Culture

Attack of the Ghost Tweets: Celebs Ain't Doin' it for Themselves

by Truemorist | March 27, 2009 at 08:49 am

2140 views | 2 Recommendations | 7 comments

Why spend all your time and energy trying to get popular on Twitter when you can pay someone else do it for you?

There ain't no secret to social media success, folks — and in today's class we're going to show you how to get 100,000 Twitter followers in 3 easy steps.

How to be a Twitter-famous:
1) Already be famous.
2) Get a Twitter account.
3) Hire someone to do the work for you.

In a Twizard of Oz-esque tweest of fate on Thursday night, the New York Times revealed that many of Twitter's top-tweeting celebrities have (gasp!) not been typing their own tweets.

The shock! The horror! The insanity!

As it turns out, many famous folks simply don't have the time and energy to dream up an entire 140 character updates all by themselves — so they've brought in other, better Twitter-ers to get their tweet on.

So let's recap this swift swindle by compiling a list of the newly-outed, upper echelons of the Ghost Twitterati:

@50Cent = Eric Romero
@BritneySpears = Adam Leber / Lauren Kozak
@GuyKawasaki = Annie Colbert

For his part, Kawasaki is unabashed about his use of 'ghost tweeters':

Why does it matter who is doing the tweeting? Either the content is good or not good. I’d rather follow a smart intern tweeting for a CEO than an dumb CEO tweeting for himself or herself. Twitter is great that way: Everybody, no matter who they are, gets 140 characters. Then you have to earn your followers and keep earning their allegiance with every tweet.

But that hasn't stopped some from unfollowing Kawasaki over this alleged digital duplicity:

RT @rachelsklar: Unfollowed @guykawasaki b/c of ghost-twittering. It doesn't have to be you, but if you represent as such, that's skeevy

That said, while other celebs like Ashton and mrskutcher, Shaq, and Lance Armstrong may indeed by "real", a great many other good 'n bad celebrifake accounts abound on Twitter.

Do you really think Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi and Snoop Dogg are tweetin' it up on the daily?

Help us compile a list of the Ghost Tweeters behind these famous faces.

Send us your tips and we'll make them known to the Twitterverse.

Of course, all of this leaves us scratching our heads wondering, in an echo Valleywag's "Everyone's Real Fake on Twitter" if this is really what it's come to:

“That’s the grand irony of Twitter: Even the real people on the service are fake. They are their own simulacra. No one actually lives their life 140 characters at a time. What we do is turn ourselves into works of fiction.”

Trick or tweet? You decide.

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Jarrett Martineau

at 10:20 on March 27th, 2009

Haha. You are a many of many tweeting talents!

JeffreyBurroughs (not verified)

at 13:08 on March 27th, 2009

The Steve Buscemi one is real. I live in Park Slope and have seen him at Cocoa Bar on his iPhone, smiling to himself just minutes before a relevant tweet.

Truemorist

at 14:39 on March 27th, 2009

Good to know! But the Christopher Walken account sounds like it isn't real — after all of the uproar earlier today, Twitter suspended @cwalken's account.

Lisa Fields (not verified)

at 02:37 on March 28th, 2009

When I first saw this quote from Guy Kawasaki I was disgusted and actually surprised: "Why does it matter who is doing the tweeting? Either the content is good or not good. I’d rather follow a smart intern tweeting for a CEO than a dumb CEO tweeting for himself or herself.”

It matters who's doing the twittering because when I see a picture next to the dialog box I simply believe the picture represents the person who is doing the communication. When President Obama became our President his twittering simply stopped because he knew the responsibility of the office would not allow him to continue to use this method of communication.

Mr. Kawasaki I'd rather follow a CEO who tells the truth. If the CEO does his/her own tweets then I have the ability to judge whether I think the CEO is the "sharpest or dullest crayon in the box."

Transparent leadership is important to President Obama, Tony Hseih CEO of Zappos and other “official leaders” who display honesty and integrity on a daily basis.

I'm glad Mr. Kawasaki has now been honest about his dishonesty. Yes, you do have to earn your followers and keep earning their allegiance with every tweet. Now with this information I'm going to use the power of my choice and "un-follow" Guy Kawasaki.

"We are associated by the company we keep."

Lisa Fields

nopking (not verified)

at 23:39 on March 28th, 2009

"When President Obama became our President his twittering simply stopped because he knew the responsibility of the office would not allow him to continue to use this method of communication. "

Ms. Fields, if you believe this you are a complete and utter dolt. If in fact you believed that he actually was the Twitter'r you are a complete and utter dolt. In extraordinary fact, if you believe that the man who can't give up his crackberry phone had to stop Twittering becuase of his 'responsibility of the office' you are an amazingly simpleminded dolt and I am surprised you are able to operate in society.

... And yet, there are probably millions of you out there. That's truly scary.