A bit saddened after watching this. More about my own year coming soon.
social media, tech, food and wine in a world that takes itself too seriously.
A bit saddened after watching this. More about my own year coming soon.
Next weekend (Nov13 & 14th) is a long weekend because of Veterans Day which automatically makes it a great one... But it also the weekend of the first 2010 Innovation Summit. This two day event in Healdsburg is on by the great people at Partners for Growth & Innovation.
In addition to some of my favorite wine friends (Paul Mabray, Alan Baker and Hardy Wallace), Jeremiah Owyang who moderated the Wisdom of We 2010 seminar that we threw back in September is the featured speaker. director of marketing at my company, Democrasoft, Mark Kithcart will be there.
Oh, and I will be there! Details to come... But you will definitely be seeing and reading more from me!
Anytime I hear this song everything seems right in the world.... Almost as everything falls into place.
Finally, my likeness finally made it to snl!
There is a new character on Saturday Night Live that is named Shana (pronounced like my name, rhymes with banana) who also spells it the same. Oh, and she has RED hair!
Unfortunately she is one of the most annoying characters from Kristin Wiigg. As art imitates life, Charles Barkley couldn't even say her name right either.... Though, I would have to say other than the obvious sexiness, I am nothing like this character. :)
Take a look and let me know...
It is official. Philip Wyers and I have an office. 25 Old Courthouse Square, Suite #8, Santa Rosa 95404 is the address and the inspiration for the name of our new venture - 25 Digital Media.
Some say that they do not believe in fate. But me glancing over the Craigslist section for housing in Downtown Santa Rosa randomly while drinking tea and working from Peet's Coffee and coming across the listing for this office couldn't have any other explanation. I just happened to come across the listing for an office in downtown Santa Rosa and mention it to Philip, almost jokingly. He loved the idea and met me downtown to go take a look.
As soon as we saw the outside, we knew that it would be the perfect opportunity for each of us to take our businesses to the next level….
Okay, many who are reading this know that I consult with businesses on social media marketing, run Congresswoman Woolsey’s online efforts and basically promote Sonoma County on a daily basis. What you might not know is that Philip Wyers has been my rock over this past year. He is a web designer, e-commerce manager and email marketing guy (yes, he designed BreathSocialMedia.com) and the person who has kept me sane over this crazy world-wind of a year.
So here we are, just moving into the office. We currently have no internet connection or chairs, but we do have two desks and a sign that says “Happy Hour” which we decided was going to be our motto: @25digitalmedia, because everyone needs another reason to go to Happy Hour. I think it is fitting because of my obsession with happy hour food and cocktails and Philip’s obsession with a great deal.
So, watch out for more to come from us….. And, if you ever need another reason to go to Happy Hour or discuss online promotions, you know where we are.
ProjectYine knew that if we were going to be in Austin, Texas that we needed to visit the Whole Foods flagship store.
Our host and Twitter friend, @Baconator took Ashley (aka @TheBeerWench) and myself there today.It was a three hour marathon of wine, beer and food sampling, followed by a feast inside their cafeteria upstairs. Needless to say, it was one of the highlights of the trip. The wine section alone is reason to go there and Ashley, of course, squealed from joy a few times in the "Beer Alley."
Then there was the food.... Oh, the food! This particular Whole Foods is a meca of yummy treats for everyone, a place where vegans and carnivores can co-exsist.
Here are just some of the pictures I took with my iphone.
I woke up this morning to a DM saying to take a look at Steve Heimoff's latest blog post titled When blogs go bad. Little did I know that this post was on a comment I wrote on one of his other posts Holier than thou? When it comes to pay to play, blogging is looking a lot like print.
Startled and humbled as I was to read my name in his blog, I was also a bit confused at the correlation of my comment and the meat of his blog post. I talked about how this is a new world where everyone has a voice and he choice to write about one specific instance about a blog reciting a press release, a very good point yes. But they seem to be two different thoughts, at least IMHO.
While I am still new to the wine world and corporate America, I have worked with wineries for a few years and loved the marketing industry and diving into consumers psyches for even longer. I have only been a part of the social media aspect of marketing for a little over a year, but so much has changed within that year and brands are just now figuring out that they have to be online. By no means would I ever call myself an expert on anything and my wine blog itself is just me writing about my life in Sonoma County and since wine was/is a huge part of my life, Shana the wine blogger was born. For some reason (I do like to think it is my sense of humor and that I know about all the cool events) people read and even enjoy my blog. I am not a wine critic, though I definitely do have an opinion about everything. My response to Steve's post on my comment is below and I think it is just as valid as my original comment, both points being that there is room for all of us in this crazy online world. This post really got me thinking about the changing environment and the idea that social media (blogging, Twitter, Facebook, ect.) is still in its infancy.
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As both a PR “flack” and a “wine blogger” who writes simply because I love wine, I agree that there is a difference between rewriting a press release and doing your homework, but press releases has been regurgitated for years. This is not a new phenomenon to the wine blogging world, nor is free gifts to the mommy bloggers.
The news (speaking generally) has always had a bias and used scare tactics or fluff stories for the sake of entertainment. I learned at a young age to take the news with a grain of salt… Same goes with anything I read online through a blog, a tweet, a review on Yelp, or even an article in a magazine.
Granted, I am much younger than you and many of your readers, but the youth are the wine buyers and drinkers of the future and the Internet has allowed us to personalize the way we get information and given us more choices of what we read. And that is the way we like it.
You stated that you were going to explain the difference of good and bad blogs “for some of us.” My case was that for the rest of us, we read what we like. I personally do not like reading a rewritten press release just as much as I dislike reading them as is, but with the adaptation of the social media press release, consumers now have easy access to press releases anyways.
If someone reads a blog post/press release written by a “useful idiot” on Lodi wines and decides to try it based on the blog post, so be it. That is their problem. Hell, people still drink Franzia and swear by it. This does not discredit true wine critics like you, but I think people should be allowed to write their opinions and make up their own minds about what makes a good blog or a bad blog.
I am not sure why you have complex, confused emotions about where the Internet is taking us, but to not think you have to adapt to this new way of communication is absurd (in a later comment I stated I wasn't just talking about him, but talking about the industry as a whole). In your previous post, the wine magazines are not going anywhere and they still can be relevant. I simply think there is room for both.
As you stated in Tom Wark’s post -- "Can't we all just get along?"
Just woke up this morning here at the Napa Valley Marriott, still excited about what I had learned from the Facebook guys yesterday (look back for an actual post on this later). I am refreshed and ready to speak at our panel on a Prescriptive Approach to Media Success for Wineries.
So right in the middle of my morning routinue of checking Twitter, email and Facebook for what's going on, I noticed something new at Facebook --- Microsoft Bing search results are on the right side of the page when I did a search for Lynn Woolsey to see what was happening on her Page. The boys were talking about this yesterday, but they said it was coming soon. I am very happy to announce that soon is now. And even though I only come up once when searching "Shana Ray," I am first. I am also happy to announce that I am a geek and get excited about this kinda stuff! *shana.Just some of the images of the food and drinks I have eaten/drank while suffering a horrific head cold today (I didn't take a picture of my tea or toast this morning). The tomato is the first one I ate out of my own garden (please ignore the dying leaf to its side, I cleaned that up after I took the picture).
Any other vegitarian suggestions of what good foods I should eat while sick?