The power of social media… chk-chk BOOM!

Thanks to the power of social media and viral campaigns anyone can become a celebrity overnight. You’ve no doubt seen via your email, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts, how 19-year-old, Clare Werbeloff, has become an overnight celebrity for her colourful eyewitness report of a shooting in Kings Cross last Saturday night. She’s received so much media attention she’s hired a PR representative to manage her affairs.

This is a great example of the power of social and digital media campaigns, with rumours of Clare possibly bagging modelling, acting and entertainment reporting contracts from the coverage. Never mind her racist and inarticulate account of the shooting…

Questions have now been raised about this being a marketing stunt for the Toohey’s Extra Dry 6Beers campaign or The Projects marketing agency, as quoted on mUmBRELLA today. This is a highly doubtful scenario because no matter where you point a camera in Kings Cross there’ll be advertisements in the background. It would be a sad day if companies went to the extent of shooting someone for some publicity.

That aside, who knows where this might take Clare, so far she’s got quite the following – the news video was viewed more than 100,000 times this week and Clare now has nearly 900 followers on her Facebook fan page. People with ‘real’ talent can take years – even decades, if that at all – to get this kind of following. While no-one can underestimate the power of social media, it’s fair to say Clare’s no Jana Wendt and only real talent survives these explosive, short-lived bursts of fame (cue Corey Worthington nee Delaney).

I couldn’t help but think if social media (and Clare) were around in the 1980s, given the same situation, could this have even led to Clare becoming the star in John Farnham’s film clip ‘You’re The Voice’… try and understand it?!