What Can Happen If a Blog Post Goes Viral?.... ...... .. ... ... a few words from someone who's been there

     

How Do I Define a Viral Blog Post?

      Some of you may be thinking that I've really gotten off on a far off tangent with my series of posts about blogger respect and blog statistics.  This series started with the premise that we as bloggers rarely get much attention or respect from those outside our blogging communities.  In order to reach a broader audience and expand our brand recognition we should think about content that will appeal to those readers who do not blog or are not within the limited scope of our usual blogging community.

      One suggestion of how this can be achieved is by having a blog post go viral.  By viral I mean a post which is boosted by media acknowledgement--television, radio, and print media.  This is additionally supplemented by attention from news web sites and other blogs.  In other words the blog post is the water cooler topic that people all over are talking about and the post becomes a springboard for other conversations on the same topic.  The source material gets exposure to a very large audience and the blogger gains some degree of fame and name recognition. 

A Voice of Experience

       Thousands of comments?  Millions of hits?  Media buzz?   Would you want it to happen to you?  Would it make a difference to you as a blogger, an author, or purveyor of a product or whatever you are trying to market?   Today we have someone who experienced the viral blog post. 

        Liza Long, whom I mentioned on my Are You Respected as a Blogger? post, came into the public spotlight last December in the aftermath of the tragic Newtown school shooting after she published her blog post Thinking the Unthinkable (I Am Adam Lanza's Mom).  I first heard about the post on the radio, then they were talking about it on television and writing about it in the print media.  The story was plastered all over the web.  Liza Long had attained a sort of celebrity status as a result of her blog post.

NBC News
Liza Long, the Idaho mom who wrote a compelling essay about her concerns regarding her mentally ill son in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, has signed a book deal to write about raising her son and navigating the mental health-care system

         If you do a web search for Liza Long you'll find a lot of information about the blog post and the ensuing buzz that followed.  You'll also find several mentions of things she's had going on over the course of 2013--interviews, events, and her upcoming book.   Book?   Yes, a book.

According to the Today Books website:

Liza Long, who wrote the essay “I am Adam Lanza’s mother,” is writing a book titled, “I Am Michael’s Mother,’’ a spokesperson for publisher Hudson Street Press confirmed to TODAY.com...  The book will be about the poor state of the mental health-care system and Long’s struggles with it while raising a bright but mentally ill child as a single mother.

 Let's Meet Liza Long 

       After I started my series about blog numbers and viral blog posts, I decided to contact Ms. Long to see if she could tell us about her experience with a viral post and how that post affected her.  She graciously offered to answer a few questions and I think you may find her answers enlightening.

What positive things have happened as a result of your “viral essay”?

1. I feel that I was partly responsible for starting a vital national conversation about mental illness, and that this conversation can benefit millions of families and children. After my TedX San Antonio speech about stigma last weekend, one person commented, "I could actually feel the world shift as you spoke."

2. A medical expert contacted me and correctly diagnosed my son. We have had no violent episodes at all since he started a new treatment regimen last May.

3. My son and I jointly accepted a Federation of Families award for family advocacy--we're pretty proud of it!

What were the biggest negatives?

My family learned about stigma firsthand, in a terrible way. What happened to us was so bad that I actually don't talk about it, for fear of discouraging other families from sharing their stories and getting help.

I'm also saddened by the ongoing Mommy Wars that my essay reignited. Several journalists, all female, contacted me with threats to expose me as a phony. My story is incredibly fact-checkable (and has been checked by all major news outlets). But I overcame the initial desire to defend myself in the blogosphere and just focused on my message: stop stigma. It really wasn't easy. But in hindsight, I know it was the right thing to do. The message is what matters.

 Did you see any notable sales uptick in your already published books after the appearance of your "viral post"?

 I'm embarrassed to admit this but I have no idea. Little White Dress was done through Mill Park Publishing--interesting story there because it started with an Anarchist Soccer Mom blog post in 2011 about thrift store wedding dresses. Elaine Ambrose (Mill Park owner) and I put together a Here Comes the Book Event (basically, a Tupperware party for book writing). We invited 25 authors to participate and produced the content in three hours. I drew the cover on my iPad and did the book design myself (I have some graphic design experience). We donated a portion of the proceeds to Dress for Success, an organization that helps women prepare for the workforce. Elaine and I have plans to follow up with Little Black Dress when we have time. (We had previously collaborated on a fun little book of naughty, flirty poems called Daily Erotica: 366 Poems of Passion in 2009).

My other book, Business Professionalism, was essentially a ghostwriting project for Bruce Strom, my former faculty advisor. Bruce was so pleased with the book that he gave me cover author credit.

Do you plan to continue posting at Anarchist Soccer Mom?

Of course. But I'm a lazy blogger, and I miss the anonymity. Thinking of starting a new anonymous blog and calling it "The Conformist Football Dad."

When will your book “I am Michael’s Mother” be released?

Book title is The Price of Silence: How the Stigma of Mental Illness Steals our Children's Futures (though I assume they will change it). Hudson Street Press [part of the Penguin Group], September 2014. Note: it is NOT a memoir. I'm not that interesting :). The book enabled me to use my skills as a medical writer and my strong background in education to explore the challenges parents face in navigating institutions that are unfriendly at best and antagonistic at worst toward children with mental disorders. 

I will tell you that the popular wisdom (that your blog is an audition for book publishers) is entirely true. My advice to bloggers would be to focus on writing meaningful content and to write it well.

Do you feel that your viral essay helped or hindered you as a writer?   Did the event create more respect for you as writer/blogger from the media and the public?

Hmm. Here's the thing. I'm very confident in my writing, because I have worked hard at it my entire life. I just wrote an 80,000 word book for Penguin in eight weeks. I've published two books previously and write for local magazines. So my viral essay had no effect on "me as a writer." I still write. A lot. The viral essay had a lot more effect on me as a nascent advocate. I honestly cannot believe the extent to which I have found my voice!

As for the second part of your question, I blogged anonymously, and my audience was not the world, or the media, or the public. My audience was me. I started the blog in 2008 because I'm a single mother of four children whose options for "fun" were fairly limited. I was not looking for respect from the media and the public. I did not expect what happened to happen. I guess people have said I'm a good writer, and that's nice, but again, it's not why I write. People have also said I was brave, but I wasn't. I was helpless and vulnerable, and I shared that vulnerability with the world. I've had to learn to be brave since.

I cannot tell you how to make your blog go viral. But I can tell you this: Tell your truth. Tell it well. And accept the consequences.

     Thank you Liza Long for this helpful information.  We wish you great success with The Price of Silence.  

      Be sure to visit Liza at her blog The Anarchist Soccer Mom for more information about the topic discussed in the above interview.  Liza will be discussing a bit more about viral blogging and in what other ways her viral blog post had an affect on her.  She also provides tips on dealing with the media. You can also find out more information about the other books mentioned in this interview that Liza has previously been involved in publishing by going to her entry at Goodreads where you can find the purchase links.

To read my "Respect" series start with Do You Feel Respected as a Blogger? and then continue with the successive posts.  Your comments are still appreciated on any of those posts.

Please be sure to share today's post with others!

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