MARCH 25, 2022

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs. Each edition is packed with the latest news, strategies, and tactics, plus inspiring creator stories and exclusive education, all to help you create, grow, and monetize better.

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Features in this issue (view online):

Full Tilt: Get Going on GA4
Stan: Bestselling Author Dan Pink

full tilt

Google Analytics 4: Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Start

Google will stop its current analytics program on July 1, 2023. The discontinuation of Universal Analytics (also called Google Analytics 3) means you will no longer be able to see new audience analytics in the old system.

To get ahead of that, it’s important to now set up its successor, aptly named Google Analytics 4. Then, when Universal Analytics no longer works next year, you’ll already have some historical data.

What changes in Google Analytics 4?: It is a paradigm shift in website (and app) analytics. Universal Analytics currently tracks your website activity using sessions and page views. GA4 tracks everything using events. You can still get most of the same data (except bounce rate and time on page), but it may have a slightly different name or be in a different place in your analytics. And there are new metrics (like engagement time and engaged sessions per user) that are more accurate than those in UA.

The new event model allows Google Analytics 4 to track the behavior of your users more reliably. Instead of waiting until a visitor navigates to a new page to calculate the metrics – and potentially losing those metrics if the visitor leaves the site or closes the browser, the new version pushes out the metrics as the visitor completes events.

Caveats for Google Analytics 4: As you start to navigate the new interface, be aware of a few things. Google Analytics 4 has different reporting interfaces from Universal Analytics. You won’t see some reports until you start tracking events.

GA4 doesn’t monitor “views” but does allow you to create “audiences” and “data streams” to collect similar information. It also doesn’t have landing page reports, but you can track “session_start_event” along with many other things like page scroll depth, button clicks, and video plays. Previously, you could only track those items in Google Tag Manager.

Google is still actively developing and adding features to GA 4. It leans heavily on machine learning and predictive metrics and provides several new exploration methods where you can customize your own data journey. The most important thing is to get it set up now so you’ll have data – and a headstart using GA4 – when Universal Analytics no longer works.

– Brian Piper

Let Brian walk you through the GA4 set-up process step by step.

Growing an email list to 2000+ in six months

Dylan Redekop started his newsletter in January 2021. But after almost six months of using Substack, Redekop made a change.“It took me about four months of publishing regularly, every week, to get my first 100 subscribers.… I knew I needed something more,” Redekop said. Now, he has more than 2,000 subscribers to his weekly newsletter, and his open rates average around 50%. Learn why Redekop made the switch to ConvertKit, and how he’s turned those 100 subscribers into 2,000 subscribers in only a year.

we’re a stan for … Dan Pink

Bestselling Author Brings Science and Creativity to Communication

Entrepreneur: Dan Pink

Tilt: Science, creativity, and human behavior in life and business

Scene: Website, newsletter (170K), Twitter (452.9K), LinkedIn (243.3K), Facebook (90K)

Snack Bites:

His most recent bestseller, The Power of Regret, explores how to gain now from past regrets.
Dan’s Pinkcast newsletter repurposes content and ideas from his nonfiction books.
He believes in the mantra “Think less. Do more.”
Dan will talk Free Agent Nation to the Creator Economy at CEX: Creator Economy Expo May 2-4.

Why We’re a Stan: Dan believes in the power of learning to communicate better and improve your problem-solving techniques. He relies on science, creativity, and more to tell these powerful stories and lessons in his bestselling books.

– Shameyka McCalman

quick talk

Caught on … Twitter

“Communities don’t start as communities. They start as conversations.”

– Rosie Sherry

things to know

Money

Nominate now: Got a favorite creator? What about five? Nominate them for Podia’s new creator fellowship (minimum $1K). No applications are necessary. For each nomination, Podia will add $1 to the prize money. The winner’s nominator will receive $500. (Podia)
Tilt Take: It’s not really a fellowship, but cash prizes for creators are always welcome.
Big Brother tokenized: BBNT – Big Brother Nations Token – will give holders (a community of Big Brother TV show fans) access to a virtual experience of the house. It is the first token for Big Brothers shows. (BusinessDay; h/t Adam Levy’s Newsletter)
Tilt Take: Interesting take on rewarding fans of a TV show with unique content through social tokens.

Audiences

Lurking around: New research finds about half of US adults who use Twitter post fewer than five tweets per month. The most common tweet type for these lurkers? Replies to other users’ content. (Pew Research; h/t Plotlights)
Tilt Take: Don’t underestimate the power of lurkers. Just because they may not be tweeting a lot, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t consuming your content.
On-the-go gamers: The largest group of mobile gamers in the US and Canada are adults age 45 and older – they’re almost one-third of this gaming population. (Marketing Charts; h/t Mack Collier)
Tilt Take: If your target audience is over 45, consider creating relevant mobile game content.

Tech and Tools

Time NFT: Time released a full magazine issue as an NFT, the first time any digital or print publication has done so. The interactive magazine is intended as a special treat for owners of all its Signature collections NFTs. (nft now)
Tilt Take: Time is the first, but definitely won’t be the only one for long. NFTs aren’t limited to artwork anymore.
Timely order: Instagram is going back to the future – launching its chronological feed option for users. You can do it for your favorites or your followings. It’s a return to the algorithm-free framework of its early days. (Social Media Today)
Tilt Take: Pay attention to your Instagram analytics to see if your audience is choosing chronological views, and how that should affect your publishing schedules.

And Finally

Hot take: CoComelon, one of the most-streamed children’s entertainment programs in the world, had 3.6B views on YouTube in January. Its parent company Moonbug Entertainment does deep dives on the platform to find and acquire popular kids’ programming. (Time)
Tilt Take: We agree with the authors: Expect this new programming model to replace or at least minimize the time-intensive, corporate process it takes kids’ shows like Sesame Street and Sponge Bob to make it on air.
Bend it on Instagram: Soccer legend David Beckham gave a Ukrainian doctor control of his Instagram account. She showed how she was caring for pregnant women and their babies in the war-torn area to his over 71.5M followers. (The Washington Post)
Tilt Take: Instagram takeovers don’t have to be limited to megastars. Think about how you can partner with a cause or nonprofit to bring their message to your audience.

the business of content

Creators: Is Your Audience Buying Power the Problem? (Content Inc.)
BAYC’s $4 Billion Valuation – A Disagreement (This Old Marketing)
5 Reasons It Might Be Right To Keep Your Business Small (Inc.)
What Minority Business Owners Need To Know About Getting Bank Loans (CNBC)
The Benefits of Hiring Slow and Firing Fast for Businesses (Small Business Trends)

the tilt team

Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony, with an assist from Angelina Kaminski, Brian Piper, Shameyka McCalman, and Don Borger.

Analyze Now – March 25, 2022