Jeremy Lin’s Social Media Rise!

Thanks to the prevalence of social media, we all know how fast word of mouth spreads with progressively popular trends. From hashtags or following on twitter to Facebook shares, likes and status updates there really is no limit in how quickly the world can catch on with what the new hype is all about. Recently, what epitomized this was Jeremy Lin!

Once upon a time, in the midst of a cold stormy winter, a Canadian born sports coach and innovator invented the sport where two teams were competing to toss a ball into a 10 foot tall basket, in other words it is what we now know as basketball! The sport grew to become increasingly popular and after decades of changes and improvements, it is now one of the most watched sport globally. Arguably the most watched basketball league worldwide is the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States. Racially, the league is generally dominated by African-Americans and Caucasians, until perhaps the entrance of a Chinese player, Yao Ming! Sadly, he is retired now.

Regardless, it has not been over a month since Jeremy Lin’s opening career high game on February 5th where this New York Knicks (a NBA basketball team) bench player finally demonstrated his valuable basketball skills and wow-ed not just the entire league but the entire world. From nowhere to now everywhere, in just two victorious games, Jeremy Lin has become the top 10 most searched names on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter known as Sina Weibo, overnight his Twitter account has increased by 300,000 followers, t-shirt and jersey sales are off the charts, he has appeared on covers of Sports Illustrated for the past two weeks (only the 2nd athlete to achieve this distinction) and many more record-breaking stories.

Within three weeks of his opening game, Jeremy Lin has become a global basketball sensation! Internet domains under his name have all been bought, reputable magazines and newspapers are writing about him such as Times and Forbes, seven e-books have been published on him, the Global Language Monitor (GLM, a company that tracks trends of new English words) has even declared Linsanity as a official English world. There are countless fan sites created to honor his highlights and achievements. All of this success of Jeremy Lin comes to illustrate the incredible speed at which our world can adapt to emerging trends that can virtually dominate the world. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg (creator of Facebook) and other creators of social media services, the world now knows how viral marketing and word of mouth can spread across the internet. With Jeremy Lin’s Social Media Rise, the entire world can now relate to the epitome of successful E-Marketing!

Regardless of whether you follow basketball or not, Jeremy Lin (Linsanity) is a worthwhile story of  how fast word can spread over today’s social media and E-Marketing methods in what some dub as the Linternet!