Online article writing can make you famous, if you put your personality in it, and if you’re not afraid to go against the stream.
That happened to an 85-old Mom and newspaper columnist, when she wrote a review of a restaurant chain, where she had a meal.
Her son, James R. Hagerty, wrote an article on The Wall Street Journal about what happened, and it’s a fun read you can learn from.
On Thursday, bloggers happened on her review of the Olive Garden, where she found the portions generous and the décor “impressive.” Some wrote clever notes suggesting there might be some sort of irony in writing an unironic review about a chain restaurant like Olive Garden. Others, including media and news websites Gawker and Huffington Post, chimed in. Soon news hounds from Minneapolis, New York and even Fargo were calling Mom and demanding interviews. Basically, they wanted to know whether she was for real and how she felt about being mocked all over the Internet.
What do you think caused Marilyn Haggarty’s article to go viral?
Was it the fact that she already had thousands of loyal readers?
Was she just lucky?
Or do you think that she has earned both the huge number of loyal readers as well as her newfound fame, because of her writing style? Because she dared to go against the “come il faut” stream? It might not be Maxim’s she wrote a review about, but a place where ordinary people eat.
What can you learn from Mrs Haggarty?