Internet Stardom

There used to many ways for people to have their 15
minutes of fame, but the days of tabloid kiss and tells or an embarrassing  X Factor style audition are over as we are
introduced to new internet stars daily.

As 2012 became the year that a YouTube video broke the 1bn
views mark, we thought we’d take a look back at some of our favourite internet stars from the last year.

• Schoolgirl Martha Payne became an online sensation this year and can even class celebrity chef Jamie Oliver as a fan after she began blogging about her school dinners. She received a surge of support from the general public after the nine-year-old was told to take her blog down by the local council. With the help of her new fans, Martha not only raised awareness of the UK school dinner system, but she was able to raise £125,000 for Mary’s meals; a charity which runs school feeding projects in communities where poverty stops children from gaining an education.
• It was in March that a film from filmmaker’s Invisible Children was released. The film urged the US government to arrest Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony. The film, entitled Kony 2012, reached 100 million views just six days after it was released. A total of 3.7million people pledged their support and this relatively unknown war criminal became the 9th most searched for person on Google.
• A real heart-warming story came to light when a three-year-old girl caused supermarket giant Sainsbury’s to rebrand their popular tiger bread products. The supermarket happened to agree with the comments they received from Lily Robinson age 3 ½ whose letter asked ‘Why is tiger bread called tiger bread. It should be called giraffe bread?” After a massive Facebook campaign started by Lily’s mother who posted the company’s response letter which stated that the bakers who made it a ‘looooong time ago’ were ‘a bit silly’, the supermarket renamed their popular loaf as giraffe bread.
• Our list of last years’ internet stars could only be completed by Korean pop star PSY and his surprise musical hit Gangnam style. The first-ever YouTube video to pass 1bn views, the song became number 1 in charts across the globe and even won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

“The internet has become a powerful marketing tool with
people using it to become famous almost overnight. Equally, businesses can use
the internet to rapidly spread the word about their products and services if
they know how,” comments Greg Poulson of Freetimers who work with companies to
develop websites which help to grow and drive their business forward.