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.
Restaurant and Winery Marketing Gets Creative While We Shelter in Place
With the shelter-in-place order, wineries and restaurants all over California are having to rethink their traditional model of people coming to them. Creativity tends to flourish during times of crisis, so I wanted to give a few shoutouts to brands that I think are doing a great job of embracing the horrible reality that we're dealing with right now.
Marketing Is Still Important—Even During a Crisis
For many of us in the hospitality industry, all of our marketing efforts were directed at getting people into the tasting room, restaurant or hotel, and letting our tasting room staff sell wine club memberships/wine/food, etc. And even though this crisis is temporary, the brands that adapt will be able to move forward stronger, and the brands that simply want to revert to the status quo will be left behind.
The Case for Using LinkTree in Your Marketing
Having a landing page on your own website helps with digital retargeting ads, SEO, and general branding (since the free version of Linktree doesn’t have many choices for changing up the style, fonts, or layout). But what happens when marketers don’t have easy access to create new landing pages on your website?
Work From Home Productivity Tips (How To Plan Your Day With Your Partner)
From years of working from home, as well as what we have been doing for the past week, here are some of our work from home productivity tips for planning ahead with your partner.
Virtual Happy Hour - Keeping People Connected through Video and Wine
A Virtual Happy Hour is a great idea for friends and family to connect, even when in quarantine during this coronavirus pandemic. Here are some tools on how to set up your virtual happy hour (wine, and a husband, not included).
Creative Ways Wineries Can Market Their Business During This Pandemic
I want to encourage people to take some time to assess what’s happening with your wine business and work with your team to brainstorm creative ways wineries can market their businesses during this pandemic.
Best Work from Home Tools
Now that a lot more people are working from home, due to the coronavirus, here are some of the top work from home tools that have worked for me for working from home. So, check out what I would get for a professional who is new to remote working:
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.
Define Your Brand Passions For Your Social Media Marketing
Take a look at the core brand passions that get you or the owners of your business up in the morning. Remembering your brand passions will help guide your content creation for social media marketing.
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.
Interview with Local Mom and Co-Owner of Brew Coffee and Beer House, Alisse Cottle
Wine Country Mom Interview: Entrepreneur and Mom of 3, Alisse Cottle co-owns Brew Coffee and Beer House and raises her kids in Sonoma County.
My Word of the Year 2020 - None
Every year I create a Word of the Year to help motivate me for the upcoming year. It's more than just New Years Resolutions or Goals, it's more of a life mantra that I come up with and print for my home office. 2020 feels different though.
So, I am not creating a word of the year for 2020, at least not right now.
Gift Ideas for Social Media Marketers
As a social media marketer, I am always on the lookout for new toys to play with when it comes to creating content. Since most of my work in social media is all about PHOTOGRAPHY, here are some of my favorite gifts to get a social media marketer in your life.
Connections Are What Make Social Media Marketing So Powerful
Social media marketing is about being SOCIAL. Digital marketing is not the Wild Wild West of marketing anymore. It is a dynamic tool for brands to share their story and to connect with their target audience - all with better access to insights than ever before.
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.