Within the last 24 hours, Twitter has reached historic milestones. Ashton Kutcher marked 1 million+ followers. CNN followed shortly after. And, yes my friends, (drum roll please) today: Oprah will send her first Tweet on national television. This occasion has some asking: Will Oprah's endorsement ruin Twitter's underground geek appeal? Will Twitter explode to mainstream adoption? But, after checking out Oprah's Twitter profile myself, it had me asking: Who the heck are the other 34 Oprahs on Twitter?Persona hijacking isn't new to Social Networking. In fact, Carri Bugbee has built an entire business model around it. Bugbee is the mastermind behind creating faux Twitter personas of characters from the AMC network series Madmen. In this Ad Age interview, Bugbee describes the extensive effort she made to not only create an authentic persona of the fictional character Peggy Olson (and later other characters) but to find other Twitter conversation about MadMen and join it. In fact, last fall, I wrote on Organic's ThreeMinds about my shock of being contacted by "Peggy Olson" after complimenting her new haircut on Twitter. Turns out, it was Carri Bugbee behind the thank you Tweet to me. Bugbee's Tweets as Peggy Olson generated a following of over 12,000 people. Her efforts have been recognized in the first ever Knight foundation Shorty awards.
Bugbee's initiative was not endorsed or approved by AMC and Madmen - but they were thrilled with the end payoff. And, it has led to Bugbee starting her own Twitter ad agency, Supporting Characters to help other entertainment entities achieve similar results. However she is careful to point out in her blog, the differences between Brand Advocacy and Brand hijacking:
"There may be a fine line between brand advocacy and brand hijacking. I firmly believe that Mad Men on Twitter is pure brand advocacy, but that's also because I've interacted with them myself and know they all have the interests of the show as their focus. Brands should act as facilitators and the starters of the conversation. Brands who are social media savvy will be in the space themselves and engaging with their customers. Hijacking suggests malevolence so rather than just unleashing lawyers willy nilly, check out what is being said and only engage legal when absolutely necessary."
Besides creating fake profiles for others, Bugbee admits to having multiple Twitter profiles for herself - based on subject matter. One profile covers her expertise in social media while another covers her love for Jazz music. So, is having multiple personalities for yourself acceptable on Social Networks?
There seem to be two schools of thought on this. In a recent conversation with Organic's Executive Director, Emerging Platforms, Chad Stoller, he jokes: "For some on Twitter, it has become a contest of who can read the fastest. There are people simply Tweeting news that others are writing and yet they have nothing interesting to talk about themselves."
Many social networking experts insist a varied and multi-faceted approach to your on-line conversation is more dynamic and interesting to followers. Some of the best advice I've heard about creating great short content is to get out from behind your computer and live - so you have new and interesting things to discuss.
On the other hand, there are purists that believe your blog, or micro-blog in this case, should be strictly about one subject. They may have a point. Typically, I Tweet about Social Networking for Job Search. But occasionally, I throw in some personal observations or experiences - completely unrelated. Earlier this week, I commented on how happy I was my husband had prepped our taxes and April 15 was stress free for me. According to Qwittter, an app I downloaded to monitor when people stop following me on Twitter, six people unfollowed me after that Tweet.
Hmmm... maybe I should have Tweeted that post to my "Wives Who Hate Filing Taxes" profile. On second thought, I'll wait for someone else to create that persona for me.
Traci Armstrong
Strategists & Planners
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