The week before hurricane Irene hit the east coast, I set up a web cam pointing out towards a small pond by my office. A few config files later I posted a page on my site to allow a few of my coworkers and me, a front row view to the pond.
Since the pond is very near to our office, the parking lot floods.
So the web cam went online that night and over the weekend the hurricane hit and the water started to rise. As the water rose so did the traffic to the site and within just 3 says the site obtained 1092 unique users.
While the office was closed, due to the water, it was funny to obtain sms or im’s from coworkers that became glued to the camera waiting for ducks to pass by the camera. We have 2…now 3. I can now see baby ducks.
Well that is my little taste of something going viral.
What is needed to make something viral? While this is a little bit different from the old spice viral ads, it was a simple concept and people became glued to that simple easy to understand message.
Wow, that is a lot of water.
| Before |
 |
| Peak |
 |