Social Media Can Be “The Wiz” in Promoting Your Business Blog

Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum is inspirational for business bloggers, and not only in terms of finding blog ideas in unlikely places such as the O-Z file cabinet label from which he took the name Oz.

Although he lived a hundred years ago, Baum was able to use the then-equivalent of social networking to promote his book. A Mental Floss Magazine article about Baum’s life explains that, while "the Wiz" may have been an immediate hit with children, librarians disapproved of the book and took it off their shelves, waging what was dubbed the "Wizard War of 1957".

While LinkedIn® would not make its debut for more than half a century, Baum had "friends", beginning with William Buckley, who wrote favorably about Oz in the National Review. Twitter® was unheard of as of yet, but apparently Buckley managed to "tweet" his approval to other famous authors such as Gore Vidal and Nora Ephron, who then "retweeted" to Ray Bradbury and William Styron.  Pretty soon, Baum’s friends had a "buzz" going for his book.

Bottom line (although not online!), through promoting the book, creating friends and followers, those who "liked" Wizard of Oz overcame the librarians’ negative reviews, and Baum  was able to take his place among the ranks of classic children’s fairy tale authors.

It’s not enough to just blog – you’ve got to spread the word about the blog and create "buzz"!