Monthly Archives: July 2023

How To Appreciate Soda

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For those of us who enjoy a soda from time to time, I think we take it for granted. Often, the soft drink will play second fiddle. For example, a soda is almost an afterthought when it comes with a fast food meal or we pour a glass to go with dinner. Even when we grab a can of soda to quench our thirst, I doubt many of us take a moment to say to ourselves, I am so lucky to be enjoying this flavorful beverage of carbonation and caffeine.

Sloan and Beau stand outside the entrance of Your Mom’s Soda Shop. This place helps you to genuinely enjoy a soda.

Last week, my family went to Your Mom’s Soda Shop in north Spokane. As you can imagine, it is a place that specializes in, as my parents call it, “pop.” When you approach the counter, a large and colorful menu greets you with endless combinations of creative soda concoctions. Just the options for a Mt. Dew-based drink will make your head spin.

This is the menu at Your Mom’s Soda Shop. Lots to choose from!

At Your Mom’s Soda Shop, the soft drink is the main event. You can order a pretzel or shaved ice if you please, but this is the place you frequent for that fulfilling burn that awakens the senses when a well-carbonated soft drink travels down your throat. This is where you get to truly appreciate the innovative and tasty beverage invention that is the soda.

Sloan and Beau with their sodas. They each got the Rocket Pop.

I looked past the Dr. Pepper, Sprite, and Mt. Dew-based drinks and turned my attention to the bottom of the menu where the root beer concoctions were listed. I went for the Butter Beer. It was Barq’s root beer with butterscotch and vanilla…and it was amazing. It was served in a Styrofoam cup with crushed pellet ice. I sat there and savored each sip as it seemed to refresh my soul. We actually visited Your Mom’s Soda Shop on Independence Day and I had to ask myself as I was enjoying my drink, Is there anything more American than this?

My Butter Beer drink came in this Styrofoam cup.

My children each ordered the Rocket Pop drink which was a special for the Fourth of July. It was Sprite-based with fruit flavoring, Pop Rocks, and a submerged cherry. Sidney wasn’t as passionate about a true soda experience like I was and asked for a shaved ice…oh well.

Sloan poses in front of the photo backdrop at Your Mom’s Soda Shop.

A trip to Your Mom’s Soda Shop for the soda lover is not unlike a trip to the brewery for the beer enthusiast. But instead of sipping on an IPA infused with citrus and pine notes in an industrial-but-sophisticated environment, you are enjoying a Dr. Pepper with pineapple, coconut, and peach puree in a quirky shop with a chalkboard and photo backdrop. Now that’s how you enjoy a pop!

Sidney and Sloan draw on the chalkboard at Your Mom’s Soda Shop.

The next time you drink a soda, take a moment to appreciate it. If you are having trouble doing that, perhaps finding a place like Your Mom’s Soda Shop would be a good idea. Don’t Blink.

Hanging By Threads

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When this month started, I was focused on becoming proficient with Google Analytics 4. But just as I was starting to get a grasp of GA4, another new platform dropped that didn’t give us nearly the warning that we received for the latest version of Google Analytics.

Meta recently released Threads in a sophisticated rollout. I advocate gaining a grasp of the platform before formulating a strategy for brand accounts.

Hello, Threads.

To be fair, most of us in the digital marketing world knew Threads was about to hit, we just weren’t given the nearly three-year notice that Google provided users about its transition from a hit-based web analytics tool to an event-based one. Instead, Meta announced on the Fourth of July that Threads, an extension of Instagram but a standalone app, would launch on Thursday, July 6. Then, in a true power play of “under promise and over deliver” mixed with “catch all social media managers off guard” the app launched a day early.

And here we are two days later. The social world is still in a frenzy over the release of Threads, an app that resembles Twitter in a purer, yet clunkier, form. I have read reviews that run the gamut but I have noticed an overall sentiment that leans more positive of Meta’s big release. To be honest, I categorize most of these reactions as nothing more than hot takes. With it being less than 48 hours after the launch, I don’t take much stock in these initial opinions.

With that said, whatever the final verdict on Threads will be, most of us who work in social media knew Meta would release a capable and competitive product. Over the past 10 years, anything released under the Instagram umbrella to counter other social media platforms has thrived. As I have chronicled over the years, Instagram doomed Vine with the introduction of video, challenged Snapchat with its own ephemeral content (Stories), and put TikTok on its heels with Reels. Now it is going after Twitter. Needless to say, Instagram is a powerhouse social media channel that is ever-evolving and cutthroat.

The Storylines

So what will happen to Twitter? Well, if recent history tells us anything, I still think the app is here to stay. If Elon couldn’t destroy Twitter over the past nine months with his erratic management, I don’t think Instagram’s major move will either. With the exception of Vine, both Snapchat and TikTok survived challenges from IG. Although they didn’t come out unscathed, it wasn’t the kiss of death and I feel the same will hold true for Twitter. The bird app is simply too established to fall victim to the Instagram sword.

Meta slaying Twitter isn’t the only Threads-related narrative I reject. Although very slick in its rollout, I don’t believe the seamless Threads sign up process for Instagram users is a guaranteed slam dunk for success. Just because you download an app doesn’t mean you will consistently use it. I have a whole page of apps on my iPhone that I have only used once. Sure, the millions of initial downloads are impressive but will people continue to open the app? If not, those mind blowing numbers are as meaningless as a social media account with a seven-figure following but little-to-no engagement.

Using Threads

But let’s get away from speculation and address utilization. How do we plan to use Threads at WSU? Our social team will take an approach where we learn first and strategize second. We joined Threads and published some introductory posts but now is the time to observe and learn. Before jumping in headfirst, we want to figure out how we can measure success, give Meta an opportunity to work out some bugs, and establish a content strategy.

Some social media experts suggest throwing spaghetti at the wall with your brand accounts during these early days of Threads. However, isn’t that what our personal Threads accounts are for? Over the past couple days I have posted a mix of content on my own Threads account (@BrentReser) from top performing blog posts, favorite TikTok videos, and family photos. Instead of making our WSU accounts the guinea pig, I will gladly reserve that designation for my own account.

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I feel Threads is an app with lots of potential. Given the track record that Instagram has with new rollouts, it is easy to believe that the sky is the limit for Adam Mosseri’s answer to Twitter. However, I don’t think it will be a cake walk. I am curious to see if the millions of people who are now “Threaders” will actually thread 😊 Let’s stay tuned. Don’t Blink.

Tigers and Stripes Thursday Rundown

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Can it be Thursday already? I am all sorts of mixed up after the long holiday weekend. After a few “short” work weeks in a row, things will get back to normal for most of this month. Here we go with tonight’s Thursday Rundown…

Fourth of July Recap – We had an excellent and patriotic Fourth of July that included a cookout, family, friends, and some other components that I might blog about in the future. But when it came to the main event, we went to Pavillion Park in Liberty Lake for our fireworks fix. After the kids had fun on the playground, we gathered in a grassy spot and watched as two coordinated shows blasted off simultaneously. It is always a little tough on little ones when the pyrotechnics don’t start until 10 p.m. but we make an extended bedtime extension for the Fourth of July.

Sidney watches the fireworks at Pavillion Park in Liberty Lake on the Fourth of July.

Big Cats – Over the weekend, I took the kids to Cat Tales, a wildlife rescue and teaching zoo in north Spokane. If you are looking for a pristine animal sanctuary, this place definitely is not for you. However, if you can tolerate dusty conditions and want to get close to some big cats in a no frills sort of way, you might enjoy this rather primitive zoo. Cat Tales is home to tigers, cougars, smaller cats, a bear, and lots of other random animals. Because Sloan, Beau, and I have read books lately on many of these animals, it was a timely and educational visit.

We saw some cool stuff at Cat Tales.

Hamm’s – Although it didn’t make my top list of beers back in 2018, I have developed a fondness for Hamm’s. When my dad isn’t drinking PBR, this is his brew of choice which means every now and then I crack open a can with him. Hamm’s recently received a new look but its classic “the beer…refreshing!” slogan remains and so does its cheap price—you can buy a six-pack of 16 oz. cans for $5.49 at Rite Aid.

This is one of the cans of Hamm’s I drank during the Fourth of July.

National Fried Chicken Day – Today is National Fried Chicken Day and on this “holiday” two years ago I wrote about my favorite place to get fried chicken. As someone who lived in the South for six years, I surprised a lot of my readers when I said there wasn’t a specific restaurant in South Carolina that I tabbed as my favorite location to get fried chicken. Instead, I turned some heads when I humbly admitted that my top place to pick up some legs, thighs, and breasts is just the deli at whatever local grocery store is nearby. You can read the entire post and my reasoning here.

This is me about ready to eat some fried chicken at a Bojangles restaurant in Conway, SC.

Names – I am pretty good with names…as long as I allow it to register in my mind when the person introduces themselves. When meeting someone new, we have the tendency to think about what we are going to say next or how we are going to introduce our own selves that we space the person’s name. It would serve us better to look the person in the eye and listen with 100% attention when they make their introduction. Thanks to my friend Lindsi for the meme.

It is sometimes a tendency to not even register what a person’s name is.

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Hope you are living up your summer. The mercury will be rising this weekend in the Inland Northwest so I am looking forward to the pool, cold drinks, and plenty of rays. Don’t Blink.

Is A Hot Dog A Sandwich?

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I recently worked on a pretty fun project. Our #WSU social media team tries hard to showcase our faculty members demonstrating their expertise by addressing fun, lighthearted, and/or relevant topics. For example, we have recruited WSU professors to explain how to construct a perfect paper airplane, what makes an impactful Super Bowl commercial, and why pi is such a mysterious mathematical concept. But our latest video decided to tackle a much more controversial (but still very fun) and very timely question…

Is a hot dog a sandwich? 🌭

Since July is National Hot Dog Month and tomorrow is the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, could there be a better time to settle this debate once and for all? Thankfully, we had the most credible person you could think of to answer this question.

We made a video that asked one of our #WSU professors if a hot dog is a sandwich.

Blake Foraker, Ph.D., is a WSU meat scientist within our Department of Animal Sciences. I reached out to him and asked if he would weigh in with his opinion. Dr. Foraker didn’t hesitate to help out and before you knew it, we were in a kitchen inside the Food Sciences Building interviewing our expert.

Thanks to our talented videographer Kara Billington, the shoot and her editing yielded an awesome video that represented everything Dr. Foraker discussed with us. It captured the historic hot dog context he provided, the technical definition of a hot dog, and finally, the answer we had all been anticipating…

NO. A hot dog is not a sandwich—at least from a scientific standpoint. It has a very strict standard of identity that doesn’t lend itself to a sandwich, Dr. Foraker explained. He did leave the door open to interpretation though by remarking that a sandwich is a food product smashed between two pieces of bread and we have to decide for ourselves if that disqualifies a hot dog as a sandwich or not.

I agree with Dr. Foraker that a hot dog is not a sandwich but my reasoning is much more remedial. In fact, there isn’t much reasoning at all. A notorious story within my wife’s family is that one day Sidney asked my father-in-law What is the Alamo? He responded by saying, Well, it is the Alamo. This infuriated my wife who tried to re-phrase the question a couple different ways while still getting the same answer: the Alamo is the Alamo.

I love hot dogs and I DON’T think they qualify as a sandwich.

To put it simply, a hot dog is a hot dog (and NOT a sandwich). Happy Fourth of July, friends! Don’t Blink.