Becoming famous through social media

With the recent Rebecca Black controversy, I take a look at some other youngsters that have made their way to fame through the use of social media.

As most of us know Rebecca Black has become a huge Youtube sensation due to her popular song and music video “Friday”. Her talent is under a great debate by millions. Most had already submitted their criticism only to realize later that Rebecca is only 13, despite her grown up appearance.  My mother’s words come to mind: “See what happens when you dress too big for your boots!”  

Despite the disapproval of many, Rebecca has become incredibly famous. Her song is incredibly catchy, and I find myself singing “Friday, Friday, Friday” and “party, party, party” while walking down the hallway at school.

Anyways, here are two youngsters that have gained success through the use of social media, and have gone on to bigger and better things.

Number 1 – kevjumba! I love kevjumba. The American comedian is famous for his Youtube blogs. As of 2011, he is YouTube's ninth most subscribed comedian and twelfth most subscribed user overall. At the age of 21, Kevin Wu has captured the attention of several celebrities such as Jessica Alba, and has gone on to become a contestant on The Amazing Race with his dad. Check him out!

Number 2 – Fourteen-year-old fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson. Due to her fashion blog “Style Rookie”, Tavi’s been in various front-row seats at Fashion Week runway shows. Conversing casually with famous Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, and socializing with top fashion designers. 

Lesson of the day? Remember when your parents said “wait till you get older” – well maybe these kids made the right decision by not waiting to get older before they pursued their dreams…and look at where they are now!

Post Love Everyone!

As my public relations program at Centennial College comes to a close, I look back on some of the things I've learned this year that I'm proud of. The biggest would probably be the social media campaign my group and I came up with for our social media and social networking project to affect change. Our baby is called "PostLove."

Our group entered in the "What's your Intent" competition held at school, and though we may not have won the competition (that included Mallika Chopra as one of the judges), we are still incredibly happy with the outcome. With the recent attacks on Rebecca Black, and headlines such as "Cyber bullies create then kill fake boyfriend in Facebook hoax," our group decided to make a campaign to targed cyber bullying. And so we did.

We created a twitter page. Our objective was to gain three followers on twitter every day, and much to our delight, we have been gaining three followers a day!

There really isn't a need to use the internet as way to maliciously attack another person/group, which can lead to emotional, physical and mental effects on the victim.

So join us on twitter @PostLove to combat cyber bullying and post love rather than hate! As we stated in our presentation "no matter where you are in the world, you can make a difference with a post!"