From 3 to More Than 28,000 Twitter Followers in a Month

A few weeks ago I wrote about the rarity of becoming a true overnight successes . I explained that success usually follows those who patiently work hard. Well, without discounting the value of this formula, I now write about someone who was able to skip this process due to good fortune.

There is probably no one on this planet that had a better month of March in terms of social media than Sarah Killen. Sarah went from 3 followers to 28,429 in less than 30 days.

So who is Sarah Killen and how did this happen? Sarah is from rural Michigan and her twitter ID is @LovelyButton. According to her Twitter profile, she loves to smile and have fun in life. She thinks that anyone can be forgiven and we should all just love and be.

On March 5, 2010, temporarily unemployed late night comic Conan O'Brien decided to randomly select one person to exclusively follow on Twitter. After noting that she likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs, Sarah was selected. Conan also prophetically warned that Sarah that your life was "about to change".

Conan's prediction couldn't have been more accurate. Literally 1,000s of people starting following her overnight, companies have given her gifts like an iMac laptop, and she says that this experience has been "totally nuts".

Sarah is using her new-found fame to raise money for breast cancer research. Reaching out to her Twitter followers to sponsor her in the walk-a-thon.

The story present is a great case study on the speed of the Twitterverse. It is an even better story about serendipity. As the expression goes, I rather be lucky than good.