Ashton Kutcher, media mogul, leapfrogs newspapers in "subscribers"
Submitted by Steve Nelson on Wed, 2009-06-03 16:24.
Ashton Kutcher | media | newspapers | social media | twitter
 
Ashton Kutcher now has more subscribers on Twitter than any US newspaper except USA Today and Wall Street Journal has for its paper news.
He's closing fast on those two that one. (In the one day since I started writing this blog, he's surpassed the Wall Street Journal).
If you don't think the comparison counts, I wonder how many of his 2 million followers buy or read paper news as regularly as they check Twitter?
How does this flocking behavior work in social media? Kind of like this (RT @aplusk):
Followers do not equal Subscribers
Steve,
You asked, "I wonder how many of his 2 million followers buy or read paper news as regularly as they check Twitter?"
The answer is probably more than you think, but perhaps less than I would hope.
I'm not convinced that very many of Mr Kutcher's 2 million Twitter Followers are reading his tweets (or anyone's for that matter). Why? Followers do not equal Subscribers.
How many people sign up with Twitter, tweet a few times and then never return to the site? I recently read the average number of tweets by Twitter users is approximately one, so I suspect that the answer to my question is many, if not most.
The fact that Mr Kutcher is so popular on Twitter says a lot about his celebrity and Twitter users, but I think its a stretch to compare his "audience," however attentive it may be, to the audiences of USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, or any other major news daily, ie their subscribers read, and can be counted on to read, their content, whereas Twitter users can not.
Btw, I read paper news daily and follow Mr. Kutcher on Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter at: twitter.com/kuleanadesign