New Influencers = Active Bloggers

Being a first-time blogger, I don’t quite yet understand the ins and outs of blogging and what blogging has to offer. That’s why I am thankful for my textbook, The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media by Paul Gillin. Chapter One of this book introduces blogs and tells how they came to be so influential. I was amazed at the story the chapter opens with. An active blogger attracted national attention by recording a phone conversation. I did not know this was even possible.

Vincent Ferrari decided to cancel his America Online account, which basically made him famous for a couple months. Ferrari recorded his phone call with the AOL representative because he had heard complaints about their customer service. Ferrari talked to John, who tried to convince him canceling his service would be a terrible mistake even after Ferrari asked him 15 times to cancel. Then, John asked to speak to Ferrari’s father. Ferrari was 30 years old. It took him 21 minutes to cancel his AOL account.

 I can definitely see how this is a little absurd, but what came after this phone call is even more absurd to me: Ferrari posted the audio file on his blog and four days later, the story was published in the New York Post.  Two days later, CNBC called for an interview. A few days after that, Matt Lauer called him up and asked him to be on the Today Show. After that, it was Nightline. If I would have known that a recording of a phone call with an annoying customer service representative could get me all this press, I would have done this too! I, along with probably everyone on the planet, have experienced what he went through with AOL. Ferrari was just creative enough to record the call and post it on his blog so any Internet user (or millions of people) could see it.

It’s amazing to me how much power the Internet can have. Blogs and YouTube videos are now making ‘average’ people celebrities. Take this example into account and just look at Justin Bieber – he was found on YouTube and has turned millions of young girls into Beliebers. Social media is changing the world. Ferrari said he didn’t expect much to come from his blog post. Maybe I will get lucky enough to attract media attention from one of my blog posts! Anything can happen these days…