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

  • 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.

  • Yes. Especially if your marketing currently sounds like ChatGPT wrote it.

  • 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.

  • People in marketing, hospitality, branding, retail, wine, or anyone who secretly judges restaurants by their menu design before reading the food list.

Healthy Lifestyle Shana Bull Healthy Lifestyle Shana Bull

Embracing Your Worth: Transforming Personal Challenges into Professional Confidence

Discover how overcoming personal challenges, such as a health battle, can transform your professional outlook. Learn actionable steps for marketers to build resilience, set boundaries, and foster supportive work environments that value and respect individual worth. Gain insights into creating a positive, empathetic workplace culture and embracing your professional capabilities.

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Shana Bull Shana Bull

Unlocking Success: AI Marketing for Small Businesses

I'm on this wild adventure exploring AI, marketing, and business, and you know what? Things aren't always what they seem. Come along as we challenge the status quo and uncover some unexpected twists and turns that'll leave you rethinking everything you thought you knew!

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Healthy Lifestyle Shana Bull Healthy Lifestyle Shana Bull

How to Create a Healthy "TikTok Salad Recipe" Inspired by the 5 Foods you Should Eat Everyday

Get creative in the kitchen with this easy and healthy TikTok Salad recipe. Incorporate spinach, apple, broccoli, garlic, flax seeds, and an apple cider vinaigrette dressing. Plus, you can customize it to your liking. Don't forget to post on TikTok and share with friends, and learn about the 5 foods you should eat every day for a balanced diet.

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Pivotal, Small Business, Digital Marketing Shana Bull Pivotal, Small Business, Digital Marketing Shana Bull

Achieve Your New Year's Resolutions - Tips for Lasting Success

As we enter the New Year, it's important for wine marketers and small business owners to set realistic goals and develop sustainable habits for success. Our tips for making your New Year's resolutions successful include understanding the difference between short-term and long-term goals, creating an action plan, and adjusting your goals as needed to remain flexible. By following these guidelines, you can stay motivated and on track to reach your goals in 2023 and beyond.

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Digital Marketing, Small Business Shana Bull Digital Marketing, Small Business Shana Bull

Struggling to Achieve Your Goals? Here's How to Overcome Common Excuses

We all have common excuses we tell ourselves when it comes to not achieving goals. With a little bit of effort, you can overcome excuses, change your habits and start achieving your goals.

Whether it's a lack of time, motivation, or energy, there are plenty of ways we can overcome the excuses that are holding us back from achieving our goals.

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Social Media Shana Bull Social Media Shana Bull

Elon Musk's Purchase of Twitter is Dangerous - Especially for Fake News On Social Media Platforms

The rise of misinformation and disinformation on social media is a major threat to our society and democracy. With Elon Musk now in charge of Twitter, the problem is only getting worse. This blog post explores various strategies for fighting against the spread of “Fake news” on social media, including advocating for stronger policies from social media platforms and holding our leaders accountable for their roles in the public narrative.

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Digital Marketing Shana Bull Digital Marketing Shana Bull

5 Content Marketing Tips For Your Wine Business, With A Bonus Tip…Which Is My Favorite, TBH

Wine Country small business owners and marketers are always looking for ways to get more bang for their marketing buck. Check out these five content marketing tips to drive traffic to your site and convert those visitors into paying customers — and if you DIY, your content marketing can be a pretty cheap way to build your brand online.

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Digital Marketing Shana Bull Digital Marketing Shana Bull

The reason why Instagram prioritizes Reels: short-form videos are search engines.

The REAL reason why Instagram is focused on Reels is that short-form videos (IMO) are the best search engines. Teenagers use videos within Tiktok to search for the things they care about, and Instagram wants those viewers. Short-form videos provide that information in easy-to-understand, quick bites versus longer YouTube videos or blog posts - so more viewers mean more $$ for digital ads.

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