If you need some inspiration how to use social media to market your business, you could do a lot worse than Neave Landscaping.

They mix in great before-and-after shots of landscape and pool installations, vacations and … whatever is happening in the photo above.

You can tell the company does good work, and that they know how to have a good time. Check them out on Facebook, Pinterest and at neavegroup on Instagram.

Here’s our weekly update on cool stuff we found online. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

• NPR gets really NPR-y with a story on how sound can impact plants.
• Which metro areas in the U.S. are recovering fastest. (via @UrbanLandInst)
• An apples-to-apples spreadsheet for your favorite property manager or HOA.
• Seth Godin makes the case for follow-up calls.
• A new international competition will award 15,000 Euros to the best sustainable landscape design. (via The Dirt)
• Above: Chris Heiler and our own Carolyn LaWell discuss the changes Facebook made this week and what they mean to small business owners.

Tomorrow has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to free education. Here are three webinars on offer for you covering a wide range of topics.

Lucky for you, the start times are staggered so you (or your staff) can listen in to all three.

1. The new Facebook

The latest upgrade to the most popular social network automatically goes into effect on March 30 is a big deal for businesses. This webinar, hosted by Lawn & Landscape magazine and presented by social media consultant Chris Heiler, will cover all of the upcoming Facebook page design changes and functionality upgrades. We’ll discuss what is most relevant and important to your green industry business so you’re ready next week.

When: Friday, noon Eastern

Click here to register.

2. Creating Water-wise Community Wins

Taking a proactive, sustainable approach to water stewardship and conservation, Seven Hills HOA Board Members have created a water-wise green oasis for 3,000 homes in Henderson, Nevada. Partnering with ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance to upgrade irrigation systems across the desert community’s common areas and streetscapes with efficient sprinkler heads and internet-enabled WeatherTRAK smart irrigation controllers, Seven Hills has saved more than 45 million gallons of water since June 2010.

Presented By:

• Dr. Joel Davidson, Board Member, Seven Hills HOA, Henderson, Nevada
• Richard Restuccia, Director, Water Management Solutions, ValleyCrest
• Chris Manchuck, Vice President, HydroPoint

When: Friday, 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern

Click here to register.

3. Boxwood Blight Update
Boxwood Blight (Cylindrocladium pseudonaviculatum) is a new plant disease to the United States, having first been confirmed in the October, 2011. The disease can cause significant defoliation and branch dieback to infected plants. Most of what we know about the disease is from research done in Europe where the disease was first discovered in the early 1990s. However, recent work in the U.S. has shed additional light on disease diagnosis, its reproductive potential and host range. Learn what the scientific community currently knows about this problematic disease and the research priorities they have identified.

When: Friday, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Eastern

Click here to register.

To post, not to post, where to post – with the different social media avenues, all of which offer unique networking and content sharing abilities – those can be difficult questions. We found this handy graphic that may help answer some of your questions.

Clearly this may be more meaningful for personal use than business. It would probably look bad if we were always checking in at bars. And we don’t necessarily agree with the LinkedIn as being “boring” – we get great insight and traction in our Lawn & Landscape group. You should join us.

Sorry, Maurice. Sorry, Bill. We’re out of here.

Sort of. (No April Fool’s, promise.)

Over the weekend, I was cleaning up L&L’s Facebook presence and delete a defunct account that was set up a few years ago. The problem was that I no longer had access to the password or username for the account and the only thing on there was an RSS feed of our website’s headlines. And while our headlines are great, I think folks want a little bit more from us.

So, to delete the account, Mark Zuckerberg and his robotic minions made me identify my friends from photos on Facebook’s servers like a police line-up. Only after a series of correct answers would our new Robotic Overlords send three of my friends a security code that I needed to input. (Thanks, guys!) I never knew this social media stuff would be like trying to launch nuclear missiles.

If you were one of our friends on the old page, I apologize for pulling the rug out from under you. But, the top-secret codes were successfully implemented, and we’ve got a brand-new Facebook page. Check it out, won’t you, and let me know what you think.