Ryan Sneddon is a self-described CEO and emperor of local news. Ryan is building a hyperlocal newsletter empire one city at a time, starting with Annapolis, MD.Ryan’s newsletter, Naptown Scoop, is an email to the residents of Annapolis containing all pertinent news and events. It's an awesome community of residents and business owners coming together to be good neighbors.Ryan has worked as an editor at The Daily Thread, as a business solutions consultant at Softdocs, and as an engineer for Grand Banks Yachts. Ryan has also worked as a project engineer at The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company.Ryan studied mechanical engineering at the University of South Carolina, and also worked as a cinematographer and photographer. Ryan has done volunteer work building relationships with high school students while leading a team of other volunteers at Young Life.In this episode, you’ll learn:
How Ryan stays motivated when work gets overwhelming
Ryan’s philosophy and tips for interacting with your audience 
A great way to assess your growth and progress as a writer
Ryan’s proven strategies for maximizing your social media engagement
Links & Resources
From Boise
AppSumo

Viral Loops on AppSumo
Jason Calacanis
Annapolis Rotaract Club
Ryan Sneddon’s Links
Ryan’s Twitter: @sneddymobbin

Naptown Scoop
Episode TranscriptRyan: [00:00:00]First advice would just be to “get started.” Second advice would be, “don’t quit,” every day. Third advice (this is not specific to a local newsletter. I would say this to any newsletter, any brand, anyone ever) just be responsive.The great thing about an email newsletter is that people can answer it: I can reply to an email cause it’s just a regular email. Answer every single one of those, because that’s how you build up a loyalty.Nathan: [00:00:30]In this episode I talk to Ryan Sneddon who runs Naptown Scoop, which is a local newsletter for the Annapolis region. I like it because I started a local newsletter called Boise, to just about a thousand subscribers. And, you know, Ryan and I were chatting back and forth on Twitter, just saying like, what ideas are we learning from each other?He was giving me some advice and I was like, you know, I why don’t you just come on the podcast and share the story, share what you’re doing.It’s pretty fun how it’s coming together. He’s working super, super hard on it, and we dive into all the details. So with that, I’ll get out of the way.Ryan, thanks for joining me.Ryan: [00:01:09]My pleasure.Nathan: [00:01:10]So give us the 30-second pitch. What’s the newsletter, and then from there, we’ll dive into, “Why start a local newsletter?”Ryan: [00:01:18]My newsletter is called an Naptown scoop and the 30-second pitch; I could really do it in 10 seconds. It’s just everything you need to know about the town delivered straight to your inbox three times a week. And I would do it more if it were a bigger city, do it less if it were a smaller city, but that’s just kind of the perfect number of times that gets you all the information, but it’s not too much.Nathan: [00:01:40]Yeah, that sounds good. So what was the inspiration to start it?Ryan: [00:01:43]There’s another company. I mean, there’s a couple of companies now that are out there doing this, but I lived in Columbia, South Carolina after college. I went to college there and stayed a little bit extra. And there was a company there that did it and I really liked it. And then I moved away back here to home, and I didn’t have that.And I was like, well, that was cool. I can’t be the only one that liked that. So I was like, I’ll just build it here. And, I wasn’t the only one that liked it. We were talking before we started recording. There’s not really a good original ideas in my head. So the fact that I wanted it was a good sign, because if I wanted it other people probably do, too.Nathan: [00:02:17]Yeah, that makes sense. I am fascinated by local newsletters. I started one on my own called From Boise.Ryan: [00:02:27]I get it; you got to see