*On teh Internets*

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In just 48 hours, former radio announcer Ted Williams has gone from homeless on the streets of Columbus, OH, to the couches of The Today Show. A stunning turn of events to be sure, and likely one of the greatest social media coups of all times.

Williams, who had battled with drug and alcohol addition, but says he had been clean for two years became an instant hit when a video with his story was published on the website of The Columbus Dispatch. This is the stuff that social media viral sensations are made of.

Since being discovered, Williams has been beset with offers of aid. The Cleveland Cavaliers organization has offered him a job as an announcer, and a caller to a radio show where Williams was being interviewed offered him a mortgage on a house. Kraft Foods has also swooped in with an offer for voiceover work, noting Williams remarkable voice, and also capitalizing on the instant Internet frenzy he has inadvertently created.

This is a heartwarming story, but also one that shows the Cleveland Cavaliers organization gets the power of social media. The fact that a cameraman from the Columbus Dispatch filmed this guy from the roadside, placed a video of it on the newspaper’s website, and catapulted Ted Williams to instant celebrity is proof of how powerful social media tools have become in instantly connecting the globe.

From the standpoint of the Cleveland Cavaliers organization, they’ve found a compelling character about whom they can tell a long story. Will he be able to deal with the pressures of notoriety? How good is he really? Will he be able to accomplish more than people expect? The only way to know is to stay tuned. As long as curiosity lingers, the Cavs organization wins, regardless of how the players perform.

It seems without question that Ted Williams will help sell tickets for the Cavaliers, and while not replacing a superstar like Lebron James, he will help the team change the conversation at a critical moment in franchise history. That he will be able to do so at a fraction of the cost is an obvious bonus.

Another interesting facet of the Ted Williams saga is that in an age of social media, scrubs make better stories than celebs. Normal people going through the ups and downs of life will elicit far more empathy and engagement from an audience of peers than the travails of celebrities such as Paris Hilton and frenemy Nicole Richie playing the role plebian princesses on their show The Simple Life. With no safety net, no one looking out for him, and no where to go if he fails, the stakes are much higher for Williams.

While reality shows allow us to peer into the lives of celebrities, we envy them and and hate them at the same time. They also can manipulate the experience to show only the sides of themselves they want seen. It’s unlikely that Williams will be able to demonstrate the same level of media savvy, and there’s no good reason to think he would. In any case, Ted Williams is one of us, and if he succeeds, we succeed. If he fails, well, how many second chances are there? It’s going to be a real cliffhanger.

Also, because he is a social media sensation, he will give the organization unique opportunities to engage an online audience around his story. People who don’t care about basketball will still love to hear about his resurrection story, and they should be able to see every detail play out on the Web.