Postcards Through The Mail Slot As Effective As 10 Instagram Posts

Giddy to receive this postcard from the Beacon, NY based artist, Anna West, who is such a diligent promoter of her artwork. Anna was a guest expert on a Tin Shingle TineUp talking about how she uses Instagram to sell her artwork using the good old fashion conversation way, not even using the formal Instagram ad tool way.

Anna pays very close attention to the beauty around her and how she wants to paint it. She also pays attention to how her audience responds to which of her paintings, and paints more of what they love. Anna lives in a lot in hashtags to get in front of the right person who would be interested in a type of painting.

Pictured here is the ever-effective postcard that came through our mail door here at the Tin Shingle Office. Anna is a participating artist in Beacon’s Open Studios on May 18-19. One of the best interactive art events of the year in Beacon! While Anna’s painterly face has crossed my eyes many times in Instagram, it is this postcard that left the deepest impression on me. The behind the scenes thoughts of my brain when I received it was: “Oh my gosh, Beacon Open Studios is just around the corner, and Anna has opened her studio!”

Our sister media company A Little Beacon Blog is a proud sponsor of Beacon Open Studios.

This is the actual door of Tin Shingle’s office. We do have a mail slot!

Special Opportunity: Mom Entrepreneurs Who Need Investment

DEADLINE: April 30, 2019

A major morning television show has partnered with a successful female entrepreneur with the hopes to change the businesses of a fellow female entrepreneur(s) who are struggling in their business. This would be for an upcoming May episode, conveniently close to Mother’s Day.

The entrepreneur working with the show on this project is a mom who turned a small financial gift from a family member into a multi-million dollar business. She is hoping to impact and invest in other mom-run business owners. Applicants must be a mom (or mom-to-be) to apply for this opportunity.

The ideal candidates are moms with product-based businesses who are struggling to "make it" with their business. Single and/or struggling moms come from a situation similar to the show's successful mentor and she's drawn to support them. Your business must have a need and desire for an investment of financial support. Maybe you're running out of money to keep the dream alive, or you've realized that if you don't get help soon you'll have to dip into your savings.

To submit, you'll need to supply a 20-30 second light and cheery video of you stating why you need this. Contact Details are available to All Access Members of Tin Shingle.

The Dude Was Right: Cannabis Is Thriving: Magazines Publishing In The Cannabis Space

Happy April 20th (4/20)

For those of you selling product and services in the cannabis space, you’re having more options of what magazines will feature your business. Tin Shingle has the Editorial Calendars for a few Cannabis publications, and wanted to give you an overview of some of the larger ones.

For over 40 years, High Times has become the most regarded source of authentic cannabis culture. They have led the fight for legalization and have supported the industry’s legal businesses.  There is considerable monetization opportunities available with their growing audience. Over 30 million Americans are marijuana enthusiasts, medical and recreational combined.

Over the past year, High Times has acquired several properties, including Dope Magazine, Culture, and Green Rush Daily (MediaPost.com). While Culture focuses on medical cannabis news, Dope showcases the cannabis lifestyle across many industries. Green Rush Daily is a digital publication presenting cannabis content across different subjects ranging from politics to art. Green Rush Daily will continue to operate independently as part of the High Times family. Upon acquiring these properties, High Times launched music, live-events and online video.

“Culture has created a publication and online presence that complement the iconic High Times brand and its many related ventures,” said Adam Levin, CEO of High Times. “We’re building a broad collection of different Cannabis-related publications to offer to our many advertisers who are seeking the highly sought demographic of Canna-users. Culture is a natural fit as we continue to expand.” (LA Cannabis News)

"As states continue to legalize and Cannabis becomes more and more ingrained into American society, the desire for Cannabis-driven content is reaching an all-time high," High Times' CEO Adam Levin told Benzinga. "With that in mind, we're very excited to welcome Green Rush Daily into the High Times family to help us further satisfy those cravings. We've respected their digital and journalistic capabilities for some time, and are looking forward to sharing best practices and growing these brands side by side." (Nasdaq.com)

"Dope is a strategic acquisition for our portfolio, offering key complementary assets to our existing platforms, and opening the opportunity for economies of scale to improve performance of all our publication group," said Adam Levin in a statement published by Forbes.com. "What Dope Media has built in such a short time is not only impressive, but needed, considering the difficult landscape and legislation (that) brands are faced with today. We look forward to not only combining our resources but expanding them." (Forbes.com)

High Times revenue generating plans include monetizing their most popular articles, expanding beyond “stoner culture,” and launching 420.com (touted as the “Amazon.com of cannabis).  (Nasdaq.com)

Using Tin Shingle To Research Ideas for Cannabis Based Publications

As you are research media outlets for the great fits for where you should get the word out, Tin Shingle has the Editorial Calendars for these publications, and the Media Contacts to give you an idea of who to pitch.

UK Passes Horrible, Harmful, Anti-SEO Legislation That Will Hurt Media, Businesses, AND Makes No Sense

Oh no...I didn’t think this would actually happen. That the UK passed a requirement for Google to have to pay publishers to show news snippets. The whole point is to show that content to help people find what they are looking for. May the best writer win.

The legislation is written in the name of protecting and promoting businesses and media by way of paying them to display their content, but is all backwards. We LIKE showing up in Google search results! No need to pay us! The point is for readers and customers to hit our websites. We don’t care that this is Google’s way of making money - that they post ads against the content. Paying us to show that content to display ads against is just chump change at best, bottlenecking and mayhem and Google pulling out at worst!

This is bad for publishers. Both in news media and for businesses who use content strategy to rank in Google. Enforcing this is too difficult. Illogical. How will Google get the payment information from every single little and big website it displays? As a little website at Tin Shingle (in the grand scheme of things), we have outranked lots of big websites. So this is not a David and Goliath game. Don’t let this happen in the U.S. !

A proper article is to come about this as we dig into what was passed and how it is supposed to work. But we wanted to let you know about this now. It has been kicking around since at least the time that Zuckerberg appeared before UK and US lawmakers. And a year later, has been voted in.

Quote: “I Can Do This”

A key to success is telling yourself out loud: “I can do this.”

Clear you head in the morning. Tell yourself that you can do this. Visualize it. Deserve it. You have built this. The time is now.  

Until the next time, and the next “now!”

Next TuneUp: "8 Things I Learned After Deleting Facebook From My Phone (but not my life)"

When: Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Time: 12pm EST
Where: At your computer or on your phone.
Price: Free for all during this live broadcast.

It's happening. The deletion of Facebook apps from people’s phones - or from their lives entirely - as revelations continue to come out as to how invasive Facebook’s social tactics are. Even Lisa Paige from PopCrush Nights deleted Instagram for her phone for a day, and was so happy.

Tin Shingle’s owner Katie is a Digital Marketing Strategist, and has deleted Facebook Personal and Business apps from her phone, but still uses the platform for marketing.

Deleting the easy access revealed much about Facebook’s design, what’s working and not working with it, and how to reach the people who are still communicating with each other on the platform.

This isn't a TuneUp to slam Facebook, but to highlight the parts of it that you should pay attention to, in your broad marketing plans where time continues to shrink as more content grabs our attention. Namely:

Showing Up. Having a pulse on Facebook. People are checking out your brand page, and want to see life.

Shopping. Facebook is investing into the shopping game as buying via Instagram takes off. Instagram shopping is connected to your Facebook account. The only way to link to products on your website from your Instagram post is via Facebook's Ad Manager, so you can’t cut the cord just yet.

This TuneUp Will Cover:

• Design: What is hurting Facebook's design, and why your message may be getting buried.

• Facebook as a Creative Crutch. Are you reaching as many people as you think?

• Never Satisfied. There's a reason you're hooked.

• FOMO Fuels Everything

• When Facebook Goes Dark

• Facebook Can Still Track You, Despite Being Deleted From Phone

• So How Should You Use It For Marketing?

Coastal Living Is Back! Plus New Travel Publications In Our Editorial Calendar Collection

Travel Travel Travel!

Warmer weather has sparked the traveling bug - and updates to Tin Shingle’s Editorial Calendar Collection this week!

AFAR Magazine and American Way

AFAR Magazine is a multi-platform travel media brand that inspires its readers to connect with people of different cultures to understand their perspectives. They value cultural immersion, curiosity and global diversity.

American Way, the free inflight magazine produced through American Airlines is published on a monthly basis and reaches over 16 million passengers every month! Providing inspirational articles on destinations, international celebrity, and provocative stories, American Way reflects the enthusiasm of its cosmopolitan audience.

Exciting News About Coastal Living - Gone Seasonal

Coastal Living has been a source of inspiration for those who are drawn to the sea. Staying true to their steadfast mission that “there are ways of looking at life that connect all coasts and that enhance our lives no matter where we live,” Coastal Living has transitioned from a subscription based magazine to a special interest seasonal publication only available on the newsstands (see Ad Week’s 2018 article about when Coastal Living announced scaling back issues). The first seasonal issue in the new format appeared in March of this year, giving you just enough time to prepare for summer!

Access These Editorial Calendars

Members of Tin Shingle at the All Access Level have instant access to ALL of our Editorial Calendars. We currently have the editorial calendars from over 100 publications for 2019! All searchable by Title and Area of Interest! Browse through and let your inspiration take hold!

Sunday Reading: delish.com with Joanna Saltz, Also At House Beautiful

HAPPY SUNDAY

Sunday Reading this week is at delish.com, the unbelievably easy source of recipes and inspiration. Its Editorial Director, Joanna Saltz, is also the Editorial Director of House Beautiful (print) and HouseBeautiful.com (digital). Apparently this media move ruffled feathers of traditional publishing peeps, as reported via podcast interview on Business of Home. Tin Shingle has Joanna in our Media Contacts Library for you to discover as you research who to pitch.

When Instagram Goes Down - What Are Your Next Marketing Moves?

Instagram Withdraw Symptoms Are Real

Instagram and Facebook went down on Sunday morning. The rest of the day will do what it does, maybe the platform will stay up until the next time it goes down, for hopefully only a short time.
The Internet goes down sometimes. It happens. In Twitter's early days, the big blue Fail Whale was common (that was for overcapacity, which is not the same problem Facebook has been dealing with with its suite of social networks). But Instagram? Facebook? They came after that, backed by loads of money, so the idea that they wouldn't work sometimes is incomprehensible. Worse, if all of your marketing eggs are in those baskets, you have no way to connect with your people - immediately - when you need to.

What Do You Do When Instagram Goes Down?

Feel the feeling. Remember this feeling, and how your brain is scrambling in order to think of how else you are going to reach your people to market to them right now. What are those tools you have?

• BLOG | Benefits: People who subscribe to your blog via RSS will automatically get updates of your new blog post; the SEO value is real, and your digital footprint will be larger than you realize; people who are traveling all over your website will see these past pages more than they will see old (yet very important and valuable) Instagram posts.
  
  

• NEWSLETTER | Benefits: Instant Inbox. You can email your people.

Plan B

Today's newsletter was going to feature a very well done Instagram account for a private seller of a townhouse, to show you a new style that real estate people could use, but....Instagram was down when we ran production, and we couldn't get the pictures. Plus, nothing would be on the other side of links. But, this is a new timely window of opportunity to get this message to you that we wanted to send the last time Instagram went down!

Our Next TuneUp Is Perfect For This

Last April, 2018, after Facebook's creator Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. lawmakers and the U.K. lawmakers, where more was revealed of how lax Facebook was (and continues to be) with our privacy, Tin Shingle's owner deleted Facebook from her phone. Both the personal and business page apps. She uses Facebook on desktop only now.
Since then, she's been following Facebook news to learn how our business websites, phones, and personal details are extremely exposed and vulnerable by Facebook.
As an extreme digital marketer and teacher of how to use Facebook, could she exist and market on Facebook while not having it so easily accessible on her phone?
Yes. And she learned a few things about the Facebook experience that will help you continue to market there - but better. Register now for Wednesday's live broadcast of the TuneUp.

Happy Friday With This Cheesecake From Delish

Oh my gawd. Just wanted to say Happy Friyay with this Easter dessert idea from Delish. Are you on their newsletter yet? Because you NEED to be. Celebration of Easter 🐣 not required.