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.
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