Episode Transcript
Move To Tacoma – Jen Rittenhouse
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Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: [00:00:00] This is Channel 2 5 3.
Producer Doug Mackey: Move to Tacoma on this episode of Move to Tacoma.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Like websites are tricky because you can buy a square space site. Yeah. Like you can pay a college kid to code a site for you. Yeah. But the challenge is like what will it do and how will it grow and scale with you and the internet changes.
Right, technology changes, and so keeping up with those changes is really important so you don’t end up with a broken website.
Producer Doug Mackey: Channel 2 5 3 is member supported. I’m producer Doug Mackey, and I hope you’ll show your support by going to channel two five three.com/membership. And join. Thank you. We are back.
Move to Tacoma. Move to Tacoma. Move to Tacoma. You’ll like
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: it.
Producer Doug Mackey: Move to Tacoma. Move to Tacoma. Move to tacoma.com.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Hi, I’m Marguerite. This is Move to Tacoma, and I’m here today with Jen Rittenhouse. Welcome, Jen.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Thank you.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And you are here today because you work at a local company called Site [00:01:00] Crafting.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes. The biggest little tech company in Tacoma.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yeah. And I have, I was just telling you before we came on, like I have a lot of dumb questions about what you all do for work, so thanks for, I’m glad we bumped into each other and decided to put this together because. Uh, I think a lot of people are curious about what’s going on with websites and marketing and small business in Tacoma in general is something that a lot of people ask about.
So I think you’re in the thick of it at kind of a different end of that at the marketing. And so I have, I have lots of questions.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Great.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: But first, before we get into all that, when did you move to Tacoma and why?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: When did I move to Tacoma? I had to really think about this. I, um, moved to Tacoma as an adult in the year 2006.
Mm. Um, and I moved because I was living in Fremont, which is a neighborhood in Seattle. And I fell in love with a man who owned a property in Puyallup. And so, um, I was commuting for work as well as love. And so my best friend and I moved to Broadway, the Red Row Houses [00:02:00] that Share a driveway with Temple Theater.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Oh yeah,
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: yeah. With a great view, Uhhuh. Mm-hmm. Awesome. So, lived there for a year and then moved to, um, north, north in Yakima to, um, the Patricia Apartments where I lived for three years and continued to be in love with the man in Puyallup. Um, but at that time of life, his house was a revolving door of dudes and dogs.
And so I stayed in my, you stayed in Tacoma? I stayed in Tacoma, which was really great. And it was an exciting time to be in Tacoma. It was like the Blackwater days. Yes. Felt like, um, a really special time and place, but then when it was. Time to decide if we were gonna make this thing work together. He won because he owned a property.
So
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: yes,
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: that’s how I ended up in Puyallup.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And you’re in downtown Puyallup or South Hill?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: I’m downtown. So I can see the rollercoaster from my backyard.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes. A
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: fair girly.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes. If there was anyone at the city interested in, in branding that, I would like to say that we are in the Fair District.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: The Fair District.
So in the valley, in the bowl?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yeah.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm. [00:03:00]
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And what do you like about living in downtown Puyallup?
Producer Doug Mackey: I, myself, have lived in downtown
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: ul. Mm-hmm. And, and I will always stand for downtown Puyallup. I really loved it. It’s very walkable. Mm-hmm. There’s like lots of cute little restaurants and shops. What do you like about it?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah, I mean, that’s definitely part of it. I had lived in walkable neighborhoods for almost a decade, and he, our first home was downtown just by luck. That’s what he could buy when he bought. Um, and so when we were looking at places. To go, um, after we outgrew that 990 square foot dwelling that had two great Danes, two cats and a baby.
Oh my gosh. We, um, you know, I, we looked everywhere and, um, I grew up in Five Heights, so I’ve grown up in communities that didn’t have sidewalks. But, um, after having a life that had. Access to, um, so much on foot. I really wanted that, especially thinking ahead to like having teenagers in a time of life that I’m in now, where I’m driving people to soccer practice all the time.
It’s so nice that I can just like step out my front door and I can hit a trail. I can hit a coffee shop, I can find a margarita, I can go to the library. I can, you know, it’s a
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: dream.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. Get a [00:04:00] piercing, go to the thrift shop. Yeah, it does. There’s antiques. Everything that I need is within a mile of my home.
Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Do you go to the famous Puyallup Farmer’s Market on Saturdays?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: We do, yeah. Well,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: what do you do there?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Eat.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Eat. Okay. I’m like, I always, I like, do you buy flowers? Do you buy produce? What do you do with that? Yeah, that’s a big farmer’s market.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: It’s a big one. I think it’s one of the best ones in Pierce County.
It is massive. Mm-hmm. So, um, especially when the girls were littler and we weren’t married to the soccer schedule, we would go down and like, figure out what we were gonna have for lunch and get a snow count and just get out of the house and bop around. So it’s really great. Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Awesome.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Anything else you wanna say, uh, about downtown Puyallup before I. Start asking you nerdy
Producer Doug Mackey: questions about marketing.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: You know, it’s, it’s really great and being part of the fair, we definitely have embraced being part of fair culture. So my kids sell lemonade. Um, we park cars in our driveway.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay. Actually no pause.
We have to talk about this because, alright, so for people who don’t know with the Puyallup Fair, which is the state fair, the larger, they don’t call it the P Fair anymore call. The Washington [00:05:00] State Fair now, right? Mm-hmm. And so people come from all over to this tiny town just to send tens and tens of thousands of people.
It’s like you get all, you quadruple in size Yes. For a month basically, right? Yes. And people, there’s no parking. So people that have houses close to the fair will like let you park on their driveway and their lawns mm-hmm. And charge you cash, right? Like
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So how does that work? What’s the going rate for fair parking these days?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. Well, uh, we live across the street from a church, so we let this church set the going rate, um, and let the
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: professionals.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes, we let them and we learned the first year we weren’t gonna park cars. I was actually quite anti parking cars. Okay. And we were walking downtown to the parade that they have the second Friday where they have a cattle drive downtown.
So cowboys and little baby steers with horns and they like have a parade and they heard the baby steers into. The fair. And it’s like,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: I had no idea they did
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: that. Yes, there’s wagons. It’s very old timey. It’s very cute. Oh my gosh. But in the process, we met somebody who was telling us how much his daughter made selling parking.
So my spouse [00:06:00] immediately went home and constructed a sign with cardboard. And um, that was our first, some first season of fair parking. It’s super fun. So our neighborhood is really quiet. Yeah. Year round. And so I love it because I’m a downtown girl, but you know, not really living in a downtown world, downtown Puyallup.
Mm-hmm. So our neighborhood goes from being super quiet to like. Filled with people, everyone’s happy ’cause they’re coming and going to the fair. And um, our strategy became when the church parking lot fills up, then we park cars. ’cause you could be out there for hours. Yeah. So, um, they fell up. You’re only
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: overflow parking?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes, we’re overflow parking. Got it. And it’s been so nuts downtown, like bumper to bumper that I’ve come home from a soccer game and somebody has. Self parked because they couldn’t find parking. And someone pulled out and they left a note that was like, I parked here. She said, you’re charging $20. Here’s my, and just left cash under the mat.
It gets pretty wild. Oh
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: my gosh.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. It gets wild. But the other fun part is people come by. So, um, if you go to the fair, I hope you’ll park in my yard because I also love that. Is it, it’s a nice transition from summer. It never even
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: occurred to me that I could have VIP parking at the [00:07:00]
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: fair.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Oh yes. Oh wow.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. Okay. And free lemonade. My daughter sell lemonade. Is
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: that invitation open to, uh, the entire city? No. Okay. Sorry,
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: I don’t have enough parking.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yeah, I keep parking at Jen’s house.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes. If you know, you know, um, otherwise, you know. I’ll tell you where to Park. Park at a church across the street.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Awesome. Yeah.
And how long does it take to get from Puyallup to Tacoma? Like you’re commuting to Tacoma for work? Mm-hmm. So what does that actually look like? I assume you come by car.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: I come by car and I come by pioneer. Um, because I think it’s really beautiful. Mm-hmm. And so it’s about you’re driving
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: along the river
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: mm-hmm.
About 20 minutes.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Oh,
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Super doable. Even in the morning it’s 20 minutes.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. Wow.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Mm-hmm. Okay. Good to know.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. Well, I think I probably am not at peak commuting hours.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: So, mm-hmm. That helps.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So if you were peak commuting hours from downtown Puyallup to downtown Tacoma, could be 30?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: It could be,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: yeah.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay. Real talk.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: From the right, from the expert.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: That’s right.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay. Well. We bumped into each other at an event, and you were talking about working at site crafting, and I started, I started to ask some dumb [00:08:00] questions and then I realized, you know what actually, like this would be interesting for the podcast.
And so first of all, like what does site crafting do in my mind? I mean, I’ve always kind of seen them around Tacoma. They, I thought they built websites, but I think they do more than that. They do pr, they do different kinds of marketing strategy. What is the full scope of what they do?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. So it started as websites, and websites was the bread and butter for a really long time.
Mm-hmm. So, site Craftings been around since 1998, so 27 years in business. Um, and websites were the bulk of what they did. And over the years they’ve added, we’ve added, um, additional services to support it. ’cause you have a, if you have a website, then you also need other things, right? Yes. Um, and so we have.
Branding. We do consulting. We have the only user experience research lab in the South, Puget Sound. Awesome. So we do research in person, um, in our office. Um, we do digital strategy, SEO communications, audits and strategy. So we can do it all. Social media strategy. Yeah, we’ve really spent a lot of time, [00:09:00] especially over the last five years, to expand all of those services so that we can provide more than websites.
We do accessibility audits. We’re doing some cool things with AI and chatbots right now. Mm-hmm. All of it.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay. So as a small business person in Tacoma, uh, that has a little podcast and has a little website, and like I, I do everything. Pretty much by myself occasionally. Like there’s a videographer filming this.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And Doug is gonna do the sound, but like I’m bootstrapping.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Sure.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Your clients are not people like me. Your clients are. Bigger. Like who, who are your, the, the bulk of the site crafting clients? I mean, I think of like governments and stuff when I think of site crafting.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. Yeah. That’s part of it.
It’s everything from local nonprofits such as, um, communities for a Healthy Bay, Hilltop artists, so small organizations that make really big impact the Wilkinson Historical District to, um, bigger. Pillars in the community. So the Washington State Fair Event Center, the Puyallup Tribe, MultiCare, uh, Tacoma, hope Utilities, dairy Gold is the client.
And so it really runs the [00:10:00] spectrum of small clients, um, who need websites, small, um, nonprofits to really big enterprise.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay. So if somebody’s listing and they have a small business, you’re not necessarily like there, there could be something that site crafting could do. Mm-hmm. Okay. That’s good to know. I, I hadn’t, I wasn’t sure.
Um, so what are the main things that you’re seeing clients really need right now?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Gosh, it really depends on the client. So for our government agencies, um, our city folks, accessibility is a big one. Right? So making sure that websites are accessibility and meeting the accessibility, um, requirements mm-hmm.
Um, that are coming down from the federal level. That is a big one. Um, for our smaller, um. And for every other organization it’s different. Yeah.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yeah.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: It depends.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: I, I know, like for me, I have like a 10-year-old website mm-hmm. That’s like limping along. Yes. And, you know, the, the guy that runs it is just like, whew, we’re just patching it together now.
Right. And so I know we’re getting to the point where it’s [00:11:00] gonna have to do it. And I, I think there are a lot of people out there that I think are hoping, like. Oh, I’m just gonna be able to speak it into my AI and it’s gonna crank me out. Yes. Like a beautiful website. And what I’m hearing is that that might not be happening anytime soon.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: No, no. And the challenge with that is right, like websites are tricky because you can buy a square space. Site. Yeah. Like you can pay a college kid to code a site for you. Yeah. But the challenge is like, what will it do and how will it grow and scale with you? And the internet changes, right? Technology changes.
And so keeping up with those changes is really important. So you don’t end up with a broken website. Um,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: well, and I used to work with a friend and we would like build, uh, WordPress websites for like friends and like their little businesses mm-hmm. And stuff like that. And the first thing you discover when you try to build a website for somebody is, uh, it’s really not so much about the, they think it is just like, make.
Make the website, but actually like what goes on the website, what is this website for? Mm. Like Move to Tacoma is designed as a resource to attract people who are moving to Tacoma and looking for a real estate agent. And hopefully if I [00:12:00] do a good job with the website, they will fill out my contact form and ask me to introduce them to a realtor and then I can pay for Doug and Matt and make interesting podcasts and like, that’s my whole scheme.
Mm-hmm. Right. When I built a website, I didn’t know that that was gonna require 50 neighborhood pages, all of which need like an essay written on each one. Right. Are do you run, I’m sorry, I’m talking a lot, but like, do you, do you run into this a lot with clients where they, they don’t realize how much work it is for them to build the website?
Like, ’cause they have to get you a lot of information, right?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes, yes. And it really runs a spectrum of experience. Like what do people know? Have they been on web projects before? Have they managed a website before? Right. And so, um. Uh, you just don’t know. You don’t know what you don’t know. And so a lot of times it’s education or education after the fact.
We do have a team in house that we have copywriters. We have people who can transfer content and do all of that uploading. So that is also a service we provide. Um, but yeah, a lot of times we’ll get partway through a project and then turn it over to a client. ’cause [00:13:00] you have all the, you have everything in your head and so it still is work for you.
Um. Yeah. Could be a tremendous amount of work.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Well, and I, I guess I’m just back to like wondering what people with more money than me do, because mm-hmm. For me, it’s like, yeah, I guess I’m just gonna sit here. Mm-hmm. At my, now there is a beautiful empty shell that it’s my job to like, type and fill in, right?
Mm-hmm. But of somebody that has the resources, like a government or a non-profit or, or you know, that they’re gonna basically hire you all and you’re gonna interview them.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Right? And okay, here’s a PDF, but that you gave me, but now I have questions. We need to adjust this. So it’s. Web, SEO appropriate.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yep. Yep. And we also do content audit. So maybe you have content on your website that doesn’t need to move over because nobody’s engaging with it, or you forgot about it. Right. Right. Some of these clients that have had big websites that they’ve Frankenstein together forever or just put things on and then forgotten about.
Yeah. Yeah.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay. Well, I think this is a good time to take a break, but when we come back we should probably talk about a co a little bit. Okay. Like, I would love to talk about that. Okay.
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Producer Doug Mackey: I’m Doug Mackey.
Erik Hanberg | Cofounder of Channel 253: And Doug Mackey asked to [00:14:00] keep this short. So here it is, $4 a month, $40 a year.
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Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Move to Tacoma. Alright, we are back with Jen Rittenhouse, who is here on behalf of her company Site Crafting. Welcome back, Jen.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Thank you.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So you’ve said a phrase a few times that I know some people know a lot about, a little bit about, and some people have never heard before, and that is SEO.
What does that mean?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: SEO is search engine optimization.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And I think anybody that doesn’t know what that means and then opens literally any kind of business, uh, finds out really quickly what it means. It’s basically how the internet finds you, how Google finds you, and how well you rank for search terms that people looking for your.
Uh, would find. So, uh, for me, obviously I want people who, if they type in moving to Tacoma or Tacoma Real estate [00:15:00] agent or Tacoma Neighborhoods, I hope that in their Googling they come across content, blog posts, different things that I’ve written or put out there. And that’s, uh, actually my entire business model, uh, is built on SEO.
Is that like, how do you see your clients using SEO.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: That, that’s the same way, right? Same way. Mm-hmm. Exact same way.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So if you have a restaurant, you wanna rank for Italian food, Tacoma or Thai food Tacoma or romantic restaurants, Tacoma. Right. Like you’re, you’re creating content hoping that Google will find you and place you somewhere at the top of their algorithm.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And this is an ongoing battle because there are a lot of. Businesses and websites that are completely designed to intercept that process and divert you. And they’ll, they’ll be sponsored posts, but also like sort of strategic content that’s designed to derail you from finding what you’re actually looking for.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes, and now it’s getting more complicated because something new has entered the chat called AI eo, which is. To make sure that AI can find you. So I don’t know if you’ve [00:16:00] noticed this. Yeah. But when you Google something, sometimes Google will just give you all the answers on the search page or give you a first round of answers.
And so for clients, or for people who have a business where clicking on your website is important because you need to book an appointment mm-hmm. Or request an estimate, um, Google might tell you everything you need to know and then you’re missing that click.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Right. And also like. Just like with anything, these a ai, the large language models, they’re pulling from a lot of sources that used to be the page one sources, and then they’re like.
And like putting it at the top. So one experience that I’ve had with this recently is, uh, I’m going to not exactly say where I live, but like I live in a building downtown that is like a known building and I’ve blogged about the building a lot over the years. Like I’ve been blogging about Tacoma stuff for like 15 years and on an old blog I don’t really write on anymore.
I had written an article about this building and I had put some inaccurate information in the blog post. I was young, I didn’t know I the ceiling height. I misestimated the ceiling height. And so when I moved into the building, I was like, [00:17:00] how high are these ceilings? Because I’m actually not very good at judging ceiling height, who is, who is?
So I Googled it, I’m like, are they 12? Are they 16? I don’t know. And so I Googled it and it, and the, the summary said, um, they’re either 12 or 16. And I was like, what is the source for that? And so I clicked and all the, everything on the internet was 12 except for one blog post I’d written 13, 14 years ago that said 16.
That I’d literally pulled that. I don’t know why I, I should have measured anyway.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Whoa.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: I’m like, why? Yeah. And also I, and it just really, I, I, I know that’s kind of a weird story, but I think it illustrates that a lot of this. The content sources, they’re not really vetted. And so when you get those, those little short answers, I mean, I hope for things like, ’cause I love those short answers when I’m Googling like a recipe or how hot I need to put the oven on to cook sweet potatoes.
Mm-hmm. Like, I don’t wanna read a whole blog post to get that information, but if I could just get a quick answer, yes, that’s great. Or conversion, but for something that you’re actually wanting to make sure is [00:18:00] true, like going to the source is really important.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And one of the things I’ve been to some classes recently about SEO where they’re telling us things like, oh yeah, just like, you know, put the, you’re, you’re basically, you’re creating content now for the AI to crawl your site.
And what that means is like the quality of the information is getting really low. ’cause it’s basically like SEO writers are actually creating all the content. It’s not actually local. Experts anymore.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So like, what does this mean for like the quality of information and expertise? This is actually not what I told you I was gonna ask you about, and maybe you’re like, I don’t know, girl,
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: what does it mean?
That is a big question. Um, I don’t know. I don’t know.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: I mean, I mean, I think for Tacoma in particular, all these people that have a lot of, I think about someone like the historian Michael Sullivan has created a ton of content that is now being g. Snatched up by ais, but how do we, as we’re consuming this content, know if it’s real or [00:19:00] not?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: I dunno.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: We don’t know. We dunno. We don’t know. So like that’s important to know when you’re Googling or asking Chad GPT.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Oh, for sure. Oh, for sure. And I think that’s also why being. The source of truth is so important. So sharing information that is accurate, um, because I think, you know, just as I think it was maybe.
Six or seven years ago, I was shocked to hear that in high school my niece was taking a, uh, social media literacy class because that’s something that we need to teach children to be literate about. Right. We,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: we need to teach adults to be literate.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Well, yes, yes. Everyone, it
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: should be mandatory to renew your internet license.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Absolutely. Um, and so I think that, you know, as the general public becomes more aware that ai, that you can’t always trust what you see, um, going to the source, being that source of truth, having that relationship with whoever you’re trying to reach, right? Your target audience is important. Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So do you have any [00:20:00] recommendations for small business owners who are trying to figure out how to get the word out about what they’re doing?
Like what, have you seen small businesses, I know you work with different kinds of nonprofits and organizations. How are they getting the good, accurate word out about what they’re doing? Like what are the methods? I mean, I think, okay, I have a podcast and I have a blog, but what else is there?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah, I think it depends.
Newsletters, I mean, email newsletters are not dead. Mm-hmm. Um, I. And I think, again, I was, my advice for somebody who, ’cause there’s so many things you can do. Mm-hmm. You could do it all is pick one thing and do it well. And from there you’ll figure out what it is. So if it’s an email newsletter, that’s great.
Hone that, find your voice, find your audience, figure out how it’s working for you, and then you can translate that to another channel and then like dabble over on Instagram. But like mm-hmm. Having a clear understanding. And I think it’s really hard when you wanna do all the things right, because that’s.
You’re doing it all by yourself. You’re like a one woman show. And so
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Well, and if you own a business, there’s people calling you all the time wanting you to sell. Oh, you better be on Instagram. Oh, I know. You better be on Google My Business. You better be here. You better be [00:21:00] there. And I, I really appreciate what you’re saying.
Mm-hmm. Because like, everything works if you work it consistently, right?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes, yes. And you know, sometimes it’s, there’s. The timing is everything too, right? So a few years ago in another life, social media was a bigger part of my world and I was talking to somebody who was opening a gym and had somebody picked up the phone and bought a bunch of, um.
Ads. It was like, that’s too soon. Like you need to open up your gym. Like you need to iron out all of those kinks first. Mm-hmm. Figure that out and then figure out who’s coming to your gym. Right. You have an idea of who it might be, but like figure out who it is. Like don’t just run out the gate saying, now open with all of these ads all over social media.
Like,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: because it’s much easier to make content for a narrower group of peoples. Much easier to convert those folks into customers if they know what you’re doing is for them,
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: right? Yes. Yes. And I think the knee jerk is to cast a really wide net and big organizations do this too. Mm-hmm. I just, if I may share.[00:22:00]
Yeah. My goal is to not get canceled on your podcast.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Oh, me, me too. Every episode I worry about it. Oh my God.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: But big organizations just, you just cast the widest net and whatever you get, you get, right? Mm-hmm. And so I recently received an end of a year appeals letter, um, from a hospital foundation. Mm-hmm.
Um, dressed to my house, to my dad. The only reason these. The hospital foundation knows my dad exists is because my dad is in memory care. He has dementia. Mm-hmm. Um, also in Puyallup, he’s less than a mile from my home. Mm-hmm. Um, but he had been in the emergency room twice because he had a fall. And so somebody somewhere is just.
Print letters or print envelopes with addresses on them. Yeah. And um, I think it’s easy to want to do that, to just reach the masses and then we’ll surely we’ll get some results if we just like pull all the letters. Are they called
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: spray and pray? Something like that?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So what is the alternative? And I’m thinking for like [00:23:00] smaller businesses than like large, you know, conglomerate nonprofits or large large businesses or governments.
But if you’re, if you’re talking to that gym owner, they’ve just opened, or I, I think there’s so many small businesses in Tacoma that just have not solved this puzzle of where do clients come from.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: What, what do you recommend? How do you go about that process of picking who I’m speaking to and then speaking to them?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, over time, spending time with them if you’re a gym owner who’s coming in the door, right? Mm. And if you’re in. There’s all these like, really these, these little universes, right? Mm-hmm. And so if you’re in that world, you’re gonna figure it out pretty quickly,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: right? ’cause I think about all my friends that go to gyms and they all love their gym.
Yeah. And they want you to go to their gym. And sometimes I’m like, oh yeah, that gym looks good. And sometimes I’m like, absolutely not. Mm-hmm. Because I’ve got, like, I’ve got my friends that go to like the hardcore weight lifting women’s gym. And then I go to the, the friends that go to the like, like aerobic kind of women’s gym.
Mm-hmm. And then there’s like the bro kind of gym, and then there’s like the family gym. Mm-hmm. And like none of them are saying we are this. Thing. Mm-hmm. But they [00:24:00] just kind of end up that way, right? Mm-hmm. Like attractive to different groups of people, services that those folks want.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. And if you focus on the core of who is there, right?
Like who they are, why they’re there, what about your ethos connects with them. Mm. It will still have that broader impact that the spray and prey does, right? Mm-hmm. But it’s just gonna happen more organically and more meaningfully, so you’ll have less people who are cycling through. Mm. Um, I go to. Studio in Puyallup that I love and it’s interesting ’cause they are also different.
Um, and um, I think that, you know. It’s been interesting to watch their marketing efforts because sometimes there’s like a first time special or like first class waived and yeah, it’s interesting to see the percentage and I actually should ask the gym owner, like what percentage of people actually stay, right?
Because it’s such a specific thing and commitment. Mm-hmm. Um, so I think, I think it’s great. Like you have to do those loss leaders, right? Get people in the door. But yeah. I’m curious, I guess I’m asking a question now.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yeah, questions lead to more questions. [00:25:00] Well, what else do you wanna make sure that people know as far as from, from business owners to, I, I had a question for you that I wanted to ask, which is, what is an RFP?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Ah, an R?
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay. So I know that when you’re an organization mm-hmm. That services governments, I think it’s just governments, right? Government agencies or cities. There’s like a whole process for becoming the person that does that website. And I know like a lot of folks will like complain and be like, when a new government website, first of all, whenever anything comes out, like we never like the brand, we never like the new web.
Like everybody always. There’s always a little bit of complaining, right? Mm-hmm. But it’s also like, who made this? Where are they from? How did they get this job? $60,000 for a website, my God, right? Mm-hmm. Like, so, like what is that process like so that it’s transparent and how do you get those deals? I’m, I’m sorry, I’m just very curious about this one.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes. And RPS are the, are, um. Are hairy, they’re not fun. Um, but that’s what you have to do when you work with government agencies. Yeah. So it’s a request. It’s a request for proposal. Okay. Um, or a bid [00:26:00] submission. And so state agencies have to put things out to bid over a certain limit for all of the things.
Right. Like construction as well. Mm-hmm. Not just, um. Digital services. Mm-hmm. So, um, there are list serves that, that we, um, that you can sign up for so that you get these notices that fall within whatever industry you’re in. Mm-hmm. So if there’s an RFP for something coming for, um, you know, the city of Tacoma, then that will come through that way.
Mm-hmm. And then they’re very, um. And then it, then it becomes public record. So,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: so everyone, so your, your, your proposal is a public record?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Oh, that’s so interesting because then of course if somebody has like a wait, they can go back and see all the proposals that the city got and then they can.
Understand, hopefully why they chose one over another. Right. And do they always choose the cheapest one?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Oh gosh, that’s so hard to say. Um, I actually, I have a pod, or not a podcast. I have a blog that I’m sitting on, um, that is titled like What State and local agencies Get Wrong When They Go Out of State because that [00:27:00] happens a lot.
Oh.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Because they don’t have to stay with companies in Washington state. Mm-hmm. Oh, that’s so interesting. Yeah.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. I mean, they do, like City of Tacoma is a client and they went with a Tacoma agency, which makes sense, right?
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yeah.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Um, especially if we all want to live in a community and stay employed, all of our employees are here.
Um, I think there’s great benefit too, but we’ve lost state contracts that have gone out of state, and that always stinks.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yeah, that makes sense.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm. But often it’s for price, right? Right. So if you’re looking for websites, there’s a lot of people in town who will say they do websites and they may have a developer on their website who is a contractor, or they have no devs on staff and they’re contracting it all out.
Right. Which is really dangerous and scary, um, because things can go sideways. Um, there’s massive security implications if the technology gets updated. So the bulk of our staff, our development, um, and that’s like front end backend qa, all of it. Mm-hmm. Um. So
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: well, and when your site goes down, uh, you wanna be able to reach someone as cool and they do go down.
It happens Yes. For various reasons.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes. Things break. [00:28:00] Things break and um,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: and usually when you’re on vacation and usually late at night
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: mm-hmm. It’s never the right time.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: It’s never the right time.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you wanna pick up the phone and call somebody. So yeah, all day long in my office I hear, hi, this is Mark.
Hi, this is Mark. Because, and even, or you just might have a question like, yeah, I upload. You know, websites are also wonky, and so code gets copied even if you don’t think it did, and then something doesn’t look right on the front end. Yeah. So, um, having somebody to call and fix it for you is everything.
Okay.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Well, I have one more question about the social medias, ’cause I know that’s really your, your background. Mm-hmm. Like how are things different these days online? Like especially when it comes, I know how it works for me as a sole proprietor that gets to like, make all the decisions about my brand, all the decisions about what I say and don’t say on the internet.
But I think for organizations, and I’m sure for governments, like things are fraught. Like people, some people are kind of riding close to the edge, but a lot of people I think are are, are playing it very safe. Mm-hmm.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: What
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: do you. Seeing and what are you telling people?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Oh gosh. Um, I’m telling people pick one thing and do it really well.
Because even with social media [00:29:00] content, it’s similar to creating website content. It takes a tremendous amount of time.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So much time.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. And it takes the same amount of time to make bad content as it does good content. So say more about that. I mean, if, is that so
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: okay?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: I think it is. I think it is. And I think it’s something that happens when you become, um, married to that grind of like, gotta post something.
Gotta post something. So my advice is pick one thing and do it well. And then if you don’t have anything to say or any way to add meaningful meaning to your audience, don’t do it. Mm-hmm. Like, it’s okay. Take a day off. It’s okay to go a week without posting.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Well, but that is, that is 2026 Wisdom, Jen, because I think for a long time people were saying like, you have to be hitting the algorithm.
You had to be posting three, you know, three times a day or at least every day. You gotta be cons. Consistency will be rewarded by that algorithm. And I think in the age of AI and like mass content protection and AI SLAP and all the other stuff that you’re competing with. Deep does seem to be working better than like frequent.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes. Less is more. Oh my gosh. I remember in the early days of social media when I’d explain PE social media to people, you maybe remember [00:30:00] these diagrams where it was like, Twitter is for, this is what I’m eating right now. Facebook is for what? This is what I ate yesterday. Instagram is. For this is my pretty plate.
And then LinkedIn is simpler
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: times.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Simpler times. Oh my gosh. I remember taking one piece of content and then like, okay, I need to write it this way for Twitter, this way, for this, this way, for this. Boom. Um, but it’s different. And then I also think paying attention to where people are moving. Like I never thought I would say these words, but in a sales meeting the other day, I said, LinkedIn is having a moment.
Y’all like, if you’re on LinkedIn, update your profiles. I two
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: have been humbled.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Start, yeah. Start posting and posting time off. Yes. Yes, I see you on LinkedIn.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Well, ’cause yeah, you know why? Because I wasn’t on LinkedIn and a client reached out and I was like, oh. My clients are here.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: People wanna buy houses and they initiate that conversation on LinkedIn.
I didn’t know. And now that I know, hello, I’m here as well.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. So don’t discount it. And also, you know, you have to be flexible and go where the people are and move with the trends. And, um, just keep, I think, keep an open mind. Anything is [00:31:00] possible in 2026.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: But I think that’s very interesting in combination with what you said.
You know, back to our hypothetical gym owner, like it’s so much easier to create social media content if you know who you’re making it for. Mm-hmm. It’s so much easier to decide, Ooh, is this too edgy? Am I doing the most? If you know the person that you want to respond to it, you know what they’re.
Barometer for that is like, obviously I talk about politics a lot on my podcasts and on the social media, and I have a very progressive, from my perspective, a progressive angle on that for a realtor and, um, that would get another realtor in trouble if they’re trying to placate clients that are maybe more conservative.
Right. And do you think that this is something that’s coming up with brands as well on every platform? Like, does this, does this become easier or less easy when you. Pick an ideal client or you have a clear idea of who you’re creating content for.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: I think it’s easier. I think the distraction is the danger, right?
When you start to think about, there might be other people or, but what about this? What about this? What if? What if? Like just pick something and do it and move forward. [00:32:00] Learn from it. Make mistakes. It’s gonna happen, or get it right. Also give yourself the chance to get it right.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Well, and I think the thing that people maybe don’t consider when they think about finding success online with their marketing, like getting lots of followers mm-hmm.
Or getting lots of views, is then you are visible to a larger group of people and people have something to say about it.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And it’s not always something nice. Right. So I know as a, as a person, like when people have negative comments, I’m always like, oh, here we go. Or like, sometimes it hurts my feelings, but how do organizations deal with negative comments?
Is everybody just deleting and blocking or is there interaction and what do you tell people?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: I think it depends on the organization. And so for organizations that are like more structured and regulated, like, um. Government agencies, right? Right. They already have protocols in place for service recovery and so whatever’s happening, brand or mar in the brand way of brand and marketing needs to be reflective of that.
Mm-hmm. So, um, equipping people with like, what do, what do people say when they call in their, to complain about their bill? So now that they’re sending messages via Facebook, you need [00:33:00] to be saying the same thing. So making sure that everything is synced. Oh, that’s
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: such a good point.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. Yeah. Everything is synced and it’s been, um.
Yeah. And that’s an evolution too, right? Um, people are more likely, I think, probably to hit social media is so accessible, so, right. Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Is there any like pro tip for that you have for people who are kind of like creating content for their, like their little nonprofit or their community group or whatever and you know.
Trying to figure out how to handle, like when it, when it gets busy and when a lot of people see it and the reactions. Do you have any advice for people in that position?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Reactions in what way?
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Like negative reactions or like going viral, for example. Mm-hmm. Like that’s, that does happen sometimes, even in a city that’s, you know, of 200,000 people like viral here.
I think a hundred thousand, 200,000 views. That’s everybody, you know?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Like what, what, what is your advice for people that are maybe experiencing that for the first time?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Hmm. That’s a good question. I’m trying to think about the first time I experienced something viral. The thing about it was always funny when people would ask for.[00:34:00]
Viral content. And I worked in healthcare because I’m like, viruses are the enemy, right? And like in the post COVID era, I’m like, why are we still wanting things to be viral?
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And as if you could ever predict it, like you can’t. The video I worked on for three freaking days gets 300 views and then I make some random snarky, whatever, and suddenly 200,000 views later.
And I’m like, no, that was not the one.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: That was not the one. But the people decide. So
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: the people decide. That
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: you don’t have to respond, I think is part of it, right? Like I feel because it’s happening all the time and we’re in our phones all the time, watching it happen, you don’t have to respond to it. It will time will move forward.
There will become something else. People will engage with something else. And if it’s not something that matters to you, you don’t have to do anything about it.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Oh my gosh.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. And oftentimes it will be, I think my advice would be like, uh, it’s not as meaningful as you think it is. So for every time that I’ve had something viral happen, it never moved the needle for business.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: So it’s not as meaningful as you think it is to have something go viral. Mm-hmm. As far as like, it’s not gonna make you a zillion dollars. Mm-hmm. Whatever your business is.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: But also, it’s not as meaningful. [00:35:00] What I heard when you said that was like, maybe don’t worry about it so much. Like even, even something going viral that isn’t super positive, like maybe don’t worry about it so much.
Mm-hmm. Yes. Potentially true as well.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes. Because you’re at the center of your universe, but you’re not the center of everyone else’s universe.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Truer words have never been spoken.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah. And so time will move forward and the Internet’s memory is short and it’s getting shorter all the time. Mm. So we’re also, we do right now, you know, and people are consuming so much content.
Yeah. So much content. And that’s not gonna change. Um. And so even when we work with, right now, we’re doing some communications, um, strategy consulting for the Pierce County Library System.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Oh.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: And um, part of that is thinking about how people are consuming content within organizations because it’s not like, I don’t know, do you remember the days where we would just log on and like sneak Facebook during work?
Like now you have your phone, you can scroll everything, you can text people, you can, like, it’s just. So commonplace to be in a million places at once. And so if you’re an organiz organization trying to like, [00:36:00] communicate with your, um, employees, thinking about like streamlining that, like you have to think about the cultural landscape that we’re living in or that your, your, your audience is living in and how to reach them.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: That’s a really good point.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Well, Jen, this has been such a wide ranging conversation. Thank you for being game to answer all of my weird questions about websites and marketing in Tacoma. Um, is there anything that I haven’t asked about that you wanna make sure to like, share? Gosh, as it relates to site crafting or Puyallup?
Um.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Well let me
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: or Tacoma, or SEO or Life
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: or Tacoma, I do love Tacoma. Tacoma is my community. Um, I ended up in Puyallup because I didn’t own property. So I think that’s my advice to anybody who wants to have some leverage in where they live. Um, but I found with Puyallup community is where you make it. And so if you ever wanna have a Puyallup Politics podcast, um, I would be down for that.
Um, because that has been something that, um, yeah, rabblerousing at City Hall is also one of my favorite pastimes.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yes. And you did run for. Office at one time. Did you? No. You didn’t?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: No. I’ve worked for a few campaigns.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Mm-hmm. Oh, you’ve [00:37:00] worked for campaigns, okay. Mm-hmm. So you’ve, you’ve seen kind of, you’ve seen behind the curtain.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: I’ve seen behind the curtain. I know things.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Okay, so hot take first reaction. Should people be running for office right now in this climate? Like, is it worth it?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yes, I think it’s worth it. We need to do it. We just had, um, a, we almost flipped two districts this last election. Um, Puyallup is historically conservative.
It’s not a surprise to anybody when I say that, it was a surprise to me when COVID happened and I went from like feeling like my life was in Tacoma and I was just sleeping in Puyallup to living there. I was horrified. And that’s really what, um, prompted me to become active, uh, is I just couldn’t believe it.
But I think yes, it matters. All of the things that are happening at a big national level are happening in your own backyard. So even through this last election season, I was like, get off Facebook. Like stop being mad about what’s happening at the federal level and go vote or get out the vote for downtown Puyallup because all of that is happening here.
I mean, we have a, uh, we have a [00:38:00] city council person who. Believes that the Biden election was, was fraudulent, right? He also doesn’t understand salmon spawning in the river and posted a video of like, it’s sad that all these salmon are dead. And it’s like, no, am I allowed to cuss?
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Yeah,
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: no, you dumb. Fuck. Like it’s a fish hatchery.
That’s where they’re supposed to, like, they come back, they were born here and they come back to die. Okay. That’s the cycle of life. And so we have stuff, they just, um, our comprehensive plan, um, our mayor and two other city council members erased all of the equity, inclusion language, diversity, equity, inclusion language, and, um, rewrote the history of.
The city’s relationship with the Puyallup tribe. So it’s all happening here and it’s horrifying. So yes, people need to run for election,
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: right? Get
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: it all. Yes, people need to get the vote out.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: And what does it look like for progressive folks in Puyallup? Like how are you organizing and how are you connecting?
Mm-hmm. Because I think it’s easy to just focus on that and be like. Oh, like I have, you know, family in Dallas and they just go, well, we live in Texas and I don’t, I don’t know that that’s the end of the story, right? [00:39:00] Mm-hmm. You don’t just say, oh, I live in Puyallup.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah, no. Nope. I think we’re finding each other and often what brings us together is something like the comp plan.
So that where that I think, um, there were more than. 70 people that showed up for council that night to speak. I mean, it’s too late by then, but, um, and so people are joining commissions, they’re volunteering to waive signs. That’s how we’re meeting each other. Right. Um, and then just, you know, staying connected, oddly, never thought I would say this ever again.
Facebook has been relevant for me again in that way because a lot of people, um, are using that as a network for staying in touch or, you know, we wave signs together. Let’s stay connected and then we’ll see what you’re doing. Private Facebook groups? Yep.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Mm-hmm. Okay. Got it.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Yeah.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Well, that’s great. All right, well we got another hot take there right at the end.
Thank you, Jen.
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Anytime.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Thanks for coming on the podcast. Mm-hmm. And telling us all about side crafting Puyallup, SEO, social media. What else did we talk about? Spawning?
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Parking.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Parking
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: fair. Parking.
Marguerite Martin | Move to Tacoma Podcast Host: Fair parking. Such an education. Thanks for coming on. Yeah. [00:40:00]
Jen Rittenhouse | Director of Brand & Marketing at Sitecrafting: Thank you.
Producer Doug Mackey: If you like this podcast, check out, move to tacoma.com. Move to tacoma.com is a neighborhood guide, blog and podcast to help people in Tacoma Pierce County and beyond find their place in the city of destiny. More information at Move to Tacoma. Dot com. Move to Tacoma as part of the Channel 2 5 3 Podcast network.
Check out these other shows. Nerd Farmer, interchangeable White Ladies, citizen Tacoma Crossing Division, grit and Grain. What Say You and Kitchen? 2, 5 3. This is Channel 2 5 3.