It's not wrath, it's a consumer review. Creative Commons photo of Heather B. Armstrong via danderson/flickr.com
Heather B. Armstrong (alias: dooce at www.dooce.com) is a clever writer. I say this because she’s found a way to make marriage and motherhood interesting to a lot of people who usually still find themselves grossed out at the prospect of giving up martinis for maternity wear. But she leaves no stone unturned in writing about her day-to-day life — from rants about dog puke to tender posts about her daughters, somehow her life as a stay-at-home “mommyblogger” doesn’t seem as mundane as you’d expect. And with over 1 million Twitter followers (@dooce), Armstrong has earned herself one of those snazzy “verified account” tweet badges usually only reserved for celebrities. As you can imagine, she’s a Target/Kodak/family-friendly company’s dream.
But as blogger with a penchant for going too far, Armstrong proved this week that she doesn’t have a problem with going after a large, family-friendly company in a white-hot rage. Yesterday, Dooce’s new Whirlpool washing machine broke down. And because she just happens to be a mother to a newborn with a 1 million-strong fanbase, she tweeted all day long, instructing her followers not to buy from the company:
Eventually, both the Home Depot and Whirlpool got involved, trying to locate Armstrong either online or over the phone. A huge company asking Armstrong to “DM” them with her contact info so they can fix the situation, while comical, still makes you wonder just how much a complaint from someone with so many fans (countless of them being moms in the market for appliances, no doubt) can do to a business, even a huge one.
Was she bullying? No, not really. With 2008 sales clocking in around $19 billion, Whirlpool has an edge on market share in its industry. But can Armstrong impact their business through angry tweets? Maybe. She’s reaching hundreds of thousands of people with potential buying power in 140-characters or less with each tweet. Lots of moms with newborns who read dooce probably don’t have the luxury to buy a new washing machine, but if they did, they’d probably use Armstrong’s 140-character review of the company as a place to start their product search. And Armstrong is in a win-win situation, really; the point of blogging and tweeting is to voice your own opinion, and she’s one of the lucky few out there without any editor or boss to answer to. People read her because they like her, all-caps rants and all. She’s only got to worry about keeping advertisers on her web page (competitors like GE and Kenmore, are you drooling yet)? It’s just one more example of consumers having more of a voice than they did before.
The feud might be ending with Armstrong’s latest tweet:
Whirlpool, try an e-card.
I think you omitted an important point: Heather’s was a BRAND-NEW washing machine that broke down.
you are very right. edited.