*3.4. Technical Environment*

To understand their technical environment at work, respondents were asked to identify the type of internet connection available at the business location, as well as the device used for their new-media marketing activities. Regarding the type of connection, wireless (45.3%), cable (30.4%), and digital subscriber line (DSL) (24.2%) were the connections respondents reported using. Results also show that more than one type of connection was available in many businesses. Pertaining to the device used for new-media marketing, desktops (73.3%) and smartphones (62.1%) were the most prominent, followed by laptops (51.6%) and tablets (34.2%). Similar to the type of connection, businesses used more than one device for their new-media marketing activity.

As a measure of online activeness, respondents were asked for the number of businesses they followed online on a regular basis. The term "regularly" stressed a relatively permanent contact with the group. "Number of businesses monitored online" represents the breadth of their online network, a group from which the business owner or manager can learn online marketing tips or imitate what peers are doing by observing. For all businesses in the sample, the numbers of businesses were relatively uniformly distributed over the network size, from one to six, but the network size on average was bigger for larger businesses. One-third of the large and largest businesses had a network size of 10 or more, compared to 14.0% among the smallest businesses, and 8.7% of the largest businesses had a network size of 0 compared to 14.0% and 12.8% among the smallest and large businesses, respectively.

The individual's technical environment at home was assessed by way of their personal use of social media, and the size of their personal online network was measured by the number of people (likes or friends on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) they personally followed on a regular basis. More than half of the respondents (58.4%, *n* = 161) were daily social-media users, while only 11.2% did not use social media for personal purposes. There was a notably large proportion (22.0%) of individuals at large businesses who were non-users for personal purposes, and consequently had no personal online network. Otherwise, the size of the personal online network tended to be positively

correlated with the size of the business, averaging 126 and 256 individuals among the smallest and the largest businesses, respectively.

## *3.5. Why Not Using New-Media Marketing*

Although most respondents were new-media users, 17 ornamental horticulture businesses did not carry out marketing activities through new media. These respondents were asked to identify how applicable each reason, from a list, was for their business not using social-media marketing at that time. Results show that a preference for direct interactions with customers and lack of time were the two main reasons precluding businesses incorporating social media into their marketing efforts (Table 8). In contrast, 47% of non-social-media users reported that lack of training did not prevent them from using social media.

**Table 8.** Reasons "why not using social-media marketing" of ornamental horticulture industry respondents in the study questionnaire *<sup>a</sup>*.


*<sup>a</sup>* Average scores: 1 = "strongly disagree," 2 = "disagree," 3 = "neither agree or disagree," 4 = "agree," and 5 = "strongly agree."

#### **4. Discussion**

Ornamental horticulture industries mirror other businesses in their use of online- and social-media marketing, with only 17 of the 161 businesses reporting that they did not use online tools to market to customers, and 144 (89.4%) of the businesses reporting using online and social media to market their business. This is similar to a 2014 national (U.S.) survey of marketers, with 2,800 respondents, where 89% had adopted social media for marketing purposes [10].

One striking feature of the study sample was its range in size of business. Responses showed clearly that marketing practices and the approach to new-media marketing vary by size of business. Any educational program to assist ornamental horticulture businesses with new-media marketing, as well as studies to examine the impact of new-media marketing efforts on business performance, must account for business size.

In contrast, rankings of various new-media channels regarding their perceived impact on sales were consistent across businesses of all sizes. The new-media channel that received the largest percentage of first rankings was social media, followed by websites and HTML newsletters, which mirrors how intensively these channels are currently being used. The notable exception is HTML newsletters, which was not as frequently used but was ranked as having a relatively high impact. A qualitative study of garden centers indicated this was a medium that businesses spent time planning to use strategically; that is, it would take more time to create and would be released less often, but it would be more impactful [7].

The respondents' perceived importance of social media aligns with past findings. In particular, the strongest argument for using social-media marketing was due to its ability to build a positive community with customers, and the weakest argument of use was to learn about the marketplace, suggesting that garden centers were not learning about their customers online [7]. Notably, it was the smaller businesses that believed in social media's value to improve sales and to increase customer

traffic into the store. Whether social-media marketing is indeed effective in improving profits needs to be further examined. Stebner et al. [6] showed that both large and small businesses used social media to increase profits, even though they did not know if it actually was increasing their profits because they were not measuring it.

Larger businesses spent considerably more on marketing efforts and smaller businesses were spending markedly less, which was expected. While this study did not ask specifically about dollars allocated to new- and social-media marketing, it did ask about dollars spent on social-media consultants, which was 22% of the total marketing expenses. This may indicate that ornamental horticulture businesses are not allocating as many dollars, or focusing as much time, on new- and social-media marketing as traditional marketing, which aligns with Behe et al. [20]. It is also similar to the small and medium businesses surveyed in *The Marketing in a Digital World Small- and Medium-Sized Business and Consumer Survey* [11], which found a majority (59%) spent less than \$100 to conduct social-media marketing. Social media offers a way for small businesses to compete with larger businesses through targeted social-media campaigns, building relationships with customers, and brand loyalty [8] with a lower investment than traditional media.

Although new-media marketing is increasingly being adopted by small and medium businesses, observations reveal little interest or understanding among rural ornamental horticulture businesses. Only a few maintain a social-media account or a website. For the non-users in the study, direct interactions with customers and lack of time were the two main reasons precluding them from incorporating new media into their marketing efforts. This is consistent with Stebner et al. [6], indicating businesses lacked time to use new media and that they enjoyed doing other aspects of their job more, such as interacting with customers in person. This study shows varying numbers of hours and expenses spent on new-media marketing, reflecting availability and allocation of resources. Other reasons for this seeming reticence could be lack of expertise, particularly related to new-media management, and risk aversion. New-media marketers faced five main issues related to social media management: Finding the most effective tactics, engaging audiences, measuring the return, picking the best management tools, and finding their target audience [10].
