Try to imagine this. In a world before cable television, reality shows, Twitter, and YouTube would an unemployed, middle-aged woman who lives alone from a small town in Scotland ever get noticed for her stunning and remarkable singing voice?
I would say a big NO! It took her 47 years to get noticed in any sort of big way. By a big way, I mean a meager 18,000,000 that have watched her this last few days on YouTube singing on the show, 'Britain's Got Talent'.
Susan Boyle, who claims she has never been kissed, accomplished the feat of 'Shock and Awe' as she astonished hard-to-please judges with her rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' from the musical 'Les Miserables'. The astonishment was obvious on the faces of judges, Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan, and Amanda Holden as they smiled in approval of her beautiful voice.
This previously unknown is now virtually famous. Media has exposed the talent of a woman with the voice of an angel. Boyle now has a fan site, has been interviewed on BBC, and even has a Fan Store with T-shirts bearing the phrase "Never Judge a Book by its Cover" and "I Dreamed the Dream!" The YouTube video was spread all across the Internet and passed along in the chatter on Twitter. Now, that is viral!!
Speaking of Twitter and going viral, a celebrity has managed to be the first person on Twitter to reach one million followers. It is quite a feat to obtain that many followers in a short period of time. The celebrity is Ashton Kutcher, previous host of the show punk'd, also known for being the husband of the famous actress Demi Moore. A million followers. How did he do it?
Was it his celebrity status? Well, I am sure that helped. This country loves celebrities and not many non-celebrity Twitters could have pulled this off. Celebrities already have a built-in following. But, why Kutcher and why one million followers?
He decided to take on the news network, CNN. It was a race between CNN Breaking News (Twitter Handle: CNNbrk) and Kutcher (Twitter handle: aplusk) to get one million followers. Kutcher also used the microblogging site to promote 'World Malaria Day' and said he would donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity if he won. The race between the two Twitters was recorded on a live stream for the world to watch. Ah, the media's reach is limitless.
These two individuals have dominated the Internet, the news, the media, YouTube, Twitter, and water cooler conversations this last week or so. Susan Boyle has inspired and brought tears to millions and Ashton Kutcher has managed to get over one million followers practically overnight. 18 million views and over 1 million followers? That is serious influence and power. Power to be put to good use we can all hope.
On a personal note, I have been trying really, really, really hard to promote Climb to Conquer Cancer to raise funds and awareness to cancer with really, really, really little success. Cancer has touched me a few times in my life and the genesis for this specific cause is written on my TwitWall.
Could my poor success be due to the little power and influence I have along with the lack of media exposure? I'd say, uh, YES! If Oprah or Britney Spears promoted this event, WOW! There would be hundreds of dollars going to help the American Cancer Society.
However, my power and influence has a very small footprint. I know my singing voice would never impress Simon nor am I a celebrity. So how else can one get media exposure to promote a good cause? I don't have all the answers. I am still working on it, but open for suggestions!
Try to imagine this. Media exposure being put to good use to make the world a better place. Now that, THAT is a concept!
