Friday, July 31, 2009

My Twitter experiment

I see I have a little over a thousand people following me on Twitter. First off, thank you followers. I’ll be tweeting more often now that I know what a tweet is. (recent example: I'm only sorry John Updike is not still with us. Imagine him on Twitter? I'd love to see him try to get a single thought into 140 words.)

So anyway, with that as an idea of the solid gold you might receive from me on a somewhat regular basis, along with updates on new blog posts, I’d like to try a little experiment. I’d like to see if I can get more people to sign up for my Twitter account this weekend.

The goal: 4,563,472.

By Monday.

It’s kind of like a telethon except there’s no good cause and no Norm Crosby or Tony Orlando to provide entertainment. On the other hand, I’m not going to go all “Gene Scott” on you either. Gene Scott was an LA televangalist in the 80s who owned a local station way up on the dial. He was on the air 24/7 teaching the gospel, but 23/7 of it was pimping for money. And I’ll be honest, I don’t think Jesus saw one dime of the return. Gene would sit on a big wooden throne adorned with buffalo horns and yell at you to pick up the phone. Sometimes with utter contempt he would just stare at you… for an hour. Eventually the FCC kicked him off the air. Too bad. Even just staring, he was still more entertaining than half the cable networks on today. But I digress.

I want to test out this whole “viral” theory. So if you sign up, and tell one friend, and maybe mention it once on your Twitter page I should be able to get 4,563,472 followers lickity split!

So just click on this link or the Twitter icon.

I'll be updating all weekend on Twitter to let you know how I'm doing.

Again, thanks for your support. And bless you my children.

Update: 11:30 PDT. 1,130. Off to a bit of a slow start.

15 comments :

Anonymous said...

Ken:
If you can top Ashton Kutcher, you will be my new hero!

Allison Williams said...

Amanda Palmer (of the Dresden Dolls) wrote a wonderful blog post about how she's made a lot more money off of Twitter-based events than from her major label contract. Interesting stuff. Here's an interview about it:
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/07/interview-amanda-fucking-palmer-answers-the-critics-of-her-success-part-3-.html

Unknown said...

Good luck! Already signed up and send it to friends in the biz as well...

Tallulah Morehead said...

"Richard Jensen said...
Ken:
If you can top Ashton Kutcher, you will be my new hero!"

I had no idea that Ashton was a bottom. I should have guessed though. Demi Moore IS awfully butch. So is Bruce Willis a bottom too? Oh of course, he's named Bruce. It's all so clear to me now.

Donna said...

Done!

impwork said...

Well a huge obvious link in your post might help too. I know it sounds stupid but anyone reading you through a feed reader only gets a link to a picture of a bird that says follow me...

Rays profile said...

As soon as I find you, I'm there.

VWL chomill: a building that churns out female Korean comics.

Christopher D. Hall said...

Gene Scott was awesome. Some crazy lawyer in my town liked him and bribed Cox Cable God knows how much money to put him on the basic cable line up here.

Yeah, the staring was good, but I liked it best when he would curse and blow cigar smoke into the camera.

Mike from Atlanta said...

Dr. Gene is still on the air (although he is dead) on a 24 hour Satellite channel that his wife runs and appears on.

I worked at a TV station in the mid 80's that aired Dr. Gene at midnight. Sometimes he would get mad that not enough people were calling in pledges. He would then tell the viewers that unless they started calling in more, he would leave the air. We would sometimes join the broadcast and all there would be on the screen was an empty chair. The chair would stay empty for the next hour or so.

joecab said...

Might be nice if, oh I dunno, clicking on the bird pic brought you over to your Twitter page? *smack upside yo haid*

John said...

The goal: 4,563,472.

By Monday.


And Monday evening are you going to Twitter "You'll Never Walk Alone?" and Tweet a picture of you in front of the tote board?

playfull said...

Ok, i'll ask. Why 4,563,472 ?

BTW i'm already in the 1st 1,000.

Emmett Flatus said...

If the FCC tossed Gene Scott off AM radio he found his second and third winds on satellite. He begged 24/7 on Galaxy 5 and showed off his Playboy Bunny groupies. Last I checked he was still on C-band though he died some ten years ago.

Joey H said...

Used to swing the C-band dish over to Gene Scott's channel occasionally. Never failed to entertain. Sometimes it would just be video of him driving a speed boat full of girls in bikinis.

Paul Duca said...

Gene Scott? Why don't you go all Oral Roberts on us and say God will call you home if you don't get enough Twitters?