Update: The Oscars Selfie That Went Viral

The combination of a little spontaneous fun by a collection of super-famous movie stars (except for Lupita N'yong'o's little brother, there on the right in the picture) at the Oscars, and Twitter, has actually become an influential storyline in just a few days.

Who doesn't like the freshness of the people in Ellen DeGeneres' selfie forgetting their celebrity personas and just being charmingly silly for a moment. But that storyline quickly evolved -- Ellen's challenge to retweet has now been taken up about 3.2 million times. And Samsung, handed this unexpected bounty, has announced that it will donate $1 for every retweet up to 3 million, with the money going to charities of Ellen's choice. She has directed that half will go to St. Jude's Children's Hospital and Research Center in Memphis, and the other half will go to the Humane Society of the U.S.
                                                                             

So here is a vivid demonstration of the lightning speed with which information can travel on Twitter,
and on modern social media more generally. It is one thing to read about  the power of Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and other social media channels, and another to see it flash so vividly. And the extra part is that those two worthy charities now have large and welcome donations to add to their resources. It's a lesson for those of us who are looking at social media as a cultural, business / economic, and social communications phenomenon. It's a win-win-win of benefits for all the immediate participants.