Ashton Kutcher Or Kevin Rose, Whose Tweets Are Worth More?

Whose tweets lead to more actual sales, Ashton Kutcher’s or Kevin Rose’s? The answer is not immediately obvious. Kutcher boasts 7.3 million Twitter followers to Rose’s 1.3 million, but a recent promotion run by design shopping site Fab.com suggests that raw numbers don’t always translate to more sales.

Both Kutcher and Rose recently tweeted out a link that gave their followers $10 off any purchase at Fab.com. Fab wrote a blog post about the marketing test. Kutcher’s link resulted in 5,888 signups, more than Rose’s 4,356 (but not much more). But Rose’s links resulted in more orders and higher revenues.

More of Rose’s followers passed the link along, and they also ordered more. On the first day of the promotion, Kutcher’s followers placed 45 orders, compared to 30 for Rose’s followers. But daily orders from Kutcher’s followers peaked at 75, whereas Rose’s peaked at 158 a week later (see chart, Rose’s is the yellowish line). In terms of total sales, Rose brought in $7,121 versus only $2,183 for Kutcher.

These are exactly the kind of metrics more startups should be reporting. They get at the value per share, and are much more useful than the usual vanity metrics startups put out all too regularly. Both Kutcher and Rose are investors in Fab, which recently switched from being a gay social network to a shopping site.

Using celebrities to promote sales is a growing trend in social commerce. Gilt recently tapped into Lady Gaga fans and One Kings Lane did a promotion with designers from a Bravo show.