Spreading like wildfire

This week's reading about viral marketing brought up what I thought was a very interesting and important point.  Most of the time viral videos and stories happen by chance.  It is not always planned.  I'm sure some creators hope that their little homemade video will take the internet world by storm, but a lot of times it is purely chance.  For example, I imagine Charlie and his older brother's mother did not intend for this video to go viral and get as many views as it did.  When Emily and I posted our video for the get connected contest, we did it because it was part of our assignment and I figure no one outside of our class would see it.  But, when I looked at it the other day we had almost 50 views.  Now obviously 50 views does not a viral video make, but it shows the randomness of a video becoming viral. Something else I thought was very clever in The New Riles of Marketing and PR was the geyser metaphor.  it fits so perfectly into the explanation of a viral video process.  First nothing, and then bam, an internet sensation.  
Our in class discussion about the different youtube videos we all watch was so insightful.  There are so many choices out there on the internet.  Someone can literally find anything they want when it comes to a youtube video.  And the fact that it is such a popular search engine is amazing.  I remember when I was in high school and first heard about youtube.  It seemed like such a novelty and was even blocked from school computers.  Now, I watch at least one thing on youtube everyday.  Amazing what a difference a few years can make in the world of technology and social media.  Which I think it kind of the point of this class.  We need to all be aware and prepared for the constant changes that are taking place in the world of social media.  Something that is becoming more and more relied upon everyday.