Matt Harding describes himself as a 30 year old deadbeet from Connectiicut. In 2003 he quit his job and decided to use what money he had left to wander the planet. To keep people up to date on where he was, and what he was doing Matt created a website wherethehellismatt.com. While he was on the road a friend gave him the idea of using his digital camera to record video of him dancing in front of the unique places that he was seeing. Matt cut up the video, layered in some music, and posted it on Youtube. What happened next is another great example of viral growth.

Matt’s video currently has 8,857,936 views. People have posted 170 video responses and 21,886 comments in support of Matt’s travels. Stride Gum decided to sponsor Matt and sent him on a six month tour where he covered 39 countries and 7 continents. A great investment for a company who wants to associate their brand with millions of smiles.

I had a chance to meet Matt while he was in San Francisco. He is a great guy, and a great example of using the web to share his message with millions. Keep dancing Matt!

Elfyourself.com from OfficeMax is a simple concept and an amazing example of something going viral. A user uploads their picture, uses their phone to record a greeting, and is transformed instantly into a dancing elf. I know a good viral concept when my own mother forwards it to me. Elfyourself has spent two years in a row at the top of Holiday Greeting sites. They have logged over 120 Million visitors who have created and forwarded over 75 million elves around the globe. Word of Elfyourself started as a small leak in the blogosphere and on social networks and made it all the way up to prime time coverage from USA Today, ABC World News, CNN, and the Today Show. Elfyourself is a genius concept which has fueled a combined time of more than 15,000 years of people creating elves and laughing at their friends, all framed by a holiday border and the OfficeMax Brand.