Users In Disguise: Fake Twitter Accounts

Image Credit: "Ridiculous" By victoriafee

Fake Twitter accounts can be annoying, and sometimes they can be ingenious. The idea of a fake twitter account is acting like someone believable enough that everyone thinks you are that person.

Everyone wants to follow them to see what amusing tweets they post next, so they end up having real influence. @BronxZooCorba has an influence on Klout of 88 with over 50,000 unique tweets. @Darthvader has a Klout of 78.

These fake twitter accounts (see also parody twitter accounts) work because the voice is unique and authentic. Imagine if a school mascot, like Florida Southern‘s Mocise, talked about campus events in a voice unique to the mascot.

Take for instance @BronxZooCorba. The Bronx Zoo had a corba escape. The Twitter account is the corba’s encounters throughout the city. Even after the real corba was captured, the tweets continued.

The snake visits ball games and comments on tourists. This account has the potential to be a great asset to the NYC bureau of tourism or business.

I think there is real potential for a business with a mascot or spokesperson to create a fake twitter account to generate publicity and leads.

What’s your favorite fake twitter account?

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UPDATE: PR Daily posted an article that gives the 3 social media lessons from @bBronxZooCorba. You can read the article here.

Facebook Lets It All Hang Loose

Image Credit: "New Facebook Terms Allows Confiscating Furniture" By HubSpot

 

Whenever you add the latest app on Facebook, do you ever consider what you’re allowing them access to? How valuable are your email and phone number?

In an article posted on Mashable.com, @SarahFKessler looked at Facebook’s decision to allow third-party apps to access individual user’s information.

Since I’ve started using Facebook, there have always been tons of apps that seem essential to my interaction on the site. From Farmville to AOL, I love the idea of connecting all my sites with a single login. I have fewer passwords to keep track of this way!

However, consumers of Facebook have long faced the paradox of privacy and connecting. We inherently can’t connect with people unless we share something with them.

On Saturday, Facebook will launch the first verison of their new privacy policy. It will be devoid of all the lawyer-ish jargon that some complain makes the current version hard to understand.

I don’t think most people will bother looking at it. After all, nobody reads EULA’s anymore either (if they ever read them…) Do you think Facebook and lawmakers should protect us from own ignorance about privacy?

Tweet Your Speech

Image Credit: "the 44th President of the United States...Barack Obama" By jmtimages

When President Obama gave his 2011 State of the Union address, I was at home watching and tweeting.

I could comment and like some quotes. I also replied to comments friends made. Some comments were witty and others were not.

Regardless, this marks the first time that I sat through an entire state of the union address. How did I manage that? I think the comments on twitter and Facebook made the engagement… fun.

From a PR perspective, Obama’s simultaneous tweets during the speech was amazing. Congress.org wrote an article that highlighted that most of his quote were 140 characters or less. Almost as though the speech was written for tweeter.

The article asks whether twitter has become the new sound bite. I think the answer can be seen when you look at the number of media outlets that use screenshots of tweets.

Do you think his speech was written for twitter? If so, is Obama doing for social media what JFK did for television?