Forest Home Media intern Lindsey Locke Anderson, Junior/Communications at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, also contributed to this post.

Forest Home Media in April partnered with Country Living magazine and hosted the Nashville Influencers group at the Country Living Fair: Nashville. Founded by FHM, the Nashville Influencers is a creative consortium of area media and bloggers sharing a passion for home lifestyle   – home, garden and food!  WTVF Talk of the Town Host & Nashville Influencer Meryll Rose, arranged a meet up with the editor of Country Living magazine, Rachel Hardage Barrett, who joined us for a Periscope live stream interview with Forest Home Media Partner, Nancy McNulty. Here’s an excerpt from that interview.

What are some of your favorite things you’ve learned about the Nashville area?

I am so excited to be here in Nashville because I grew up in Tennessee. Tennessee has so much going on, and Nashville has so much good energy with so many creative types. There are all these great artisans popping up, and we were looking for a good location. To me, it was a no-brainer. Hopefully we have sort of proven that to everyone. There are so many great vendors from this area, but also I think forty other states are represented as well!

Social media wise, what do you think helps you gain the most followers or readers?

Facebook is huge for Country Living magazine, and our digital team is constantly fascinated by the Facebook algorithms. I love Facebook too because it is always an instant interaction. We will put a room up online and we think we know how readers will react, and, suddenly, we have 25,000 likes. Then, we will put a room up that we know readers will love, and then they don’t! It is an interesting way to instantly gauge reactions. Instagram is great, too.

So if folks want to follow you how should we find you?

I adore Instagram. I post probably sixty percent baby photos.  I am also on Facebook  and, eventually, I will get to Twitter.

So, do you like to take photos?

Yes, it’s fun. When you do this for a living, you always want to snap pictures and be able to appreciate what other people create like these perfect booths and venues….I am constantly snapping things that we produce but also things to admire.

Forest Home Media & the Nashville Influencers focus on home, food, and garden. What is your passion – home, food, or garden?

I would say home. I have a lot of random decorating I do. It is hard to choose, but that is what we focus on here at Country Living. Garden also feeds into that, and you are constantly putting a meal on the table every single night. But, I love decorating and can’t get enough of that. When I am killing time, I love reading decorating magazines.

How do you work with bloggers?

We feature a lot of bloggers’ houses. People put so much into their homes and I love being able to see into them… We might stumble across a vintage house through a blog and then reach out. I’m also definitely sensitive to what I see. There will be stuff all over Pinterest, and then I’ll see it in a magazine, and I’ll want to make sure we give credit to bloggers. We are very diligent about doing that.

The number one question: How do you get into Country Living magazine?

Send us an email. We try to read every single email. Ours style director is Jami Supsic. Her email is jsupsic@hearst.com. Use your iPhone to take pictures… there are never too many shots. More pictures are better… we are always looking to build our shot list. Usually when we shoot a house we have 8-12 key shots. Please just send us pictures to that email address and hopefully someone will get back to you.

 

Next up for Forest Home Media is the Nashville Symphony Show House Sneak Peek Tour and Garden Party with Southern Living Contributing Garden Editor Carmen Johnston, PBS Volunteer Gardener Troy Marden, and the iconic Miss Daisy King.  Contact us via geinger@foresthomemedia.com if you are an area writer and would like to join us on Wednesday, June 10 from 10 a.m. until noon. The event is free but we do have limited spots. Built by Castle Homes, 2012 Southern Living Custom Builder of the Year, CLICK HERE for more information of the project and event tickets. The home is open for tour daily June 12-28, 2015.