I was recently asked by the editors of At Home in Arkansas magazine (full disclosure: I have a business and financial relationship with the magazine) to participate in their guest blog holiday series by providing this guest post on wine and the holidays. The magazine is the leading home design and lifestyle magazine in the region, and while it is based in Little Rock it is recognized as the premier state-wide magazine brand.
The strategy of inviting guest bloggers has turned out to be a strong business move. First, they chose some of the best
followed design bloggers to participate. Second, they promoted the series heavily through their Facebook fan page which has just about 4,000 fans as well as to their growing Twitter following. The blog, hosted as a sub domain of the website, has seen dramatic traffic flow and increased search results on the heels of each guest post. Guest bloggers, like me, bring their audiences and the increased rate of fresh, new content has also contributed.
It has been another strong example of the secret powers of social media to turbo charge internet marketing programs for businesses reliant on web traffic. The guest blogger series was devised by the magazine’s Chief Editor Diane Carroll, one of most talented and classiest design editors in the entire industry, along with her social media savvy colleague Paulette Pearson. Here is what Diane had to say today:
The post is a great complement to this series that Paulette has done such a good job putting together. It’s been a huge success—our website hits are up higher than ever, a 13% increase in the last month, and FB fans are nearing 4,000.
This comes on the heels of the magazine growing their web traffic 50% over the summer after instituting an aggressive social identity recruitment and content sharing workplan that you can read about here in Viralhousingfix.
On a related but separate note, I researched the Arkansas state wholesale catalogue and the limited availability is a reflection of the continued restrictions that state legislators, antiquated distribution systems, and other limiting forces are placing on even and fair access to wine as a legal products. It baffles me, especially as a Massachusetts resident living behind the bars of a State Wine Penitentiary where we have to sneak wine across the border, how we have failed to let supply and demand and market forces dictate where any wine can be bought or sold. We can’t do enough to support the Specialty Wine Retailers Association on their Wine Without Borders mission.
Still, there are plenty of excellent wines to drink in Arkansas, and Massachusetts, and it was fun to add my two cents for local wine and food enthusiasts with my guest post. Even more, it was an honor to be part of this strong line up of guest design bloggers and to see the amazing results and engagement it all created for At Home in Arkansas.
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