Spike Albrecht and the Power of Social Media

 In today’s day and age, almost anyone can become a celebrity through the power of social media. Last night a buddy of mine, Spike Albrecht, played in the national championship game for the University of Michigan. Michigan’s star point guard, Trey Burke, got two early fouls, so Spike was called upon to come into the game and play for Burke.

He didn’t disappoint, as he played the half of his life, tallying 17 points including 4 3-pointers. Coming into the game he only averaged one point per game during the season. At Halftime, Spike’s twitter followers tripled to 15,000 as he led Michigan to a 1 point lead going into the 2^nd half.  It was the perfect story for the media, he looks like he is 16, his name is Spike (really Michael), he is the smallest on the court, and he just lit up the best team in the country for 17 points in one half.

During halftime he was trending worldwide on Twitter. The 2^nd half didn’t go as well as the 1^st half for Spike and Michigan as they lost 82-76. Today you couldn’t turn on a television, smart phone, or computer without hearing about Spike’s great performance.

This morning, He tweeted at Kate Upton, 20 year old supermodel. He said thanks for coming out and I hope to see you again with a “winky face” at the end. This blew up, as Spike’s new followers quickly retweeted this for the world to see. As I got home from class today, the media talked about what chances he has with her on Pardon the Interruption on ESPN. Almost every major news media organization wrote a story about Spike today. 30 years ago everyone would of forgot about Spike the next day, they lost the game; he got shut out in the 2^nd half. But in the digital world, my buddy Spike is a celebrity, and that’s wild.