Ashton Kutcher, star of The Butterfly Effect and Just Married, is also something of a social media star and I think he is pointing the way to how people will interact with celebrity in future, not least via mobile.

Kutcher is adept at Twitter, Facebook and Qik. The last of these is the most interesting.

First of all Kutcher, though, is blazing a trail in all social media for celebrities. No longer need they be at the mercy of their publicists and an “event”. Events like movie launches can keep them out of the headlines for two years – between movies.

The power of social media means they can stay in the public eye on their terms, without selling gossip to hello and OK! They can build relationships with fans. And they can use this to negotiate their sponsor contracts.

An underused benefit of Qik is that it provides the most appropriate medium within which a movie star, or actor, comedian or other visual artist, can connect with audience continuously. It isn’t exactly a harbinger of OK!’s demise but it is a sign that celebrity is about to change once more – this time driven by mobile. Ashton has about 150 Qik movies up there along with wife Demi.

I was trying to embed an Ashton Qik video in to the post to demonstrate…. but strange to report Ashton has disabled embedding.

Here in its place is a video from Katalyst HQ, an online web serial that “parodies” life in Ashton’s media firm Katalyst Media. It has according to Fast Company magazine had millions of reposts on Katalyst’s Facebook page at an average of 65 views per fan page – more evidence of Ashton the sharp social media cookie.

A bit more depressing is Kutcher and wife Demi Moore’s twitter flirting! All very public.