Comments on: What 1 Million Twitter Followers Really Means and why we Should Unfollow Ashton Kutcher on Monday

By: Susan Murphy

Susan Murphy — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:24:12 +0000

I appreciate what you are saying Andrew. I’m sure that Kutcher’s brand is well orchestrated no matter where he appears.

As for the imbalance of power – if you don’t want his influence it’s as simple as an unfollow. I’ve never followed the guy and am not impacted in the least by his ego or his brand.

In that sense, I believe I ultimately hold the power.

Thanks for an engaging discussion!

By: Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:58:41 +0000

Sorry Clement I do not have a link to twitter talking about why, all I know is what I heard on twitter and through other blogs.

By: Clement

Clement — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:17:35 +0000

@Andrew Mueller: Do you have a link to the post/page where Twitter says it was a technical issue?

By: Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:04:25 +0000

To the best of my understanding Twitter says it was a technical issue caused by too many people following too quickly. I could be wrong. Regardless, it seems that it was fixed by Monday.

By: Clement

Clement — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:30:37 +0000

BTW, why was twitter preventing people from unfollowing @aplusk? Twitter must explain this unusual behavior. I am beginning to think that this might have been a well planned contest aimed at ensuring that all three parties (CNN, Twitter, Kutcher) getting something out of it.

By: Jonathan Mueller

Jonathan Mueller — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:24:57 +0000

I think this is all very silly. If the goal of social media was to ensure that everyone had an equal voice then the platform would have limitations and reward people like a pyramid marketing scheme. I’ll call it Twitway. We’ll only allow you to have 100 followers and you better weed out the bad ones. Only choose those who will Retweet you often. Now you have to monitor them to ensure that they are retweeting to retweeters But then again, someone will just create a script to retweet all the tweets, rendering the whole ponzi-like scheme useless

By: Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:05:50 +0000

Thanks for commenting, Actually I have no feelings either way about Ashton Kutcher. It is the issue that I care about. I am sure that Ashton Kutcher had numerous reasons for doing what he did and Ego is likely one.

By: cardiogirl

cardiogirl — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:46:20 +0000

Um, amen completely and totally to your explanation to Sue and Danny. And the choir is giving a hallelujah.

When I first heard of this goal of Kutcher reaching one million followers I thought it just smacked of him stroking his ego.

And that’s exactly what it’s doing — making him realize how important he is in his own mind and in the minds of his followers.

Not a big fan.

By: Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:35:29 +0000

Hello Danny,

Thanks for your comment, I can appreciate your points. Please take a look at my reply to Sue.

By: Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:34:17 +0000

Hello Sue, thanks for your comment. I will answer you and Danny together.

Yes, Celebrities do care if their followers are pleased, but that is not the point. The point is to bring awareness to the power imbalances inherent in social media. -”as this event signifies a milestone of relevance for social media, it simultaneously signifies the imbalance of power inherent within”.

Celebrities are brands and to understand this whole ordeal we must define brand. I like @martyneumeiers definition of brand, “the customers gut feeling about a product, service or company. Celebrities are both a product and a company. Ashton used twitter as a platform for brand management, as he should, and did so very effectively. Until now corporate media controlled almost all influence of a celebrities brand; Ashton demonstrated that he can take matters of branding into his own hands. This is great but at the same time he may have a disproportionate amount of influence on social media chanels similar to the influence differential in corporate media.

As for the the mosquito nets and bringing awareness to the horrors of Malaria, BRAVO. I cannot commend him more! a beautiful thing to do and a highly effective move for his brand. But that is said and done, now there are more issues to raise, things to talk about, and inequities to understand.

It is doubtful that we will even come close to the goal of reducing Ashtons follower count to below 1 million, but if we raise awareness to the issues of power imbalances across all media channels we have succeeded.