We’re only 18 days into 2013 and have already had our fair share of viral Internet posts. These days, if you want to get something out to the world, it’s not unrealistic to try by rooting a post through social media. If you haven’t heard, a family of seven recently reached the spotlight with the five children’s quest to get one million Facebook likes in order to get a puppy. It only took about seven hours and the page has more than one million likes, and it also stemmed multiple spam replica accounts. The family recently adopted a puppy, Millie, and continued to share updates with the Facebook page during the search.
Here are some other top viral posts so far in 2013:
eBay Dress
Unfortunately for 21-year-old Aimi Jones from England, eBay users were more interested in what was under the dress than the yellow dress she was trying to sell. The images she posted of the dress also included an unnoticed half-naked reflection of Jones taking the photo. Originally posted for $25, eBay bidders are now offering more than $160,000, according to Mstarz. Images also began circulating on Twitter with the hashtag #ebayyellowskaterdress.
After realizing her rather explicit mistake, Jones said, "It's so embarrassing. It is such a dizzy, stupid thing to do and now the whole world's seen me in the nude... I put it on eBay last Saturday morning and realised straight away so ended the sale. But what I didn't realise was that people could still it on the site... I reported it to eBay and they took it down, but by then it had gone viral. My boyfriend Andy thinks the whole thing is hilarious."
Wall Street Internship Cover Letter
An undergraduate student will probably not be feeling the effects of any employment recession as his cover letter for an internship with an investment bank has been getting positive responses from employers.
The thread of e-mails responding to the cover letter include, “This might be the best cover letter I’ve ever received. Second and third paragraphs especially,” “That’s amazing, please tell me you are considering at least a phone interview,” “Hilarious but bold,” “Instant classic,” and “We called him.”
Sandy Hook Conspiracy Video
Agree with it or not – it’s still out there. The 30-minute video, "The Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed" was posted to the YouTube channel ThinkOutsideTheTV and has received more than 8.6 million views in just nine days. The video has been debunked by experts, but that hasn’t stopped the video from circulating all around the Web and social media.
Te’oing Meme
This week, the world discovered that Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o, who up until recently believed his girlfriend to be dead, also found out that the girlfriend actually never existed. This has sparked a number of memes with people “Te’oing” – posing with an imaginary significant other for a photo. A gallery can be found here.
A.J. McCarron's Girlfriend
On the night of the Alabama and Notre Dame BCS championship game, my social media feeds were filled with either “This game is a blowout” or “Check out A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend.” Katherine Webb, Miss Alabama USA, had more than 2,000 Twitter followers before the game and jumped to more than 160,000 in just 24 hours. The phrase “AJ McCarron girlfriend” is among Google’s top trending terms with more than one million recent searches.
Meanest Mom
A Wyoming mother became a viral sensation when a radio station posted a picture of her ad on its Facebook page. The photo received more than 62,000 on the page after a little more than a week of being on the Web.
These are only a few examples of posts that have circulated the Internet so far this year. Social media sites will definitely have a hand in creating thousands of viral sensations we will see throughout 2013.
