Last week, a friend invited me to be part of his marriage proposal.

The friend was Len Kendall (one of the founders of the3six5.com). First, he mobilized hundreds of people by inviting them to a Facebook event. This was his venue to explain his plan to propose to Katie using an internet meme. The FB event also opened up a venue for discussion (and a little trash talk) among contributors.

This morning, Buzzfeed let Len take over their homepage for the day. (They loved the idea when he approached them with it two weeks ago.)

On Len’s proposal post, anybody could post their contributions through a meme generator embedded in the comment tool. Buzzfeed created this tool just for Len. With it, users simply uploaded a background, positioned the picture layer of Len proposing, and added their own message. Hundreds of us added to the “meme” and shared the posts to their social networks. Len even directed contributors to share with the hashtag #SayYesKatie.

At about noon CST, Len posted an update – Katie said yes!

Scott Lamb, BuzzFeed’s managing editor, says, “It’s been one of the biggest and fastest growing community reaction posts we’ve ever done.” Jack Shepherd at Buzzfeed even posted a Best-of #SayYesKatie post.

So the story traveled, as good stories often do.
#SayYesKatie appeared on MSNBC, The Chicago Tribune, and Mashable, among other outlets.

My contributions

(Buzzfeed post)
 
(Buzzfeed post)
 
(Buzzfeed post, based on Marquese Scott’s jaw-dropping dance video.) 
 

So, what does it mean, Double Rainbow?

Stop – I’m not even half as cool as a DR. But here’s what I think.

With the maturing and evolution of the social web, people now have the power to bend the internet. We’ve used the web billions of times to promote other media, but now we can do so much more to harness its own power. I know this is all very meta, but just think of it this way:
When television was first came along, people thought it was a great way to advertise radio.

If an individual like Len can “bend” the internet to tell his story, in what amazing ways could the social web tell yours?

Related articles