Writer, disruptive presence, devil’s advocate

Erika Napoletano is the Head Redhead at RHW Media, a Denver-based online strategies consultancy. Her blog, RedheadWriting, is a bastion for “unpopular thoughts and blunt advice - delivered” and consistently strives to say what others won’t and don’t (but should) about marketing, social media, business integrity and life in general. She’s the author of two forthcoming books (due out Spring 2012) including The Power of Unpopular with John Wiley & Sons, a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, was recently named by the Denver Post as one of Colorado’s top Twitter Personalities and received the 5280 Magazine Top of the Town 2011 Reader’s Choice award for Best Twitter Personality.

In addition to her rapidly growing audience base, Erika is a sought-after consultant for brands you see every day in the parking lot at the mall to your grocery store shelves. Specializing in helping brands avoid the common pitfalls associated with incorporating online methods into overall marketing strategies, she excels in helping brands not only find their voice, but use it to speak to their audience, be human and build consumer trust to drive sales, brand loyalty and convert customers into marketers. Her favorite brands to work with are those who aren’t afraid of showing the human beings behind the brand…we love coffee, hate traffic, and while it might sound trite, your customers feel the exact same way. By being human, brands can do more than the largest advertising budget and marketing team with a smaller staff and key social outlets. And while social media isn’t the end-all, be-all, it’s a pretty powerful complement to a comprehensive marketing strategy.

You can connect with her online on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. (She closed her MySpace account when she found out that no one really wanted to pay her $5,000 a night to “party.”)

Specialties

Digital strategy plans, SEO copywriting, blogging, bowling, and helping businesses find the humor in their brands. That sometimes includes bowling.

She is also rather talented when it comes to devouring jalapeño poppers and the random bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, can belt-out Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” a capella, and do (so she’s told) brilliant vocal impressions of both Golum/Smeagol from Lord of the Rings and Bart Simpson (not from Lord of the Rings).

Beyond the Office

Erika is an avid (yet somewhat crappy) cyclist in road, downhill mountain biking and track disciplines, focusing always on the “rubber side down” approach. Her favorite place to work is the Tattered Cover Bookstore on Colfax in Denver, because she can’t imagine a greater work day bliss than to be surrounded by the smell of books. Her dogs Hippopotamus and Penelope keep her laughing and her cats Peter and Moto would have written “Die, dogs, die” on the walls in blood about two years ago if they had opposable thumbs. An admitted audiophile, you can find her on Spotify (RedheadWriting) or at a live show someone or another because life’s too short to listen to crappy music.