This story starts with a song, a sweet, funny song. By the time it was over, I had a lump in my throat. Here it is:



My daughter Lauren is friends with Chelsea Gill, the young lady in this video who admits her fondness for writer/producer/actor Jason Segel, and she alerted me when the video started going viral.

But that was just the beginning. It was a wild week for Gill:

Jan. 03: Gill posts her video on YouTube and all her friends spread it through Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Jan. 04: Gill is featured on Buzzfeed and various other websites, and Jason Segel tweets in response to the video.

Jan. 05 10:30 a.m.: Chelsea’s story appears on the front page of Huffington Post Entertainment, and she is interviewed by news shows.

Jan 05 2:30 p.m.: The songstress is featured on Entertainment Weekly online and Perez Hilton’s site. The video tops 40,000 views.

Jan. 06: Video now has 80,000 views on YouTube.

Jan. 07: Less than a week after the video was posted, Jason Segel takes Chelsea and her twin sister to the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards (where he won the Commedia Extraordinaire Award). The actor tweeted a backstage photo with his dates:

Chelsea Gill (who wrote the great song) and her twin sister and I at the Comedy awards. I’m not sure which is which Here’s to Chelsea, social media, 200,000 views of her video, and the power to make dreams come true.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He blogs at grow, where a version of this article originally ran.