Meet the influencers who teach how to care for plants

During the pandemic, “plant influencers” gained thousands of followers and increased their revenue by producing content on social media to help the parents of first-time plants that came with social distancing.

On Instagram, the João Sabino Paisagismo page gained around 22 thousand followers during that time, reaching 43,700 fans today. With that, the profile author decided to launch an online course aimed at those looking to work in this area.

“The search was crazy, I’m about to open the third class,” says landscaper João Sabino, 50, who left his career as a dentist in 2002, when he realized that he was always arriving at the office with his white pants covered in dirt. . He studied architecture and started to devote more time to the garden where he lives in Macedonia, in the interior of São Paulo.

“I have a lot of interaction with my followers, I respond to messages one by one”, he says, whose audience is 90% women, most between 30 and 50 years old.

The influencer’s income varies from R$ 10 thousand to R$ 18 thousand per month and includes working with partner brands and, mainly, online consultancy, charged by the hour. He used to own a plant store, but four months ago he decided to close the establishment. “The physical space no longer made sense to me. I continue to work with the products, but only under order”, he says.

Landscape designer Ana Paula Lino, 49, created her pages on social media less than two years ago and already has 240,000 followers on Instagram and 71,300 subscribers on YouTube. “During the pandemic, those who didn’t have plants at home started to cultivate them, and those who had increased the quantity”, says she, who lives in Pará de Minas (MG).

Today, she spends 15 hours a day working as an influencer and partnering with companies. One of them is the publisher Taxon Brasil, which promotes and sells her book “Verdes e Floridas”, released in 2020. In addition, she is paid for viewing her videos on YouTube and for selling online courses. “I earn enough to maintain my lifestyle and that of my family,” he says.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, landscape artist Nô Figueiredo, 51, has gone from 200,000 to 500,000 subscribers on YouTube — she started producing content for the platform in 2008. On Instagram, Nô has 53,700 fans.

Gradually, she had to slow down her work with landscaping projects to dedicate herself to the role of influencer, which takes up two to three days of her week.

“I also love giving lectures and being closer to people, which I hope will happen again soon,” says Nô, whose average income varies from R$5,000 to R$10 thousand per month.

Landscaper Lúcia Borges, 49, has maintained the Vida no Jardim channel on YouTube since 2014, with two weekly videos. She relies on her husband’s help to film and edit the contents.

Lucia also has profiles on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Kwai. “I generate content for all these channels and still respond to comments from followers. On average, three to four hours a day are dedicated to this work,” he says.

From March to December of last year, Vida no Jardim gained 170 thousand subscribers on YouTube (today there are 683,000). On Instagram, there are 117 thousand followers.

The landscape designer works in partnership with brands linked to the gardening area. “Gradually, I was disconnecting from other jobs I had in order to generate content for the channel’s social networks,” he says.
She receives remuneration mainly from YouTube and Kwai. Income varies but is typically between $1,000 and $2,000 (around $5,600 to $11,200 per month).

Gardening teacher Randall Fidêncio, 50, began his professional contact with the universe of plants in 2014, when he bought a store in the field that his sister owned, in Salto, in the interior of São Paulo. “That’s when my hobby became a profession”, he says.

Since it created its page on YouTube, in August 2016, when it published a video teaching how to make kokedamas (Japanese technique of suspended arrangements), the channel has gained around 10,000 followers a month —today there are 763,000 on YouTube and 99 ,1,000 on Instagram.

During the pandemic, Randall noticed an increase in people’s interest in plants, both because of the growth in sales of his online courses and the greater flow of customers in his store.
Randall has a contract with a brand of garden tools and works sporadically with around seven companies in the sector, whose products are vases and fertilizers, among other inputs.

Most of the influencer’s income comes from views on YouTube and his online courses, available on the Hotmart platform — the gardening course costs R$ 797, and the kodekama course, R$ 297.
He plans to launch new content and return to face-to-face events. “I used to do a lot of fairs as a speaker, in addition to demonstration classes. With the pandemic, this work was stopped.”