Matt Harding with his bad dancing demonstrates the power of Web 2.0 technologies to create and connect communities.
As he chronicles in his site, in 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia, and just decided to wander all around Asia for awhile. He put up a site to keep in touch with family and friends. At one point, a travel buddy suggested to him to dance infront of a tourist spot in Hanoi, Vietnam while he records, and this was posted on the Web. It made him “quasi-famous,” and his fame got the attention of a gum company whose willing to pay him to dance all over the globe. This resulted to Matt dancing in 39 countries in 7 continents. This example of viral marketing caught on, people were emailing him and asking if him to dance in their locality and if they can join him. So he approached the same company to do the “dancing around the globe” bit again, but this time joined by locals of the area. The result is a video posted at his site and at YouTube. The video at YouTube has been viewed more than 18 million times. Just the 2008 dancing video alone has already received more than 54, 000 comments at YouTube. Matt has been invited to talk about his experiences at different forums or even conventions like Macworld as people try to make sense of this phenomenon. Most of the comments posted on YouTube about his videos talks about feeling inspired and connected after watching t and wanting to participate in it.
A video done on a lark, transforms a person’s life and inspires millions. Whether it’s the sheer novelty of it, the scenes, or the music – viral marketing and the social networking character of Web 2.0 technologies made it all possible.