Social networking wunderkind and That ’70s Show star Ashton Kutcher delivered a
talk on new media at the Bezeq Expo in Tel Aviv on Monday, where he provided
tips on how to use new forms of communication and networking to market
Israel.
“The first thing I would do is ask you, who do you want to market
to? Because a general marketing campaign for the whole world doesn’t work; in
some parts of the world they won’t like the message, and in other parts of the
world they will,” he said. “The first thing you need to decide is who do you
want to influence and what do you want to say to them.”
Kutcher, who this
year was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the
world for his mastery of social networking, said Israel must figure out which
groups to target, by “being honest with them and having open, candid
conversations about what Israel is and who it is, because the people here are
amazing – the young people here are amazing. The entrepreneurs here are
incredible.”
RELATED:Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore share 'love and light' in IsraelKutcher added that Israel needs to showcase its “smart,
intelligent, bright, caring people who are looking for solutions in the
world.”
He spoke of a meeting he attended on Sunday with Israeli
alternative-energy guru Shai Agassi, saying, “It’s a travesty that the US isn’t
already working with them.
This is an Israeli country.
Show people
that; encourage them to see what’s going on here. You should have this
open-ended conversation about what’s going on here.”
Kutcher’s wife,
actress Demi Moore, attended Monday’s talk, but was shuffled out after her
husband’s speech before the cameraphone- wielding minions could descend on her.
Kutcher admitted that he and his wife often sit at home Tweeting to one another
while sitting in the same room.
Hours after the talk, Kutcher turned to
his favorite soapbox, Tweeting “Rocking out the Bezeq expo. Love getting a
glimpse of the future.”
He is consistently rated as the “most-followed”
user on Twitter, with 5,914,509 followers at last count.
Kutcher is an
avid follower of Kabbala, and in 2005 married Moore in a private ceremony
officiated by a rabbi from the Kabbala Center in Los Angeles. Rumors have
circulated that Kutcher and Moore plan to renew their vows during this visit to
Israel.
The annual Bezeq Expo is one of the largest events in the Israeli
communications industry and highlights a wide-range of Israeli innovations. This
year’s theme was “Communications in a Multidimensional World.”
For
Kutcher’s sake, let’s hope one of those dimensions will have access to Twitter.