Word & Mouth Blog
Where food, hospitality, branding, and human behavior all crash into each other. I write about restaurants, wine, placemaking, customer experience, and the small details that make people talk about a business long after they leave.
For even more snarky takes on marketing, pop culture, branding, and the internet, visit my Substack, Burnt Popcorn & Branding: Substack
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A mix of hospitality, branding, customer psychology, hospitality culture, and internet behavior from someone who’s worked behind the scenes in marketing long enough to know what feels authentic and what feels painfully forced.
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Yes. Especially if your marketing currently sounds like ChatGPT wrote it.
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No LinkedIn thought leadership energy here. Just strategy, storytelling, and occasional side-eye toward trends, Chat-GPT written branding advice, and “disruptive” ideas that all look the same.
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People in marketing, hospitality, branding, retail, wine, or anyone who secretly judges restaurants by their menu design before reading the food list.
My Favorite Non-Music Instagram Reels Ideas For Hospitality & Wine Marketers
For marketers that have business accounts without access to good music (yes, royalty-free music is there, but tbh it is pretty meh) there are two things you can do when it comes to creating Instagram Reels for wine social media marketers.
Top 11 Wineries in California on Instagram
My picks for top CA Wineries on Instagram are not based on who has the most followers, the prettiest pictures, or which wineries get the most Instagram location check-ins. While those are important, I chose these wineries based on their community engagement and unique brands… I chose wineries on Instagram that were true to their brand passions and connected with their target audience.
Understanding Wine Influencers
Wine Influencers are always a hot topic that people (mainly older people) in the wine industry like to get upset about. But it works. Right now, in addition to the ROI question, people are looking at the term “influencer” as a group of girls posing for the camera, not knowing anything about the subject matter, and expecting things for free. Once again, I'm here to say that that is not the case for everyone, and certainly not the case for wine influencers worth their weight in cans of rosé.