The Tin Shingle Blog

The Member-Created Tin Shingle Valentine's Day Shopping Guide is now open in the SmallBizDiscoveries Shopping Guides. These are shopping guides that members can add to at any time. All readers of the Tin Shingle website can click through these guides to find awesome gift ideas!

BEST PRACTICE TIPS FOR SHOPPING GUIDES:

• Write a killer description. Get creative here, and show why your customer will love this. Don't just list your item with 5 words and call it a day. Put on your editor hat!
• Get descriptive in your title: This is a big SEO tip. Your Title is very important for attracting the right kind of customer. If this is a gift idea for a guy or a husband, add those words to your title. Example: "Valentine's Gift Idea for Guys or Husbands Who Snowboard".
• Include a link to buy. You will be able to put a link to buy your product from your website. This link should be to the product, not just your home page.

TECHNICAL HOW-TO ADD TO THE SHOPPING GUIDE
If you are a Tin Shingle member, you can start listing right now!

• Log into your Tin Shingle Member Account Center and click on the My Account Center link, or right here.
• If you're on the Home page, click on the "My Benefits" button. If you're on any other page, look at the right side column and click on SHOWCASE (add/edit) under the "SMALL BIZ DISCOVERY CENTER" (or click right here to get started)

Curious about the Tin Shingle Membership Program? Click here to learn more and to join today.

Dear Anyone Working in the Federal or State Governments on Sick Days, Snow Days, Maternity Leave, and Childcare:

There is much talk about how working people need to get paid for sick days and how hard it is for new parents, in particular new mothers, or mothers in general of young children, to go back to work, or for that matter, to work at all.

Childcare, as everyone knows, is expensive. To send one child to 5 days of childcare at a great program can be anywhere from $7K-$15K per year per child just so that you can go to work. Welcome to paying for private school right out of the womb, when you never even factored that into your budget during your early marriage years.

For those of us taking advantage of public schools, we are at a great disadvantage in the winter when any snowflake falls, or rain becomes slushy and "Snow Days" are called, or "2hr Morning Delays with Pre-K Canceled". This puts a huge wrench into the working parent's schedule and forces them to either take a sick day, or come in late. Or if they are a small business owner like myself who works from her home office, miss the day entirely. A day which I never get paid for as a "sick day".

The public school's quickness to cancel schools has a ripple effect that encourages people to enroll their children into private systems, which are for-profit businesses, which do not close when one snowflake falls. I live in New York, but you'd think I lived in Florida, when we wake up with a light dusting on the ground, and the email shown above is sent to us from the School Superintend at 5am, drastically altering our plans for the work day. There is no babysitter to call at the last minute, and a drop-off center may be far away. Not to mention the added cost. [NOTE: I actually can't find links, in a quick 1-minute Google search, that discuss the large amount of school closings, as they all boast about New York City not closing schools for snow. In the past two years that I've been in the system, this has not been true outside of the city in the rest of the state, and surrounding states.]

Because of this quickness to cancel schools, our child is enrolled in our daycare's UPK (Universal Pre Kindergarten) program, where she can go to Pre-K at her usual daycare free from 8:30-11:30am. We then have the choice to continue with the full day of "wrap around care", where she can have lunch, nap and play until 5:30pm. However, children enrolled in UPK do follow the public school's cancellation schedule. So when Beacon Public Schools cancel, my child cannot attend her Pre-K with the other kids. Unless she was additionally enrolled in full time daycare, or if she's not (as she's not this year...only does two days in full time daycare), we can pay $15 for her to attend the 8:30-11:30am period for that snow day.

So instead of sticking it to the employer, and blaming employers for not paying for sick days, or not making it easy for working parents, please take a look inward at these cancellation policies of school districts, and encourage individual school districts to operate like a successful business who stays open.

To know me is to know I love an editorial calendar (also known as an "ed cal").  What's not to love? These future forecasting tools let you see what a magazine is working on for months into the future.  That's right - looking at an ed cal will tell you what publications like Everyday with Rachael Ray to Vogue, Men's Health to Brides are working on story-wise.

Why am I all excited about ed cals today?  Because over here at Tin Shingle one of the many things we do to help demystify and "easy-button" the buzz buidling process for business owners like you is curating and giving you access to the many editorial calendars that are available to you to be aware of and perhaps pitch!  And we recently released a slew of new 2015 editorial calendars for you to peruse.

I've listed them below and let me tell you - they're working on some great and diverse stories this year.  How should you use this information?  If you're a Tin Shingle member, you can look at the ed cals we've uploaded and see what stories or themes sound like ideas you can contribute to as a product, service, expert or story.  You can check out their editorial deadlines (we've listed those for you too) to see how much time you have to reach out to them.  Then you can make sure to make space in your buzz building work to fit in editorial calendar outreach.  Not sure how to do that?  Listen to this podcast first!

Now Ladys & Gents, the Latest Additions to the Tin Shingle Ed Cals, You Can Access* these Babies at Any Time!

(Are these the only ones there? Nope! Just our 2015 latest additions.)

• New York Magazine
• Casual Living
• Vogue
• Teen Vogue
• Allure
• Brides
• GQ
• Golf Digest
• Essence Magazine
• Nylon
• Traditional Home
• More
• MidWest Living
• Forbes
• Eating Well
• Better Homes & Gardens
• Everyday with Rachel Ray
• Upscale Magazine
• All Recipes
• Fitness Magazine
• Glamour Magazine
• Harper's Bazaar
• Shape Magazine
• Real Simple
• American Spa
• Arts & Crafts Homes
• Country Living
• Esquire Magazine

If you're as pumped as I am to have insider access into the "mind" of a magazine be sure you head over to the your Tin Shingle member PR Center and get up on this goodness! 

*If you're not a Tin Shingle member yet, don't wait another moment to get access to all of our tools, classes, empowerment and our supportive community of entrepreneurs like you.  Join monthly or annually and let the buzz building begin!

One of the best ways to learn how to do something better, faster and more strategically is by asking a pro, and that's exactly what we did for you over at Tin Shingle this week.  Not only did we ask a handful of PR rock stars how to do things better, we asked them what they wish they'd known about doing PR before they spent years honing their skills and perfecting their craft.  What a great way for you to save yourself from months or years of trial and error.  Read on, learn from our pros, and continue building buzz like a seasoned professional!  Bonus Prize: When you're done reading their tips, click on their faces and names and connect with them in real time via Twitter.

	Jordan Landes Brenman of Haute House PR Regardless of whether you're a one-person show, or have multiple employees in your business, don't ever doubt that you're worthy of the same press placements as everyone else. Don't wait until you feel that you're "big enough" to chase down press placements. Oftentimes, I'll talk to emerging brands who have all of the elements in place - a great company, mission, product...but because THEY know they are a small business, they don't feel as though they are WORTHY of national or celebrity press placements. Don't forget that no one knows how small you might be behind-the-scenes. You should always brand yourself like the big guns, while always maintaining that same small business attention to detail. Have confidence!
	Jeremy Pepper The biggest thing is the push for life/work balance (which isn't an easy thing to do in public relations or social media in a 24-hour news cycle). It's about making time for yourself and doing what you need to do for peace of mind. So that's setting a schedule for yourself to take breaks - lunch (even if it means leaving to buy it and still eating at your desk) and a stop time at night to go to the gym, yoga, anything to clear your mind.
	Kelly Kepner of Kelly Kepner PR Be nice to everyone you meet.  A stylist assistant may someday be dressing A List celebs.  The intern in the fashion closet may be promoted to fashion director in the future.  That brand that is similar to yours may present a fabulous opportunity for you down the road.  Always be polite and try to develop as many personal relationships as possible.  People are more incline to help a friend or someone they have close ties with.
	Jenna Barnett of Visionary5 When I first started in PR, I wish I knew that you find more success when you don't play by the rules. As soon as I stopped trying to pitch the way all publicists pitch, I found so much more success in my communication with editors and journalists. Don't be afraid to try an out-of-the-box or silly pitch. If you can make a journalist laugh or catch their attention with a clever subject line, they'll most likely respond to your email. A few other things I wish I knew when I first started: The importance of brevity in pitches (and all emails for that matter), making sure to only send pitches to the appropriate editors, and doing my own research [outside of a database] to find the right journalist to pitch.
	Nadine Jolson Desirae Vivian of Jolson Creative Always do your research. Journalists will hammer it home that that is there biggest pet peeve with PR people, while getting to know who you are pitching is crucial, it goes beyond that. You also need to know who you are as a brand, personality, etc. and how you want to be perceived in the world so you need to build your PR to support that, which is where our background in journalism and image building/brand marketing comes in to play. Knowledge is invaluable because it benefits everyone in the end from clients, to you as a professional, and going the extra mile to get to know your industry and who you are as the brand is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Effective communication is key. While it seems like such a simple concept, it can make all the difference in a situation. Lastly, surround yourself with people who will push you to do better. It will make you a better professional in all aspects and the drive to succeed is infectious.
	Christine Perez of the S3 Agency I wish I knew the importance of small gestures. Helping a journalist with a source, retweeting a story, and sending a thank you note are all small things that can go a long way in building relationships.
	Stephanie Scott of First and Last PR I wish that I would have known which questions to ask before signing up to sponsor a celebrity event. Live events and gifting suites are great because you get to showcase your products to a high level audience in one spot - most will give you the opportunity to interact with celebrities and media - but really needed to be vetted before committing to do them. For newer businesses, there are a lot of associated costs involved to consider including travel, staffing, etc that will also add to the cost. Now, I weigh the long-term goals of tour PR plan and the guaranteed ROI before committing. I also make sure to incorporate a social media plan for each event so that we can maximize on the experience.

Have any tips that you'd like to share?  Leave them in the comments below!