Signs the Groundswell is here and social media has changed everything forever:

1. A guy (gentleman) dead over 240 years is following me on Twitter for a beer brand from America’s Oldest Brewery.

2. Blending a 2X4 and iPhone can get you 172 million views and increase sales of expensive industrial strength blenders by over a 1,000%. It also got everyone asking, “Will it Blend?”

3. A brand as stogy as Old Spice can get its digital legs and runs a social media marathon to become the #1 body wash brand for men. Now look at me.

4. A viral video can help me get my mini-van driving swagger back, garner over 10 million views and be part of a social media effort that help increase Toyota Sienna sales 17% during a recession after a big recall PR crisis.

5. Dell goes from an onslaught of negative social media attention to embracing it. First by blogging about flaming laptops to now having implemented over 500 different ideas through social media crowdsourcing on it’s ideastorm.

6. The VW Darth ad cost $3.5 million to get 111 million views on the Super Bowl, but has gotten 56 million YouTube views for free in the year after.

7. A fast food company can get nearly 240,000 Friends de-friended on Facebook for a Whopper Sacrifice, sell 2.5 million “Burger King” video games, and get 400 million people tell a subservient chicken what to do.

8. A brand like Pepsi stopped its tradition of Super Bowls and celebrity spending for an altruistic, give money to good causes social media campaign that succeeded. And today they have shifted almost one third of their budget to interactive and social media.

9. An airline cared about a single passenger and his damaged baggage because he made a video that has been seen over 11 million times, helped drop United’s stock price by 180 million. He has now started his own consumer social media company for griping.

10. My cable company cares. Comcast doesn’t make me wait hours on the phone and for a tech to show up late in four hour blocks. They respond to my Tweets within minutes.

What signs of the groundswell have you noticed?