When 9 year old Martha Payne started blogging about her school meals, rating them each day for quality and healthiness, a month ago, she created a real buzz on the internet and I suggested that her blog was a great example of the power of ‘word of mouse’!
Her daily blog NeverSeconds has had over 2 million ‘hits’ and Martha has been using it to raise money for a charity that runs school feeding projects in deprived communities around the world.
I also wondered what her school would do as one of their ‘customers’ clearly was giving them lots of ‘constructive feedback’ about what they were providing.
Would they take on board her views and respond in the quality of what they offer? No…. They’ve banned her!!!
She explained in yesterday’s blog that she was taken out of a maths lesson to be told that because an article had appeared in a newspaper she could no longer take photos of her school meals.
Now I do advocate that businesses ‘choose ’em or lose ’em, but I can’t help thinking this seems a little harsh! Talk about ‘shooting the messesnger’. Surely they could have found a way of harnessing something that could help them – maybe by providing a better quality product!
It’s not all bad news though – Martha feared the ban would stop her from reaching her £7,000 fundraising target, but as a result of the ensuing publicity – and her blog trending on Twitter – the amount of money raised for the charity has soared from £2,000 to more than £11,000!
The power of ‘word of mouse’ again!
BREAKING NEWS…. THE BAN HAS BEEN LIFTED…. WORD OF MOUSE AGAIN!!!!
