Ashton Kutcher at the Brainstorm conference earlier this year
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News)Everybody panic!
Seemingly unable to let any hot social media start-up escape his hunky clutches, it appears that actor and prolific Twitter oversharer Ashton Kutcher is now using where-you-at, ping-your-friends city guide app Foursquare. A tipster pointed me to a Foursquare account for user "aplusk," the same handle that Kutcher uses on Twitter for his 3 million-plus followers.
Is it real? Well, his friends include Digg founder (and occasional bromancer) Kevin Rose, videoblogging personality Justine Ezarik, and "mrskutcher," which is the Twitter username for his wife, actress Demi Moore. Since Foursquare requires mutual approval of friend connections, this would indicate that the likes of Rose and Moore believe the account to be legit. And since Kutcher's Twitter account is linked to the Foursquare profile, which requires using the Twitter log-in credentials, it's either legit or Kutcher's Twitter account has been hacked. (And there have been no indications as to the latter.)
So why is this important? Well, it could be pretty momentous for Foursquare if Ashton Kutcher sticks around.
All joking aside, the 31-year-old Kutcher has been a prominent, and admittedly important figure when it comes to bringing social-media tools into the mainstream. His race to beat CNN to 1 million Twitter followers (he won) was one of the publicity blitzes that put the name of the microblogging service on the pop-culture map. Foursquare, a tiny New York-based start-up that launched only six months ago out of the ashes of the ill-fated Dodgeball and still hasn't wrapped up a round of venture funding (though I hear they're working on it) could really get a boost from this--assuming their servers are ready for it.
But it also raises an important security question. Unless they're using Foursquare to broadcast their locations for promotional purposes (as some party photographers and DJs in NYC are already doing, and it'd be certainly interesting if Kutcher did something like this), celebrities using any kind of GPS-based or geolocation app could be making themselves vulnerable to varying degrees of annoyance ranging from pesky fans with cameras to full-on stalking. It could also make Foursquare an appealing target for hackers.
But I assume Kutcher, who seems like a pretty smart guy, will be careful with who he lets onto his friends list. Now for the real question: how long before he unlocks a "Crunked" badge?
UPDATE (1:06 p.m. PT): Just to clarify, a few people were under the impression Kutcher had already deleted his Foursquare account. That was actually due to a broken link in this blog post; Kutcher is, for the time being, still on Foursquare. (My bad.)
On a completely different note, I recommend reading this follow-up post on branding consultant Matt Spangler's blog about what Ashton Kutcher means for Foursquare.
Oprah's second-ever tweet. Um, yeah.
(Credit: Twitter)A correction was made to this post. See below for details.
Oprah's crazy about it. Ashton Kutcher and Anderson Cooper are making fools of themselves trying to show what rabid fans they are. Friday, April 17, 2009, will pretty much go down as the day when the loyally followed indie-rock band known as "Twitter" made its big major-label splash.
If it were the late '90s, this would be its big debut on "Total Request Live" with Carson Daly emceeing and a bunch of screaming girls outside waving posters with crudely drawn fail-whales and "MARRY ME, EVAN WILLIAMS!" scrawled on them. But in keeping with the '90s pop-culture references, it's starting to remind me a little bit too much of "That Thing You Do," the 1996 Tom Hanks flick about a one-hit-wonder pop band that has a smash hit in the wake of the '60s British Invasion and is then never heard from again after mainstream fame makes them more about the image and less about the music.
(Credit:
20th Century Fox)
The issue I have with all this Twitter mega-buzz is that it has the capacity to pack a double punch--in a bad way. First, the media blitz and celebrity endorsements can solidify it as a fad, like the momentarily trendy "pet rock" of Web 2.0. And second, it can tick off the early adopters, the ones who were really at the core of Twitter for its first few years as a geek cult phenomenon. There are already a few who aren't too thrilled about the fact that the Kutcher-CNN million-follower race appears to have been gamed by Twitter itself.
Mainstream success is great for Twitter, which is legitimately shaking up media and communications in ways that I don't think many people thought it would a few years ago. But I certainly hope that all the celebrity frenzy isn't veering it off course on its real, long-term development strategy. You know, like a business model. In "That Thing You Do," the band's descent into gimmickiness is best expressed by the fact that the manager, played by Hanks, suggests that the drummer always wear sunglasses onstage. Let's hope that the Ashton Kutcher-mania doesn't turn out to be the same for Twitter.
On the other hand, back in the '90s Kutcher was best known for playing a teenage stoner on "That '70s Show." I'm pretty sure no one thought he'd ever be heard from again.
Yikes! As a number of you have pointed out in the comments section, I goofed on the movie trivia. In "That Thing You Do," it was indeed the drummer who had to wear the sunglasses. We've fixed that, and thanks all for the catch. (1:22 p.m. PDT)
Updated at 11:15 AM with reports from users. See end of story.
Twitter is getting fishy. In the race between Ashton Kutcher (aplusk on Twitter) and the CNN Breaking News feed (CNNbrk) to get to 1 million followers first, Kutcher won. But was the race goosed by Twitter itself?
Can't unfollow Kutcher? Don't give up...
(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)Last night, various reports surfaced (see TechCrunch, for example) that while people could follow Kutcher and CNNbrk, they couldn't unfollow them.
But the real issue is this: The people of the world need a way to unfollow Kutcher, or whomever else they want to. The standard way of doing it, going to a Twitter user's update page, and pressing the "remove" button under the "Following" notification, doesn't work for the aplusk or CNNbrk accounts. You'll get an error.
This works. So long, Ashton!
(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)But here's how to get around that: Simply enter the update "off aplusk" or "off CNNbrk" in your Twitter status entry box, or in any Twitter client. This is the reverse of the command to follow someone, "f [name]." I confirmed that it works. I was listening to Kutcher before, and now I'm not.
The world is saved.
Update at 11:15 a.m. PDT: Reports are coming in that this method for unfollowing is not working reliably. My latest report: After following aplusk anew, I tried it once more and it didn't appear to work at first, but after a few minutes I confirmed that I had in fact unfollowed aplusk again. Also, I tried following and unfollowing aplusk directly from his own page, and that also worked, but I tried it again and got the old error message. Feel free to report your experiences in the comments below.
Related Twitter news:
Twitter's big day? Here comes Oprah
Ashton outmaneuvers CNN to 1 million on Twitter
Following the great Twitter race to 1 million
CNN acquires leading Twitter account
Moments after Ashton Kutcher became the first to a million Twitter followers, the actor touts his win over CNN.
(Credit: Twitter)This had to be one of the weirdest pieces of media I've ever seen: watching actor Ashton Kutcher, streaming live on the Web, and Anderson Cooper, broadcasting live on CNN, each pimping their Twitter accounts, trying to exhort the world to help them become the first to reach 1 million followers.
As Kutcher--as well as a host of guests at what I presume was his and wife Demi Moore's house, and even P. Diddy, who was on speakerphone at the house--put it, this was a battle between old-guard TV and newer-kid-on-the-block Web.
In the end, the battle to a million was about as close as it could be. And the winner late Thursday was Kutcher and the Web--never mind that Kutcher himself is a creature of old-guard TV and film.
Ashton Kutcher pops a bottle of champagne just seconds after realizing he'd won.
(Credit: UStream)He won by less than 2,000 total followers.
The race started heating up Wednesday when CNN acquired the @cnnbrk Twitter account--the largest Twitter account at the time with 947,000 followers. Kutcher was in second place at that point, with 917,000 followers.
Personally, I could care less about Kutcher's celebrity and his ability to get tons and tons of people to do the almost unbelievably easy task of clicking "follow" on his Twitter account. Rather, it was seeing this real-time face-off between Kutcher, streaming live on UStream, and Cooper, working it hard on his evening broadcast of "AC 360."
To be fair, Kutcher had an advantage: he was able to stay totally on message on his Web stream, while Cooper had to limit his exhortations to short bursts of enthusiasm sandwiched between, you know, real news stories.
Still, given the fact that there were clearly large numbers of people actively watching the battle, I have to admit that I'm surprised Cooper didn't cut to a report--and a live interview--with Kutcher once the victor was known.
So, variously, this was pure round-number stat cotton candy for the eyes, a down-to-the-wire, nail-biter race, and, I think, most importantly, a truly interesting and profound moment of genre vs. genre. Grassroots, democratic do-it-yourself Web streaming vs. big media at its most polished. Both reaching to the masses, referencing each other, live.
To be sure, the mixing of media is nothing new. But to me, and I'm certain many others who were watching the action live, there was something surreal about witnessing the urgency being expressed by both the guy in his living room and the guy on the professional news set, both being able to speak to theoretically unlimited numbers of people (well maybe not unlimited, but you know what I mean) and both standing tall for their medium.
Captivating stuff.
While CNN did not immediately report the news of Kutcher's victory, the network did offer congrats on its Twitter account.
(Credit: Twitter)Oh, and while I said I was surprised that Cooper didn't do an instant report on CNN about Kutcher's victory, that seems to be due to the limits of what TV allowed him to do. Like I said, he had news to report.
But over on the Web, where the linear constraints of TV don't apply, CNN's Twitter feed offered the network's well wishes.
"Congrats @aplusk," CNN's tweet read. "Ashton Kutcher is the first twitter account to reach 1MM followers."
Congrats, Ashton. And congrats, Web.
CNN gained nearly a million Twitter followers on Wednesday when it acquired the @cnnbrk Twitter account.
The account, the largest on Twitter with more than 947,000 followers, had been maintained and nurtured by James Cox. CNN did not disclose financial details of the acquisition, probably because rules at the microblogging site prohibit the selling of Twitter accounts.
The acquisition comes as the race to 1 million Twitter followers heats up. As of Wednesday afternoon, Ashton Kutcher was in second place with 917,000 followers, followed closely by Britney Spears, who has about 913,000 followers.
Kutcher publicly challenged CNN to a race to 1 million users on Tuesday in a video posted to Qik.com.
"I found it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter," Kutcher said. "And so I just thought that was just kind of an amazing comment on the state of our media, and I said that, if I beat CNN to 1 million viewers, then I would ding-dong ditch Ted Turner--because I don't think it's gonna happen."
CNN accepted Kutcher's challenge Tuesday on the "Larry King Show."
Kutcher, who is best known as star of TV's "That '70s Show" and husband of actress Demi Moore, has said he will donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day if he is first to 1 million followers.
Meanwhile, game publisher Electronic Arts is getting in on the action, promising to put Kutcher's 1 millionth follower in a future EA game and give that person a copy of every game EA produces in 2009--but only if Kutcher beats CNN to the million-follower mark.
Ashton Kutcher campaigns for 1 million followers on his Twitter page.
(Credit: CNET)
Ashton Kutcher
(Credit: Andrew Mager/CBS Interactive)
What a pairing: Hollywood slacker-hottie icon Ashton Kutcher and Silicon Valley slacker-hottie icon Kevin Rose have teamed up to create 24 Hours at Sundance, a Web-based reality show set at the eponymous film festival in Park City, Utah, later this week.
Backed by mobile live-streaming start-up Qik, the competition-focused show will pit four "social media mavens" against one another for 24 straight hours as they complete a set of challenges surrounding the annual film festival and broadcast them via Qik software on Nokia handsets. Rose (best known for founding Digg) and Kutcher, the Dude, Where's My Car actor whose production company Katalyst Media has created a Web show called Blah Girls, will co-host.
The four "social media mavens" are VentureBeat editor Matt Marshall, gadget blogger Meghan Asha, Konsole Kingz founder CJ Peters, and video blog personality Irina Slutsky.
"I kind of feel like there's been a trend in entertainment in general that moves toward a more visceral, more live experience," Kutcher told CNET News. "We have an idea of what we want to happen, but who knows what's actually going to happen."
Kevin Rose
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)"I don't think I've ever heard of anything else that's been done like this before, especially with the real time nature," Rose added. "It's only a matter of time before people in Hollywood and just everyone in general wants to participate and have a way to live-stream and connect with people they care about." Well, maybe not everyone.
From what it sounds like, dot-com culture geeks may find this fairly amusing. Kutcher told CNET News that one of the challenges will involve tracking down and interviewing dot-com icon Jason Calacanis, who will be present at Sundance. The Weblogs Inc. and Mahalo founder relocated to the L.A. area several years ago and has started to get a foothold in the Hollywood scene.
"It's unbelievable, it's like him versus (Robert) DeNiro for roles," Kutcher joked of Calacanis, who played himself in last year's film August, which chronicled a failing fictional dot-com. "It's getting out of control."
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