I read an article earlier today in Ad Age about celebrities who have “Phantom Facebook” pages and other social media accounts that they are not managing on their own.
This reminded me of a conversation I had a few weekends ago with some of my buddies. After getting extremely addicted to Twitter, I began following celebrities such as The_real_shaq, LanceArmstrong and Penn Jillette. My friends seemed skeptical that it was actually the celebrities writing these updates while I stood my ground that it was.
Another posting at a blog I frequent, Flagged for Follow up, reinforced me belief that these individuals, among many others, seem to truly be writing their own twitter pages. They are too detailed not to be! Penn Jillette talking about what they are doing on the set of BS or Shaq talking about how he is trying to convince Steve Nash into joining Twitter. This kinda stuff cant be made up!
Now, I cant vouch for my lunatic friend who thought he was truly beginning a relationship with with Ashley Olsen on Facebook, (which I am almost 100% sure was not really her, although I have been wrong before), but I think this raises an interesting question. How should the readers know who is real and who isn’t? How are we supposed to know that its not just some wackjob with too much time on their hands impersonating a celebrity?
It seems like there is no conclusive way to know for sure.
I for one believe that it is highly likely that they are who they say they are, even though Barack Obama did not accept my connection on LinkedIn. I guess he was too far along in the presidential race at that point.