This is an interesting Twitter success story involving Conan O’Brien.  While this is clearly not indicative of normal Twitter results, it does demonstrate the immediate power and reach of Twitter.  The article is about Sarah Killen – a young woman who was trying to raise sponsor donations for a charity benefit walk for breast cancer.

“on Friday, Sarah found a message in her MySpace inbox asking if Conan could follow her. She didn’t really understand the implications of saying yes. Because Conan wasn’t following anyone before Sarah. And as soon as he started following Sarah, her life changed.

She had 16,000 followers in two days. She had 4,000 emails within an hour of Conan following her. She had offers for free stuff (including a custom made wedding dress from a designer in New York). And she had money for the breast cancer walk, and was using her new-found fame to promote other charities, like the Children’s Hunger Fund, which was brought to her attention by that dress designer.”

Again, most Twitter users do not stumble into these situations.  The unique combination of celebrities and social media can create remarkable results.  It would be interesting to get Conan’s thoughts on this outcome.

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