Celebrities on Twitter - How To Spot a Fake
Firstly, Why Do Celebrities Use Twitter?
Good question. Why do they do it?
There are two main reasons for this. Firstly it’s to promote themselves – or their latest album, or their television programmes, or their Presidential campaign, or whatever else is going on in their careers at the moment. And let’s face it, with a free Twitter account they could get a lot of free publicity by tweeting the odd update now and then. See my hub list of celebrity tweeters and you'll see there are quite a few of them!
The second reason is simply to connect with their fans. Some are more enthusiastic about this than others (HM the Queen has not posted one single Tweet and has not replied to my messages); the best ones actually respond to their fans and answer specific questions.
Arguably, the best celebrity Tweeters are those who do a mixture of both. They are also the ones who tweet regularly, rather than just tweeting a lot when they coincidentally have something to promote.
The cream of the crop are undoubtedly the ones who enjoy it the most. And of these, the British name Stephen Fry continually comes up as the top dog (see here for a full list). The writer and actor interacts with some of the people who ask him questions, and he clearly loves Twitter.
As such, he – and his followers – get the most out of the experience. Any celebrity trying to keep things one sided isn’t quite as exciting to follow somehow.
For a great set of twitter tips, read my 30 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Effectiveness On Twitter!
How To Spot A Fake Celebrity Twitter Account
Okay so we know there are plenty of celebrities who use Twitter. But who is for real?
Ghostwritten is not necessarily fake
Firstly, let's distinguish between genuine Twitter accounts that are ghostwritten - like Britney Spears and many others. These attempt to tweet a la Britney and are genuine attempts to make contact and keep in communication by people simply too busy to do it themselves. Yes, I write Twitters for other people. I'm a paid ghostwriter Twitter for hire, but that's a lot less glamorous than it sounds!
There are other twitter accounts that have nothing to do with the alleged celebrities, and are sheer faked.In my hub on celebrity twitter accounts, I list fakes so you can see who is known to be a fake. Do drop by and help keep it updated with all the latest!
So how exactly can you tell whether the celebrity you are following is the real deal or not?
The obvious signs
Well first you need to apply some common sense here. Like are they alive (yes seriously, see see Anna Nicole Smith's Twitter below), or are they an obvious spoof (See Sarah Palin below). Oddly enough, some Fake Twitters can be infinitely more interesting that the originals probably would be, with Sarah Palin being an obvious candidate springing to mind here.
Links to domains
The second thing to look for is links. Link to just one web domain hat isn't an official site usually tells you a FAKE TWITTER is simply trying to drive traffic to their site.
If you have a website of your own, the first thing you are going to do is to link that to your Twitter account – and more importantly, vice versa. So if you come across a ‘celebrity’ Twitter account, see if you can hunt down their website and find such a link.
Thirdly, if the celebrity is genuine they are bound to mention their Twitter presence in as many places as possible. So once again a little research here can often reveal whether they are the real thing.
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
But don’t just focus on the words. Think about the photo as well. Take a good look at the photo that’s being used for the account. Anything but a proper photo is bound to point to a fake. But you should look for easily accessible photos of that celebrity online. If you get a match very quickly then that’s a telltale sign that something’s not right.
And of course, you can also do some research online. There are actually people out there who make it their business to sniff out the real from the artificial.
For a full list of celebrity twitter users, see my hub. And oh yes, you can follow me on twitter here:
For a great set of twitter tips, read my 30 Simple Ways To Supercharge Your Effectiveness On Twitter!
This hub brought to you...
by Julie-Ann Amos, professional writer, paid twitter ghostwriter, and owner of international writing agency www.ExquisiteWriting.com
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