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.
I Haven’t Emailed My Community in Two Years- Let’s Talk About That
Why I stopped emailing, what’s changed, and what you can expect from me now—no noise, just real insights and honest connection.
5 Reasons that Branding Matters in Social Media Marketing
Five reasons why branding matters when it comes to social media marketing. Your brand is how you connect with your community.
8 proven steps to take one idea and turn it into ten social media posts
Being able to quickly take your most important ideas and turn them into content is important for any social media marketer. Especially those looking for content creation for beginners, or small business owners who have a lack of time, or resources (I understand because that's me also).
Build Confidence With Creating Social Media Videos
Creating videos for social media marketing can be a daunting task, especially if you lack confidence in getting in front of the camera and coming up with ideas to create videos on a regular basis. This blog post will provide tips on how to increase your confidence with creating social media videos.
4 Steps to Create Social Media Captions that Capture Attention & Build Trust
When creating social media captions, it's important to keep four things in mind: a hook (get to the point), a description or story, a sentence on why it matters, and end your post with a call to action.
On Social Media: Don't share content that isn't yours (without getting permission)
When it comes to social media, one of the cardinal rules is not to share content that isn't yours. This includes things like photos, videos, and quotes. Not only is it plagiarism, but it can also be a violation of copyright law. If you're sharing someone else's content without asking them first, you can get into a lot of trouble and have to pay fines or even have your account taken away for violating social media community guidelines.
5 Tips on How to Write Engaging FAQ Answers Your Target Audience Will Love
Listen to your customers and create a FAQ document you can refer back to when planning ahead to create content for your website or social media. This way you can establish yourself as an authority figure in your industry or niche, and have a list of copy & paste content ready to go.
7 Social Media Scheduling Tools to Post Content
By using a social media scheduling tool, you can take the headache out of having to remember to post on social media every day. With most scheduling tools, all you need to do is create your content in advance and set a schedule for when you want it to go live.
Finding Trending Audio on Instagram Reels
Being able to find and use trending audio on Instagram Reels has become a big part of both Instagram Reels and TikTok. Trending audio (both trending songs & original audio that creators make) can help even small accounts grow their Instagram accounts. Here are tips on how to find trending audio on Instagram Reels to use for your social media marketing efforts.
10 Ideas For Instagram Reels For Wine Businesses
There are many ways to utilize Instagram Reels for wine businesses to create short-form social media videos that are fun, showcase the wine, and go behind the scenes to create brand awareness + trust with your wine-loving audience.
Why Taking a Step Back from My Business Actually Strengthened My Career Aspirations
This is a good reminder that you don’t have to go through a pandemic or cancer treatments for you to take a step back from your business life and really look critically at what you want to do next.
So, Are We Setting Goals For 2021?
2020 turned out to be something that NOT any of us could have predicted. With massive job loss and stay at home orders due to the pandemic, 2020 goals changed. Even though my New Year Resolutions looked different, I still made time to goal plan and create small goals to get me to the next step in my career and for my health. Here are some action items for setting 2021 goals.
Drinking Wine in Clubhouse
Clubhouse is an audio, invite-only app where participants can move around virtual rooms discussing arts and culture, from popular TV shows to the state of the music industry. A perfect excuse to grab a glass of wine and your headphones.
How To Create A Transparent Background In Your Instagram Story And Other Instagram Tricks You Need To Know
A quick tutorial on how to create lines for your text in Instagram Stories, as well as a few other hacks for Instagram Stories so you can make them your own with branding, tagging others on Instagram, and utilizing Instagram Story Templates.
Should Brands Post About Juneteeth on Social Media?
Juneteeth is an important holiday and there are a few action items brands can do to show support on social media. Right now brands are looking to speak up, and I applaud that—but I also want to help friends realize that it is more than just a black square on social media. You must back up your voice, your claim to solidarity, with action.
Small Business Owners Need to Focus on Connections and Creativity
Ozzy and his partner have taken their pie/ice cream shop and cupcake shop and brought them online - partnering with local Sonoma County brands for promotions, doing dessert delivery, and always staying true to their Sonoma County roots.
Small Business Superpower: Connections with Your Customers Matter
The brick & mortar hair and skin salon has continued to focus on the connections that they have with their customers, and that can be seen as soon as you walk into the salon through smiling faces and repeat customers. When the SIP order went into place for Sonoma County, they had to shut down their salon and turn to online delivery orders, as well as a new Facebook group
Small Changes to Pivot Your Small Business Strategy During COVID -19
For some, when we are put in situations where we have to adapt quickly -- we find a way to pivot our small business strategy. For other business owners or marketers, it isn't so easy to change how you do business, but there are things you can do to make small steps to pivot your marketing.
Celebrating 11 Years as a Social Media Entrepreneur
I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur—maybe because I never had employees under me. I guess when I think of entrepreneurs, I think of traditional “small business owners” like my dad, who has employees. I realized that my mindset—thinking of my work in such a small way—was holding me back from spending money on myself and on my social media marketing business.
Instagram Engagement Hack
Are you looking for an Instagram Engagement Hack to help you grow your following and get more comments on your posts? I think I have found the secret sauce to true connections with your target audience on social media.