Nat Decadents

The power of social media has lead me to another great wine site called Nat Decadents http://www.nataliemaclean.com/. It has thousands of pairings and more than 50,000 reviews of wines at the LCBO searchable by price, region, score, food match and complementary recipes.

The branding of this site is very clean, classy and inviting. Every page has a consistent feel which makes the site easy to follow and find information. Nat has executed a very successful social media campaign as you can see from her various social media widgets, podcasts, blog and e-newsletter. This shows she is open to her audience and communicates an image for being current. Also - increasing increasing google ranking!

Great links! This site uses a VERY powerful SEO tip. There is a large directory of suggested wine sites that offer information that perhaps Nat Decadents does not. By including these links, Nat Decadents is creating a portal of "everything wine" which will bump up this site in the google ranking when people are searching wine.

A few possible suggestions that I see for this site is communicating clearly that this is an Ottawa-based company. Also, it would be a great promotion for herself to communicate which events she will attending (via a visual calendar). Most importanty - the wine widget for blogs is not easily found lia the main site. Other than that I give this site 10/10 for content, consistent branding, and reader involvement

Wine Align

I recently discovered this website via Twitter - www.winealign.com I think it is actually my new favourite site!


Choose a wine based broadly on price or as narrow as a grape variety. Most wines are rated with customer reviews which helps novice wine purchasers - or choose to discuss wine with other lovers.

You can also sign up to save your favourite wines. Sometimes we are pretty optomistic and think we can remember the last bottle we loved - but when we drink so many it sometimes slips our mind. Wine Align even goes the next step and finds the nearest LCBO that stocks your wine of choice.

From a marketing perspective I would give this site high ratings for orginality, cleanliness, customer engagement, credibility, and being current. Changes that I could suggest are creating visible links to their social media action on the main page (aka twitter widget and blog widget) and uploading a "share this" button in the blog.

After 9 to 5

The key to sanity when starting work is finding your niche outside of 9 to 5. I blog and tweet all day about roofing and the contracting industry but that's not my passion in life.

I dowloaded this new tweet deck - aka social crack - which I plan to learn more about industries that I am interested in.

• I want to learn more about the food - specifically gluten-free recipes - and wine industry as I love to cook and entertain.
• I want to get more involved in the community by volunteering to learn and experience new things.
• I want to learn more about health and fitness as I just joined various fitness classes
• I want to gather more information on home buying vs renting because I am getting the "nesting instinct" and flying the coup in less than a year

Working 9 to 5

So I'm officially a working woman (aka becoming a roofing guru). The first month or so I had those days where I am like what the heck am I doing here?! I didn't know anything about the roofing industry...except boys will be boys. But you know what...that doesn't matter. I went to school for three years to increase company awareness and sales through strategic marketing.

Anybody can learn anything. So guess what I grabbing knowledge from everyone in the office, searching the latest trends via social media, and working with the products hands on. I never thought I'd say this but I actually get excited talking about roofing!

TIPS for new graduates

1. See your first "real job" as grabbing as much information as possible. Ya, school taught us alot of the basics but there is SO much to learn. Find mentors in your workplace and soak up their knowledge.
2. Be confident in what you know. I am a HUGE believer in the effects of social media - however "the cavemen" at work do not get it. Stick to your guns and find your niche within the company
3. Be known. Be open to working on new projects, bring new ideas to the table, have a positive attitue, get involved in group work, and excel in your niche specialty
4. Enjoy your job. Whether its listening to your Ipod while you work, buying a kettle to make a hot cup of tea, personalizing your office or sorting out an issue out with a colleague - get through the day with a smile. If you find your days are not looking so bright day after day...talk to you bossman and talk about some options. Life is too short to be miserable.