Holy Virality! It’s San Francisco’s Batkid! POW!

What makes San Francisco’s Batkid so special? What was it about this one story that captivated so many across the globe and inspired what so many social media marketers work so hard to achieve: Virality?

Some might say that the story is simple: A child surviving a deadly disease (acute lymphoblastic leukemia) inspires a local and global community to come together. Maybe it was his desire to portray the Masked Crusader, the comic book hero that has been a staple of so many boys’ and girls’ childhoods for the last seven decades. Or maybe it was the location and time when and where this particular wish went down: San Francisco, and just before Thanksgiving.

Although it’s hard to pinpoint what it was about this particular story that touched so many and inspired them to share it on Nov. 15, one thing is certain: SF Batkid’s impact on the world and the social media frenzy his story created will definitely go down in the books as a teachable moment for just about anyone in digital media.

Some things about this social media response are clear:

• Careful planning and organizing prior to the event by Clever Girls Collective and Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area ensured plenty of photo and video ops, such as the damsel in distress and a few bad guys, to feed social
• A clear, simple hashtag or group of hashtags allow participants to share their point of view and organizers to collect data on its impact after the fact
• Images and video, especially live-streams helped keep the event’s momentum and allowed participants throughout the globe to watch the series of events unfold

Some of the wins from this wish and unintentional social media craze for the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area Foundation include an increase in offers of donations, volunteers and referrals.  That’s pretty awesome.  A single event, so well organized and covered so well, leading to new events for more kids and teaching just about everyone along the way the power of technology and online communities.

Some Quick Facts About SF Batkid and His Social Media Wave

The super hero wish is not a new one and has been done before but never on this scale and with this success, Patricia Wilson, the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Bay Area executive director told the SF Chronicle.

According to Mashable.com, nearly 750 million people in 117 countries participated in the social phenomena that made a 5-year-old’s dream of fighting crime and saving San Fran, er, Gotham come true.

Participation across social platforms, particularly Instagram and Twitter helped the Bay Area event become a global sensation and the numbers are staggering.

According to Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area:

• People who RSVP’d to volunteer through the website: 16,077
• Estimated size of the crowd at City Hall: approximately 20,000
• Number of #SFBatkid/#Batkid tweets generated (through Sunday 11/17): 545,576
• Percentage of all tweets coming from outside US: 13 percent
• Number of countries where Batkid was discussed: 117 
• Percentage of all tweets that were deemed “positive”: 96 percent
• Total Twitter Potential Reach: 777,453,544
• Total Twitter Potential Impressions: 1,816,783,718
• Number of Instagram photos with #SFBatkid: 16,000
• Total Instagram potential reach: 19.5 million
• Total Instagram potential impressions: 23.6 million
• Number of hits per second to all Make-A-Wish websites during peak: 1,400
• Number of staff in the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area office: 23 full time; 4 part time
• Number of wishes granted by the Greater Bay Area chapter each year: approximately 350

The city of San Francisco spent a reported $105,000 of public funds turning itself into the comic book metropolis for 5-year-old Miles Scott, AP reports.  The Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area intends to help pay back some of this through private donations.  At a time when city budgets are strapped and questions arise over just about every expenditure, there’s little denying that the cost was paltry compared to the payoff.  And then of course, there’s always the “At what price making a kid’s dream come true…”

And the San Francisco Chronicle printed a special edition paper, The Gotham City Chronicle, commemorating the event.

The Scott family and the San Francisco 49ers have created the SF Batkid Fund, which will have 100% of its proceeds go towards Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area; Ronald McDonald House Charities of Oregon and Southwest Washington; and the Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center.

Batkid certainly enjoyed a magical day.  The power of social media and flawless execution for such a complex event will ensure a lifetime of great memories and more magical days to come.