Crisis and the Community

The more research I look into on Heather Armstrong and Dooce.com, the more powerful and amazing I see blogging to be as a means of a lifestyle and career. It’s challenging enough to come up with compelling content in order to keep a constant readership engaged, entertained and willing to come back. For so many, that’s where blogging begins and ends and seemingly why other blogs have not taken off the way Dooce has.

When you’re a blogger like Heather Armstrong, your business and entrepreneurship is a totally different ballgame than that of a corporate entity, but many characteristics coincide. Corporations all report to their directors and shareholders who have invested a great deal financially in the success of a brand. For blogging, advertisers invest a great deal of money into the writer knowing and seeing the emotional investment readers take into the content of such a site. 

Rohit Bhargava wrote an interesting chapter on blogging in his book, Personality Not Included. The chapter focuses a lot on how beneficial a blog can be for a brand. Though the Dooce brand is a blog, many of his suggestions and guidelines ring true to Armstrong’s successes. While in all the time I have been reading Dooce, I have never seen any posts directly looking to involve government entities; though Armstrong makes a great effort to keep her blogging on a consistent schedule attempting to post at least something each day.  Should be away from home on a business trip, she makes her readers aware of why the posts will be few and far between and when she is expected back. As a woman who blogs about family, it is little details like this that make her readers feel as though they are a part of a bigger familial circle. She makes her readers feel like an extended family not only related to her but also to each other.

Her blog posts consistently have links to previous posts, sites relating to various topics and pictures that create an intense visual for her platform of each entry. She promotes her content by many times promoting something else – usually linked to sponsorship deals. Overall, Heather Armstrong and Dooce.com do well for themselves reaching and appeasing those who are invested in the site both financially and emotionally.

If previous gushing wasn’t proof enough, my favorite part of the site is the Dooce Community forum. Any questions anyone can think of are usually asked from “what’s going on?” to topics relating to life, death and everything in between. In order to reach out to readers and give them this amazing open space, there are very clear and succinct Community Guidelines all readers and writers must follow in order to keep the forum as genuine and welcoming as possible.

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Armstrong herself and her personal assistant monitor the site, but she also has brought on some of her most loyal readers as moderators to keep reigns on the flow of information shared on the site.  The guidelines make it very black and white to readers that this online space is for entertainment and Internet camaraderie. It has been tried various times to point out that each topic brought up is to be posed as a question and all other topics should be formed as group pages to keep from too many people posting about similar ideas. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and the Community is littered with statements and opinions rather than questions and answers. The moderators have done a phenomenal job lately of keeping this issue at bay. If they can continue this, the Community will only increase in awesome-ness.

These strategies Armstrong has taken on to keep Dooce the success that it is, has not stopped even in times of hardship. For a brand like a blogger, crisis management usually revolves around the life and times of the writer themselves. Heather Armstrong has made her enviable fortune chronicling her life. She has willingly made herself vulnerable to the public in hopes of making sense of her own struggles and being able to reach out to others in need. She wrote a book about the scary, dark times in her life dealing with post-partum depression after the birth of her first daughter, Leta. She was always open about the amount of work she put in to make her marriage work. But the biggest shock of all was when she first announced that she and her husband were separating in January of 2012. 

Heather Armstrong Announces Separation on the Today Show

While it was a personal crisis for her, it became a crisis on many levels for her online life. Many readers wondered and speculated what could have happened and why so little was being said to the readers. A majority of readers respected when the Armstrongs announced officially that they would be divorcing and that no other details would be spoken of publicly. Loyal Dooce fans knew that Heather Armstrong had a history of mental health challenges along the way and worried about the fate of her site – would she stop posting for long periods of time? Would readers ever hear about what happened or what the final straw was that ended everything? What does this mean for the future of their family and the future of the Dooce business – one so centered around the nuclear family unit? Armstrong’s strategy to deal with this crisis was on point. She did not deny or skate around the issue. She addressed it head-on giving out as much detail that was mutually agreed upon between her and her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Much like her time suffering with post-partum depression, Heather Armstrong used Bhargava’s technique during this most recent family crisis to forge relationships with other bloggers and readers creating a communal fellowship to lean on outside of her real-life relationships.

As a blogger, your life is your living. When you’re up, your blog is up. When you’re down, it’s a toss up finding out how the public will respond to your news. In Dooce’s case, her most loyal fans were right beside her just like they would be face-to-face if given the opportunity. Her readership is her community and she has given every emotion possible to keep people invested in wanting more in the day-to-day life of Heather B. Armstrong.

The Six Degrees of Media Relations

A powerful woman who runs her own business is an inspiration. Heather Armstrong has taken Dooce.com and become one of the most popular and revolutionary bloggers in today's world wide web. She has made a living off of being herself and writing about her life. While it would be fantastic to say she has done it single-handedly, it is clear that even the best of entrepreneurs need the help of various media to get their company, its message and overall source of revenue off the ground.

Sonja Jefferson and Sharon Tanton wrote Valuable Content Marketing discussing ideas on how the content from a company, given to the public, initializes conversations, interest and public opinion. It is mentioned in the chapter What is Valuable Content and Why It Wins You Business that what is said and done will resonate deep with consumers. 

For Dooce, her voice is her content. Her blog posts are the bread and butter of her life. Her media relations strategies are different than that of a Fortune 500 corporation or even a traditional company. Media is how she relates to people. In partnership with many of her advertisers that help keep her site financially stable, Armstrong often writes posts on her own family and personal life relating them back to a promotion with said company. She has been the catalyst for many advertisers in giveaways and promotional tools. It has been a win-win for these companies, Dooce.com and the readers all relishing in the talent of her written voice and compelling nature. She has taken to promoting her site through other forms of social media and through television interviews as well. She keeps not only Dooce.com relevant, but keeps Heather Armstrong relevant as a blogger, entrepreneur, woman, mother and overall person.

Dooce.com’s brand speaks to its overall purpose. Heather Armstrong, a simple woman who moved to California in her early adulthood, started a blog to keep her family up to date on the happenings in her life. In the YouTube video above, she states that the name of the blog came about by accident as a typo every time she went to type the word “dude” to her friends through Instant Messenger. She made the mistake of speaking negatively about her company and coworkers on this site and got fired for this very blog. She never dreamed her site would morph into what it has become. Her brand started as a mistake and is a mix of many things and she keeps it that way to further the symbolism of her constantly changing life, most of which usually comes about by accident or chance. 

In a reading by Frank Rose, he suggests the true power of Milgram's theory of six degrees of separation. With the complete connection of links, friends, followers and subscribers online, the separation can often time seem even less than that. At about the 2:50 mark in the video, Heather discusses the power of her site to influence other companies and their treatment of its customers. In an attempt to get her washing machine fixed, she was having little-to-no luck finding a way to get it fixed in a timely manner. After much understandable frustration, she warns the customer service representative of the number of Twitter followers she has and her willingness to speak out against their company. With her six figure number of Twitter followers as well as blog readers, she found the upper-hand against corporate jargon and policies and showed the world that social media and its connection to others on the web makes a difference. (WARNING: The blog entry hyperlinked above is **long** and sprinkled with colorful language - but a very worthy read)

Heather Armstrong partners with advertisers, writes books, publishes her photographs online and even sells photos of her dog in a yearly calendar. She also sits on the Board of many women-centric organizations and keeps herself and blog alive through keeping the Dooce name in people’s minds. She has done a successful job of this as last year she was ranked #26 on the Forbes Most Influential Women in Media list. With a blog as diverse as hers, the target audience is a wide range of readers – both male and female, mother and the childless, emotional sufferers and those who look for a good laugh. She finds new and interesting ways to maintain the readers she has and hopes to bring in new readers. Since the YouTube video was posted last year, her number of Twitter followers has expanded even more.

In the future, it would behoove Heather to chronicle her efforts and stories focusing on her philanthropic efforts. Right now, Heather is in Haiti with the Every Woman Counts organization, of which Heather is a Board Member. Founded by former Calvin Klein model, Christy Turlington Burns, the organization works to end preventable deaths from pregnancy and childbirth. Armstrong has mentioned it on her blog a few times but has never really taken the opportunity to use the power of her blog to help the mission of this organization. Especially with the addition of the Dooce Community open discussion forum, so many other readers can add their two cents and social media power to make this organization even bigger and more successful than it is now. While it is great to enjoy the humor and emotion behind the life of the Armstrong family, there is a missed opportunity to show how much stronger women (and mankind as a whole) can truly be when they rally together to help one another. This can only increase success for the Dooce brand as well.

It is important to see entrepreneurs thrive. All companies started from the bottom before they can become a full success. Heather Armstrong and Dooce.com have seen many ups and downs but have never shied away from making them public. The future is bright for this blog so long as their media relations continue to grow.

The Story IS the Brand

Frank Rose wrote a book called The Art of Immersion discussing storytelling and difference in the medium used to get the story across. He wrote in Chapter Three of the book, “Some people have stories that are too big for the Internet to handle.” Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com uses her site to disprove Rose. If I could put words in anyone’s mouth, I would say that Armstrong would tell Rose that the Internet can watch out, because her story is grand and she’s coming to tell it.

I also came across an excerpt in Rohit Bhargava’s Personality Not Included that discussed how brands could use specific characteristics to make themselves a success. Any brand, that does their work right, pulls a magic trick before a consumer’s eyes enticing people without them ever realizing the tremendous amount of work that goes into making everything look seamless and easy. The most successful of these brands, have the right people who have innate characteristics to make this happen too. Armstrong is just that person for Dooce.com.

Bhargava mentions an interesting concept that is key to a successful brand. The UAT Filter has three features that work together to make a brand stand above its competition -Uniqueness, Authenticity and Talkability. Uniqueness, as we know, is what sets us apart from others. Dooce.com is not just any blog. While many think that their blog is the most interesting place on the web, they take to the Internet to talk about the food they eat, the manicure they got and funny animals they watch on YouTube. Dooce takes her everyday life and attempts to make it fascinating (Personally, she can talk about a sandwich, mix it with her quippy sarcasm and anecdotes about her previously Mormon life, and somehow make a picture of a sandwich the most delicious thing I have ever consumed without ever actually tasting anything). Armstrong has a personality that she brings alive online which is why she is leaps and bounds above so many other bloggers in terms of success and business. She started her blog during a time when this was a relatively new way to communicate. She also started the blog as a way for her family to keep in touch with her and the events of her life. She did not initially start the blog with the intention of it being her full-time job, but because of the way her life unfolded, everything fell into place in a very unique way. She positioned herself because of the twists and turns of her life and found international friendships with readers from all over the globe. Armstrong wants her readers to see her life from the outside in. It keeps her blog entries and overall site the authentic location it has become.

She is a woman all her own and stays authentic to her original message. She never shies away from being herself and remaining an open book about her life and business as a full-time blogger. Readers come to her site to be entertained and get a feel for a woman and family they would otherwise never have known. She creates a credible brand for her life by writing about relatable content. Many mom-readers understand the hardships of raising energetic daughters with opposite personalities. Many former Mormons understand her life raised in a religious setting; and many find humor in her feelings toward her upbringing today. A lot of readers love to hear about the people in her life as well. Her assistant, her kids, niece and nephew, and the friends who share in the process that make Dooce.com happen help all readers see beyond the humor and the emotions behind her blog posts and create an environment that promotes a relationship of connection, friendship and conversation.

dooce.com

One of the top things about Dooce.com that is different from all other blogs is the Dooce Community. The message board is one of the most interesting places on the Internet. No question is ever off-limits and no answer is ever too ridiculous. Many who post on the site have commented on how they ever came across the site in the first place. Before Search Engine Optimization was the monster it has become, finding Dooce.com came from others talking about it. Blogs would link to Dooce; articles would discuss Dooce; Heather was seen in video forums like Momversation or working with TV channels like HGTV. She took her brand and site and made it more than just prose. She made Dooce a roundtable conversation.

Knowing how to use the UAT filter without any cognizant knowledge of it, Dooce has become more than just what it once was. Dooce could take a hard look at itself and make an onliness statement along the lines of Dooce.com is the only site that brings a myriad of everyday experiences and mixes it with open conversation, fun products to buy and the ability to maintain a sense of humor in all situations.

On top of the site content, one of the most fun aesthetic parts of Dooce is her recently updated website look. Instead of entering Dooce.com and seeing mostly text (as you would in most any blog), she condensed her blogs into large-scale thumbnails including pictures and captions to entice readers to read more or allow them to skip over the entry and skim through material they may find more scintillating. She also changes the site’s look monthly with new webpage banners. Every month, she creates a new look at the top of her site to signify a new part of the year. She keeps an archive on her site of past months to see all the fun designs throughout the year. In each banner she includes the Dooce logo which is a funky font with each letter a different size and the logo is large and all over the place. This is very symbolic of Heather Armstrong. She is always open about her life, but never attempts to suggest that she herself has it all together. She seems to credit her success in admitting to being imperfect. She unifies the good and the bad by aligning herself with her writing and showing us her brand is as human as she is as well as her readers. On top of the UAT filter, there are other personality traits that make for a successful brand including soul people and passion. Dooce is most definitely not lacking in any of these areas.

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Heather Armstrong and Dooce.com are sometimes mutually exclusive and often times one in the same. This really encapsulates the site a reader enters upon coming across the blog. You would be leaving a lot on the table by not checking out her site. Her story is her life and it is one to worth getting to know.