This Week’s Cover of Variety: The Survivors

Sometimes Variety, the trade magazine for the film and television industry, will be bought, and an ad will be there, positioning a film to win an award. Nothing wrong with that - it’s what pays the bills and the writers and the designers and the editors and the entire departments that produce a magazine.

So when Variety doesn’t have an ad on the cover, you know they’ve devoted a deep dive into some great reporting and information presenting.

This editorial, this subject matter won’t stop. It won’t let up. It won’t become less trendy and cycle out of news cycles. A culture of acceptance and rudeness and entitlement and blindness is being fired right now. That’s why this is so hard. Pages in print and in digital are the weapons. Both sides use them, and readers need all of them to find the right answers.

Local Magazine Reaches Far and Wide for Small City - The Valley Table for Beacon in Mahopac

Enjoying the article on cream in the September-November 2018 issue of The Valley Table which devoted this issue to farmers (and the Pots de Creme in the recipe section).

I’m currently writing this blog post from a car dealership in Mahopac, which is about 35 minutiae from where I live in Beacon, NY (and I produce a blog from there). Several of the staff way out at this dealership love Beacon, NY simply because they read about it and the restaurants so often in The Valley Table.

As a side note, the ads are so well designed! I always enjoy reading the features and the ads. My philosophy is to support ads, to pursue purchasing them, as well as pitching magazines for organic, solid PR. While a true editorial feature can raise your brand’s profile as well as tap into a flood of sales, well placed advertising also educates your customer base and keeps your brand top of mind.

That and, without it, the magazine wouldn’t exist. So there’s that. Plain and simple. 

So support your local and national media sources! 

Private Training Workshop In Motion

Conducted a Private Training Workshop for these ladies yesterday, who have varying degrees of comfort online and with social media. This session covered a lots of Technical. A next session can indulge in Strategy.

Are you in need of Strategy and clever ideas? You can go pro with Tin Shingle with our Private Training Sessions. Booking on Monday’s only right now. Save your spot! This session was hosted in person in our Beacon, NY office, but can be condicted remotely via video conferencing. We make it easy.  www.tinshingle.com/private-training

Today: Tin Shingle's Member Mingle for September 2018

Hey Hudson Valley Tin Shinglers!
Let's meet up!

Tin Shingle's Member Mingle is a special opportunity for those members located in New York to meet in person and talk shop about questions in PR, Social Media, Marketing and SEO.

Bring your burning questions or simply a desire to absorb new ideas from others and contribute your own.

Membership with Tin Shingle at the Community Level 1 is required ($45/month), so go activate your membership if you haven't yet, and see you soon!

LOCATION: 291 Main St, Beacon, NY 12508, First Floor, First Door
DAY: Monday September 26, 2018
TIME: 12:00 EST
Upcoming Meeting: October 29th, 2018
No Meetings for November + December because they fall on Holidays

Julie Chen Moonves Exists CBS' 'The Talk'

Photo Credit: Screenshot from Variety’s website and article.

As reported by Variety and others, Julie Chen Moonves has exited CBS’ ‘The Talk.’ She will remain the host of ‘Big Brother,’ also at CBS. Chen Moonves is married to Leslie Moonves, the longtime CEO of CBS Corp. who is no longer CEO due to allegations of sexual misconduct.

According to the article, Chen Moonves signed off of the latest ‘Big Brother’ episode by using her maiden and married names. Normally she uses her maiden name, Julie Chen. She cited needing to spend time with her family. The couple has one son.

Ready to Stream: PR Planning for September: What to Pitch the Media Each Month

Just dropped into Tin Shingle’s Training TuneUp Library! “PR Panning for September: What to Pitch This Month”

Hints: you’re going to hear that some Holiday Gift Guides are still options for you. You’re going to learn how to chunk this out so that you are preparing pitches for both the big glossy magazines you want, plus the social media reach of your own posts. Go stream it now! Link in bio and click on TuneUps. Tin Shingle Members of Level 3 gets all Training TuneUps for free (hey that rhymes!) or you can buy as a single purchase.

Taming The ADD That Is Your Phone - Killing Notifications

Ever since I deleted Facebook from my phone this past Spring, I've been thinking about distractions, and how nice it is to not be distracted by all of the inner mumblings of all of the people out there that I have access to in that platform.

Scratch that. Ever since I read the feature piece in Variety magazine last Spring about children and addiction to devices, I've been more aware of how much time I've been staring at my phone. Or of my kids staring at the phone.

Finally, when I was enjoying the latest new feature from Instagram - creating Instastories by picking stickers and writing words in different fonts to be placed onto the image - I was getting constantly interrupted by Text messages and News notifications. So much so, that when they'd pop in at the top of my screen, I'd accidentally click on them because I was already going to click on the Font selection tool in Instastory, or to research more gif stickers of sparkly stars.

Killing the Text and News Notification PopUps Saved Me

And that's when I killed my Notifications for Text and News. Entirely. Not set on Temporary mode, where it blips up there for a few seconds and then disappears rather than waiting until you physically pay attention to it and swipe it away. It's just gone now.

Don't worry - they show up on my Lock screen, and my phone vibrates when a text comes in. Oh yeah - over a decade ago, I silenced all notifications on my desktop and mobile device. If you really want to drive yourself crazy, keep all of the sound alerts on. Someone who texts me for the first time (aka not a text-versation I know I'm in) might need to wait an hour or 15 minutes for me to reply to text if I don't feel it in my purse. And you know what? That's OK! We cannot be available on-demand all the time!

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Convenience is getting in the way of our brains. Notifications like this are definitely triggering anyone with a hint of ADD tendencies to not focus or stay in their creative zone of a thought to complete a task with any amount of satisfaction. Want to know why you're never done in Facebook? Because there are constantly new notifications popping up in there telling you about who said what and which event they are going to.

Turn it all of, and Facebook will start emailing you about it, even though you've unsubscribed from that new type email marketing they just created.  Literally yesterday I got an email from Facebook: "Katie: Did you know that Susie just commented on Abby's post?" I've unsubscribed from this type of new email notification several times, to obviously no avail.

Help Yourself Market Better

You can be a great marketer in this age of distractions, but relying on tech companies to solve your problems of distraction won't work. They designed the distractions. If they design more tools to curb the distractions, you can see how that doesn't work. So. Turn them off.

It's nice of Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, to speak out as a PSA about the over-use of devices, how people are using the device they produce way more than they think they are (how can they not? it's a phone, a computer, a camera, a mailbox, a video game, a TV remote) while Cook was on a media tour promoting Apple's new feature, Screen Time, that tracks everything you do on the phone, including when you physically pick it up (no thanks!). As tech reporter Seth Fiegerman put it in his article for CNN Tech: "Welcome to 2018, when tech companies hold major press events to introduce innovative ways to use their products less."

Remember a time when you just had a phone. A land line, that might have been mounted to your kitchen wall. What did you do when you weren't on the phone? You took pictures outside with your camera. You drew. You kicked a soccer ball with your foot instead of flicking it across the screen with a random person maybe you are connected to in a soccer app.

Your brain will thank you. You will stay informed. You will still be able to check the news headlines, or see them on your "Lock" screen when your phone is sitting idle next to you at all times. You'll just be calmer, less frazzled, and you may complete a task. With satisfaction.

The Takeaway for Marketers - Headlines Are More Important Than Ever

If you remove several touch-points for notifications, you'll rely more than ever on short-form writing. The headline for a news story. The subject line in the email. Don't worry - this doesn't mean we are reading less. In fact, we may start reading more because we aren't getting interrupted. But - the trigger to get us into an article will be the headline, tweet, or email subject line.

Tin Shingle has a Training TuneUp for that. It's called "The Art of the Subject Line" and you'll want to follow the guidance presented in order to write spot-on email subjects that keep your open rates high, and your audience keeping up with what your business is doing.

The Art of the Email Subject Line

The most important part of your entire e-newsletter is the subject line. How you write the subject line will dictate the chances of your subscribers opening the newsletter you worked so hard on. In this Training TuneUp, find out what kind of subject lines worked from real-life examples, and why. There is a method to the madness, and when done right, your sales could increase with the subject line alone.

SEO Opportunity: When A Celebrity Speaks, The People Take to Google - Be In Their Search Results!

PR and SEO have gone hand in hand for years. So much so, that Tin Shingle was actually designed around their union, to help you identify SEO opportunities from PR mentions. Case in point, as pointed out in this tiny blurb in Allure Magazine's September 2018 issue: When Kylie Jenner announced on Instagram that she removed the filler from her lips, "Google searches for 'lip filler removal' spike 10,000% that same day." Those types of Google searches - we'll call that SEO Gone Wild - is an open market for businesses and experts who specialize in this field to quickly benefit from Kylie's words.

I first witnessed this SEO magic when I was blogging on my first blog in about 2005, when the TV show One Tree Hill was on. A character on the show started a clothing line - Clothes Over Bros - that you could also buy in real life. My blog covered fashion stuff, and I loved that show, so it was natural for me to blog about it the night the episode aired. Overnight, traffic to my blog website soared. Everyone was searching for the clothing line, and no one else had written about it yet. My blog post, which I did make sure to write in a very SEO friendly way, outranked articles at major magazines who later did write about it.

An influx in searches like that will happen for a few hours at least. Maybe for a few days. This is why you want to be aware of what celebrities are saying, and then write articles about it at your own blog on your business website. Now with social media, you will right away want to create a picture post to your Instagram with a caption that includes those words, and uses hashtags that are related to the terms.

Not only will you possibly sell product from a mention like this - which is a PR mention that had nothing to do with your business!! you're just riding the wave  - but you could get PR as well. Now that a celebrity like Kylie said this about lip filler, it's a timely trend. The media will now prioritize this subject in their articles or TV segments. The media will be looking for sources to quote and products to feature immediately, to also ride that wave of the public's attention.

This is why having a blog at your own business website (some  businesses call it "News") is such an important tool in your marketing toolbelt. You must be able to control the content that first starts coming out of and representing your brand, but you also must create breadcrumbs for people to find. Think of these blog articles as little fishing hooks. If you are hoping for attention, fishing for exposure, then that is sort of like fishing. You're waiting. Having more fishing hooks in the water with good bait on it (good pictures, links in the article, great content), then you'll attract more fish.

Of course, SEO is the passive way of getting exposure. Actually going out to get PR requires more pounding of the pavement, targeted outreach, personalized emails, etc. Doing both targeted PR outreach and creating passive SEO opportunities are two strategies you should be doing at all times. The passive SEO work will have very good long term impact!

What Do You Mean By "SEO Work?"

The world of SEO is tainted by scientific formulas and baseless promises on instant Google ranking if you pay a price or do something convoluted with database submissions. All bruhaha. What I mean by SEO work is Creative Writing and Timeliness.

When you write an article in your blog section of your website about something in the news, you can write it in a way that:

• Informs your reader.
• Inspires your reader to trust you.
• Directs your reader on where to go to get what you sell or contact you about your expertise.

That's it! There is a recipe to making your article SEO Yummy, which I'll talk about in this Tip Sheet, "The Celebrity SEO Effect: How to Score New Sales and Exposure from a Celebrity Mention of a Trend", but that's all it is. Just so you know, I majored in Communications in Media Studies, and was one class shy of a Creative Writing Minor. So that's why organic SEO methods come naturally to me, and they can to you as well.

Training TuneUp Webinars To Further Your Celebrity Quest

Tin Shingle produces Training TuneUp online classes to give you pre-recorded face-to-face training in PR, SEO, Social Media and Newsletter Marketing efforts. Pro Members of Tin Shingle get to listen to these for free. Here are a few you will like that are related to this strategy:

Training TuneUp:
How to Get Celebrity Buzz for Your Brand Even If They Aren't Using It

Get this now >

Training TuneUp:
SEO and How to Bait the Online Sales Hook Part 1

Get this now >

Training TuneUp:
SEO and How to Bait the Online Sales Hook Part 2

Get this now >

TuneUps - Change 'em Up? Do You Want a Buzz Building Challenge?

When: Every Other Wednesday
Time: 3pm EST
Where: At your computer or on your phone.
Price: Would be for All Access Pass Members of Tin Shingle

Do You Want a Buzz Building Challenge?

About two years ago, at the request of a Tin Shingle Member out of Chicago, Lisa of Your Pet Chef (makers of raw dog food), we tried something new: A PR Challenge. We held it online using GoTo Webinar, and members could call in on their computers and we could all see each other, face to face. It was so fun to connect!

It quickly morphed into a PR and Social Media Challenge. Many growth moments happened for the members on the Challenge. One former jewelry designer, Sierra Bailey of Manic Trout, put herself out there and got a national crafting TV show. Yeah - she did that! All because we were hashing things out on the call.

We've been wanting to bring this back, but the timing has been hard. When to have it? Everyone is super busy doing All Of The Things. As we're building the Fall Schedule for Training TuneUps, we're taking a moment to step back and see if there is an opportunity here...
 

Alternating Every Other Wednesday:
Training TuneUp, then Buzz Building Challenge

What do you think? Here's how it would break down:

Training TuneUp:
One week (Wednesday, 3pm EST) you'd get the chance to call in to the show and watch or listen for free during the live broadcast of the Training TuneUp, like always. These are one-sided, so you can only type in your questions via the Question Box. Online Class Members (Level 3) are able to stream all of these Training TuneUps for free later on 24/7.

Buzz Building Challenge:
The next week, (Wednesday, 3pm EST) only All Access Pass Members could call into a special private line and hook in face to face. There would be one homework assignment each week. The agenda would work like this:

• Check in. What's been going on? How are your pitches? How is your social media? Did you send that newsletter?
• Goal check. What are your goals? Why are you doing outreach and marketing? Let's make sure you're doing the right things to get you what you need.
• Homework assignment. You've got two weeks to complete the assignment. You'll find out what it is in the Buzz Building Challenge.

What do you think? Let us know in the Comments below with a Yay or a Nay.

Yay: Yes, I want to alternate between Training TuneUps and the Buzz Building Challenge (guess I better jump the fence and become an All Access Pass Member of Tin Shingle once and for all!)

Nay: Nah, keep the Training TuneUps coming every week. I'll get things done on my own time.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Deconstructing the Pitch: Designer of Animal Furniture Featured in Architectural Digest

As you're flipping through your favorite magazines, you are reading inspiring features about other people. In the back of your mind, you may be thinking: "Ah, one day, that will be me."

Reality Check: Today, that is you.

You Can Be Featured In The Magazine Too!

As you are trying to market your business, you're going to want PR. You're going to want to be mentioned in magazines, TV segments, blog posts, and interviewed on podcasts. It's a big job - all of this marketing - but somebody's got to do it, and that someone is you. Here's how you're going to hit the grand slam:

Step 1: Realize that you can be featured in a magazine like Architectural Digest. This is the "Give Yourself Permission" approach we preach in Tin Shingle Training TuneUps (all of which are free with an All Access Pass Level 4 of membership) and is the undercurrent in all of our articles.

Step 2: Find the "Why." Why would this magazine feature your business right now? What about your business is significant to that magazine's readers?

Step 3: Go for the pitch. This means you will write an email to an editor (or contributing writer) at a magazine, with some clever suggestion of why their readers would love to know about your company right now.

The Pitch Deconstructed

The pitch is the trickiest part. It's a simple email, but needs to be written to just the right person in just the right way. We have deconstructed this full page feature in Architectural Digest of the designer Porky Hefer. Tin Shingle Members at the Community Level 1 and above can log into their accounts and find the analysis right here in our Pitch Whisperer Workshop forum of the Community Boards.

Find out what may have appealed to editors at Architectural Digest that convinced them to give this designer a full page in the "back of the book" aka the back of the magazine where lots of people flip the back cover and see it, and how you can do it too.

The Pitch Whisperer Workshop forum is available to Community Members Level 1 and above to submit their pitches to the group and get feedback (and sometimes edits!) from our supportive community. No pitch is to far out for our eyes. Tin Shingle is all about helping you Think Big and Go Big for your business marketing.

PR HOMEWORK:
Read a Feature & Think Backwards

To help train your mind in pitching the media:
1. Read the magazine you want your business featured in.
2. You'll notice a feature of a business that could have been yours.
3. Think about what they featured about that business - all of the highlights and special points that was in the article.
4. These observations will help form your pitch.
5. Use Tin Shingle's Media Contact Database to help you find the right editor or writer to pitch to.
6. Use Tin Shingle's PR Planning & Tracking Template to log when you pitched to them, and when you'll follow up.