What an amazing week for really understanding the power of this new medium we are using. If any of my fellow nursery people, garden center owners, or managers don’t think blogs have value, they are hiding their heads in the sand.
Early in August Amy had a post at Garden Rant about “The Long Tail†and the implications of the internet. One implication is “small is the new bigâ€. She say’s “Will garden bloggers push and pull the garden media and horticultural industry until it conforms to our wishes?†I don’t know if they will conform, but they had better be listening!
My post of yesterday “The Nursery Consultants are Wrong†talked about how I goggled the name of the garden center Genie at The Inadvertent Gardener had dealt with in her “Bitter Experience†post. When I Googled the name of the garden center in question yesterday up came Genie’s post, right under the garden centers own web page listing! Yikes, you want to find this nursery’s web site and up come’s a customer’s complaint, too.
Maybe the garden center would be able to let this all just blow over, if they even know its happening. I can tell you that if we saw a customer complaint when we goggled the name of our company, we would be firing off an e-mail to that customer to see what we could do to make things right.
Well the long tail just got longer! Genie has been featured in article in the Des Moines Register for her blog!
Who would have though that this lady who just started gardening, had a bitter experience at her local garden center, blogged about it, is now being featured in an article in the town paper! If the garden center hasn’t noticed her post by now, then someone who now knows about the most famous garden blog in Des Moines surely will.
What an amazing chain of events. I will be watching to see if the garden center in question ever contacts Genie. Garden bloggers, do not underestimate the power of your medium to effect change. Those in the "horticultural industry", ignore it at your own peril.