Tuesday

What I learned when my tweet went viral

Viral might be the wrong word. My tweet- this tweet- has a grand total of 44 retweets. Yet somehow it's completely exploded. I've now been featured on Buzzfeed, The Daily Mail, The Sun, Metro and I've just found out it's on Cosmopolitan today too. I was even asked on This Morning, before they ignored my replies and just pretended they'd discovered it themselves. Not bitter... This bizarre turn of events has taught me a lot about what it's like to suddenly have the spotlight on your blog for a brief moment. 
What I learned when my tweet went viral
EXPOSURE REALLY DOESN'T WORK

I mean, we all know exposure doesn't work, right? Naively, I thought maybe being featured somewhere as big as the Daily Mail would bring a fair bit of traffic. Nope. Everything has carried on as before- my Twitter is gaining followers at the same rate, my blog traffic is the same, even the retweets on that one tweet haven't changed. For some reason, I had a very small rise in Bloglovin' followers but that could be a coincidence, to be honest. Don't get me wrong- I'm just pleased that this story has been picked up and that ASOS and Boohoo have taken action. 

ABUSE ISN'T THAT PREVALENT

Let me add something to that- Abuse isn't that prevalent as a result of the coverage. When the article was published in the Daily Mail, I braced myself for swarms of abuse. I got one tweet. I'm not even entirely sure that one tweet came via the article or if it was just coincidence. Of course, I'm not reading the comments- that's just common sense- but, with the exception of that one tweet (which wasn't even abuse, to be honest, it was just saying "Get over it" with lots of additional words including "histrionics", "PC" and "glorifying obesity" like a game of Bodyshaming Bingo), I've had nothing but support.

THE MEDIA REALLY ARE UNETHICAL (except Buzzfeed)

Ok, let me slightly amend that last bit. Buzzfeed are notoriously unethical as hell. A few years ago, I had one of my photos lifted and credited wrongly, and was ignored when I emailed and tweeted the author. However, in this case, I was really happy with how the process went. The author contacted me, asked if I would mind being featured in her article and asked me some questions. She also asked me to send a photo over and she used that one, rather than just taking one from my Twitter. Once the article was written, she sent me a link straight away so I could read it. She was completely lovely, very polite and respectful, and did everything that she said she would. The Metro also emailed me and asked me questions for their article, as did the Daily Mail (the latter published the article before I had a chance to reply but at least I'd already expressed interest in being featured). Others didn't contact me at all. I know the press don't legally have to obtain permission to rewrite news stories already published but it would be nice, right? Just a tweet saying "Hi. We're covering this, ok?" Then there's the whole debacle with This Morning which is a huge shame as I was looking forward to going on the show and spent the whole weekend waiting for them to get back in touch. I even bought a new outfit especially! You better believe I'm taking full credit for that feature! 

HAVE YOUR BLOG IN ORDER 

For the love of God, make sure your blog is prepared. This all came at the worst possible time for me. I'm sorting out a blog redesign, I'm really busy so I haven't had a load of posts lined up, my latest posts weren't maximised for the attention. Like I said earlier, I wasn't doing this for glory and, actually, it didn't make a difference to my traffic but, if it had, I would have been kicking myself for not portraying the best example of my blog. There's a lesson in there! Of course, you never know when this is going to happen- I was just whinging at a company, as I have often, hoping they'd make a change. I didn't for a second expect the media to pick it up. 

YOU CAN MAKE A CHANGE
I've saved the most important for last. As I have said repeatedly throughout this post, I didn't write that tweet with the expectation of making much impact. To be honest, I just wanted ASOS and Boohoo to say something like "Sorry, looks like a technical error. We'll look into it". By the next morning, ASOS had removed the Boohoo dress from their site and dropped the price of the plus size dress I'd noticed. Yesterday, I found out Boohoo had reduced theirs. Admittedly this wasn't all because of me. I have no doubt that with a media spotlight shining on them, the brands felt like they had to do something. But that spotlight came out of my one tweet. Just that one little moany tweet. It's a small change, admittedly, but it's a change nonetheless. So never be afraid of calling out companies- you never know what might happen!

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8 comments :

  1. Everytime I have seen a post/tweet about this I have felt so proud of you, it's amazing. You made such a good point, and this needed to be picked up by the media. If it wasn't for you in the first place, the spotlight never would have been placed on the brands to make this change!

    Suitcase and Sandals Blog XX

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  2. This is such a fair point though! Fair play to you for calling them out!

    Isobel x

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  3. This is amazing! Go you!
    You're an inspiration.
    Any updates? Have they changed their prices?

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  4. I've noticed ASOS marking up plus sized items before and tweeted them about it (which they ignored of course). Even in the sale there's often significant price differences, it's like they feel a strange need to penalise plus sized girls. Well done for bringing it to light!

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  5. I think this is a brilliant article, Becky. It proves the power of social media and how change can be made no matter how small or big that may be.

    I'm thrilled to hear that they have reduced the price, it was ridiculous to have priced it any different.

    Thank you for sharing this, it's an interesting insight!

    Sam xo
    Alright Sunshine | Fashion Lifestyle Travel

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  6. Well done Becky! I think clothing companies are pathetic on the whole when it comes to pricing vs sizing. I've refused to buy petite items at times when they've been more expensive, cos more money for less fabric... um what??

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  7. Well done Becky! It was the right thing to do and you've handled it well. Thanks for making a difference.

    Caz | Style Lingua

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  8. I managed to miss all this Boohoo and Asos stuff xD I think it's terrible that they are charging more for plus size (or were?) Well done you for calling them out! x www.aimeeraindropwrites.co.uk x

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