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The race for a million Twitter followers, Ashton Kutcher's influence and Hugh Jackman's Twitter gaffe

Venturebeat's MG Seigler has written an article on, "Who will be the first to a million followers on Twitter?".

CNN Breaking News, Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher all now have over 750,000 followers. That's quite incredible and when you think that each message they post goes out 750,000 times, it puts into perspective how hard Twitter's often berated servers must be working just serving those three users (who pay nothing for it, incidentally).

What Venturebeat also mention is influence on Twitter. With an estimated 8-10 million unique users, the person or company who gets to a million followers first will have "influence" over 10% of the entire network. I don't believe "influence" is the right word here - "reach" may be more appropriate - but either way, reaching 10% of any multi-million-user social network is remarkable on figures alone. (See earlier posts on Twitter influence here.)

Ghost writer
Another semi-interesting story on Twitter yesterday was Hugh Jackman's gaffe, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Spot the mistake? Jackman calls the world famous Opera House the Opera Center (and "Centre" with an -er, no less).

Of course, the Aussie actor knows full well it's the Opera House, but apparently the assistant who does his ghost writing for him on Twitter did not. Oops. Maybe time for an iPhone and Twitterfon, eh Mr. Wolverine?

Online influence is about to get the attention it needs

The ever-expanding types of online mediums - traditional websites, blogs, social networks, social portals, twitter, friendfeed and so on - have trampled all over many traditional models and concepts.

Online influence is one of those things. It's been sliced and diced so much it looks like one of Dexter's victims, a concept so butchered, miscommunicated and poorly understood and explained, that it's really quite hard to make head or tail of it. (As an aside, even Technorati has completely stuffed their influence rankings in recent times, and they're supposed to be the Web 2.0 kings of it.)

With some news today, I have high hopes things are about to change, as Ross Dawson officially announced some new focuse areas for his work:

"Last year I realized that a large proportion of my interests could be encapsulated in two key themes: 


1. The future of the enterprise

2. The future of influence

The first examines how organizations will evolve and what they must do to be successful in an intensely complex and competitive world.

The second looks at how messages disseminate when traditional media is being trumped by social media. Together they bring together the inside and the outside, the twin domains in which open communication is transforming business and society.

Having focused deeply for a while on the future of the enterprise, for the next period my attention will shift significantly to the future of influence."

If there's a person I'd expect to properly understand this topic and make it an understandable, workable concept for the rest of us, it's Ross.

Subsequently, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this work develops. It has huge relevancy for the understanding of online communication and its value and dynamics for businesses (internally and externally) and individuals alike.