Oprah Archives by Mark Murnahan

This is not a review of Dancing with the Stars, and I have already told Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) that I dance like a goon.

If you are not already familiar with this blog, it may help to know that I wrote an article recently that criticized the highly publicized race between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN (@CNNBrk) to reach one million followers on Twitter. I look at this today and realize that nearly anybody could do that if they put the resource into the campaign that each of these giants did. There is even a billboard in my home town of Topeka, Kansas advertising to follow @aplusk on Twitter.

Ashton Followed My Twitter Feed

I have been asked a lot about the bar fight / dance-off talk on Twitter between Ashton Kutcher and myself. First, I want to say that there was no bar fight. Secondly, as of yet, we have not determined the venue for our dance off. However, Oprah’s show (@oprah) seems to be the crowd favorite. So what is the real story? Since I wrote a recent post criticizing the race between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN (@CNNBrk) I suppose it deserves this follow up.

The Ashton Kutcher Bar Fight

The story behind the bar fight is pretty simple. I sent a tweet as follows: “20 Athletes You Would Want with You in a Bar Fight http://bit.ly/hxNg0“. This tweet was subsequently retweeted (see tweet) by my friend, Phao Loo (@phaoloo). Ashton Kutcher follows Phao Loo’s tweets, and he liked it, so he retweeted it again (see tweet). The bar fight story was really this simple.

The Ashton Kutcher Dance-Off

Although there may be a dance-off, I have made Mr. Kutcher aware that I dance like a goon. However, I will be a willing participant if it should come to pass. Interestingly, the whole notion follows through nicely with some of what I believe his intended message was for CNN and Ted Turner. That message is that the little guy can still have a voice in social media, and can still make a difference in the world. The misguided part of that equation was that Ashton Kutcher is not the little guy. Unfortunately, Ashton did not have me on retainer at the time of his message, so a lot became blurred with many mixed signals and lack of solid personal branding.

Perhaps if Ashton Kutcher really wants to show the sincerity of his message, a better approach may be to come down to my level and visit with a guy who uses social media to build relationships and good will. Then perhaps he can win me over as an active part of his audience, and even his advocate. Beating all odds, he and I could work as a team to clear up his message and do some really properly meaningful things together. As it is, I have been bombarded with questions of what really took place, and whether I think he is genuine. To all of the many questions, I must say that I simply do not know, yet.

I have not made an attack on Ashton’s integrity, but I have had reason to criticize his signal. In my previous blog post on the matter, I made observations that his message is flawed, and that I do not respect much of what I observed. Perhaps a lot of that has to do with Hollywood, publicists, contracts, and a whole lot of time spent being desired by masses. I have a strong immunity to the whole celebrity bit. I have spent enough time with “the desired ones”, and also been the focus of some of the same. I do understand the awkward feeling of being envied, as certainly we all have for one reason or another. This transforms each of us differently on different levels. To me, it has made me work even harder to be real and to be humble. In Hollywood, this is a method that is often not embraced, or accepted properly when it is. After all, a little cockiness seems to make you cool. Sadly, the people it makes you cool with are the same people who are wearing a similar mask of blended pride and shame.

When it comes down to who the man is or what he intends, I do not know the answers about Ashton Kutcher. I will gladly welcome him to call me at *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE* on my nickel, join my Webcast as a co-host and come down to “the people’s” level, and I will gladly meet him for a dance-off and show just how horribly I dance.

The way it all went down was like a firestorm of tweets about a dance-off among my followers. Note that I follow well over 8,500 people’s Twitter feed, whereas Ashton followed (at the time) 84. Not only do I follow this many, I do so very actively, and as I write this, I have reached my 1000 direct message daily limit and I am waiting to be able to send direct messages again.

Within my Twitter friends rampant tweets, the speculation of a ghost tweeter was common, as were many RT, and questions of Ashton’s intent (PR, damage control, etc). So that there is no speculation, the Tweets we have shared, and some of the related communications surrounding the bar fight / dance-off tweets are as follows:

@murnahan: Hey, Ashton Kutcher just RT me. http://bit.ly/Gt5Yf LOL!

@kimsherrell: OH SNAP ~>more drama. @aplusk just RTd @murnahan. but did he read mark’s blog? http://bit.ly/4SBD8

@murnahan: ROFL! –> RT @KimSherrell: OH SNAP ~>more drama. @aplusk just RTd @murnahan. but did he read mark’s blog? http://bit.ly/4SBD8

@kimsherrell: WHOA @aplusk has challenged @murnahan to a bar fight?! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

@aplusk: @KimSherrell i don’t have time to go to kansas. I just find the assumptions to be interesting.

@aplusk: @murnahan Kind of ironic?

@murnahan: @KimSherrell I guess he did see it. 😉 http://bit.ly/9iHpE

Right about this time is when I realized (from a friend’s tweet) that @aplusk was following me. I was number 84 that he was following out of 1,234,083 following him. So the questions that came to mind was, whether he would still be following me tomorrow, and does this guy meet the criteria of those whom I prefer to follow?

@murnahan: @aplusk Are you an OK guy after all? I like seeing that you are listening. 😉 Dance off, huh? LOL I dance like a goon!

@aplusk: @murnahan lets dance brother. I think you paint interesting picture with your words.

@murnahan: @aplusk Thanks! Do you need any help at the TweetDeck? http://bit.ly/AKIra

@aplusk: @murnahan no I’m quite efficient i’m sure @oprah could use a tutorial though

@murnahan: Well then hook me up, brother. LOL –> RT @aplusk: @murnahan no I’m quite efficient i’m sure @oprah could use a tutorial though

@aplusk: @murnahan you wouldn’t want to teach her she might ruin the platform by connecting with too many people

@aplusk: @murnahan or she might end up saving lives…

@murnahan: Well, @oprah, @aplusk said you may need a hand. http://bit.ly/2zog7w – REF: http://bit.ly/NHRbb

@kimsherrell: ashton kutcher now following mark murnahan. thank you + good night.

@kimsherrell: LOL… a low-budget internet musical: @aplusk versus @murnahan – http://bit.ly/dgyxa

@murnahan: Hey Ashton (@aplusk), I am following you back now, but don’t go messing up my reputation. 😉

There were many more tweets about this, but I must stop at some point. For more tweets relating to this, click here for a Twitter search and refine the search to find related information.

Will There Be a Dance-Off Between @aplusk and @murnahan?

To answer the question of whether there will ever be a dance-off between us, only time will tell. I may never hear from Ashton again, or we may turn out to grow a mutual respect for each other. Who knows? To my notion, Ashton is a funny and talented guy. I simply do not believe that social media stunts last all that long, and I am here for the long-term, just as I have been since the 90’s with my Yahoo! chat clubs, where I met my wife.

I want to hear your thoughts. Please give your comments here on this blog, and feel free to give other readers your Twitter username in the form of http://twitter.com/murnahan (substitute the murnahan part).

I want to start by saying that from most I have seen and heard of Oprah (@oprah), she is an absolute doll. I love the heartfelt message that she represents to the world, and I hold her in very high regard. She has clearly surrounded herself with an aura of absolute attraction. I believe that she truly is the beautiful person she presents herself to be.

The Burning Question: Will Oprah Ruin Twitter?

Obviously, Oprah would not, and could not ruin Twitter. However, the power of her influence could have damaging effects on the fledgling community. I recently questioned the responsiveness of Twitter to the recent Mikeyy worm, and received many confirmations that the Twitter community was very unhappy with the company’s lack of communication regarding what to do about the worm. Some will recall that I was the first on the scene with the second outbreak and set the top trend on Twitter that late night and early morning. It left me with concerns about Twitter. So, let’s say Twitter is actually up to the task from a technology standpoint, as big a stretch as that may be. For this point, we will assume that Twitter made some miracle fix to the Fail Whale and speed problems of the service in the past couple days.

The concern about the Oprah Winfrey show is not about Oprah, but rather what happens with the sudden boom of any product or service. With sudden growth comes sudden growing pains. There will likely be a substantial enough fluctuation in new users that as an existing community, we may find difficulties in accommodating.

Be Ready for Twitter Newbies!

Along with the growth will likely come a huge number of people here for the wrong reasons or with bad methods. After all, how many people have you seen start twittering with a me, me, me message to advertise their goods or services only to become a really fine twitizen a short time later. We must allow patience and understanding, and show that Twitter is a great place to settle in, relax, and build great relationships. However, in the beginning, this may be a challenge. An additional challenge is that it may be much harder to discern true spammers with great people just trying to get started. Most users eventually develop their own system of deciding which users to follow, and which to block. This comfortable system could be thrown into a complete upset with a massive mainstream influx in users.

I certainly welcome the many newbies. I really hope that they will find me for some early tips on how to play nice. I am not saying that I am a Twitter teddy bear or anything like that, but I do have a few tips to offer, and I certainly understand the great value of developing friendships using Twitter.