube,
5min.com, Metacafe.com and many more web sites with millions of fans.

Recent data does show that social media marketing works. According to
Alterian, an international social media marketing company, social media marketing makes consumers
14 percent more willing to buy, 16 percent more reluctant to switch and 17 percent more likely to
recommend a certain product or patronize a particular company. And remember – social media isn‟t
just for younger audiences – it‟s for that older, target demographic that still accounts for the majority
of American gardeners. According to the Pew Research Center, in fact, it‟s used by roughly half of all
online adults between 50 and 64 years old (a 25-percent increase since 2009!)

If you haven‟t already -- we encourage you to follow Tesselaar on Twitter (@tesselaarplants) and to
“like” Tesselaar‟s Facebook page (just search for “Tesselaar International Plants.”) And don‟t miss the
weekly posts on Tesselaar‟s blog (at www.youreasygarden.com). Your comments are welcome, too!

Some points on the Australian Floods and now coming, a massive cyclone!

Queensland in Australia has faced some of the most dramatic flooding experienced in Australia’s history.

An area of Germany and France combined was under flood.

So much water fell in this most dramatic situation that there was even an inland tsunami as the huge inflow of water came down from the mountains. 30,000 homes were affected, 36 people died and parts of Brisbane were flooded.

Overall $AU30 billion worth of damage.

Rivers are receding with massive cleanups with over 10,000 mums, dads and kids all helping neighbours through this terrible disaster

Northern Victoria also had major flooding, not as dramatic as our northern neighbours, but currently a body of floodwater of over 3,000 square miles is moving through the river systems creating havoc in the river towns and major agricultural crops.

Today we see a MAJOR cyclone “Yasi”, equal to the power of Katrina in the USA, bearing down on northern Queensland town of Cairns 1,000 miles north of Brisbane. with winds expected of over 160 MPH, and of course, these major rain again on top of a major storm surge of 4-6 ft in the lower lying coastal areas is going to be dramatic. There is talk that up to 3 ft of water can be dumped in 24 hours as this cyclone hits the land.

This is a major catastrophe hitting the northern areas where they can receive up to 4-6 cyclones per year, but on top of what they have received with the massive wet weather, it is not going to be nice at all.