You're Using Twitter (Whether You Like It Or Not)
I stumbled across this article on Problogger.net which brings up an interesting point about social media sites like Twitter.
When Seth Godin isn't Seth Godin
Seth Godin (he of Purple Cow and Squidoo fame) had, as of the time of the article being written, over 1400 Twitter followers. Most of those followers were presumably people who admired Mr. Godin and wanted a venue to interact with him. The only thing is that Seth Godin wasn't using Twitter.
Apparently someone had set up an account in Seth's name and was using it to disseminate his blog posts to people following him on Twitter. Fortunately, the person behind the fake Seth account appeared to only be using it for this purpose, so in a sense, it was free publicity.
The bigger point is that anyone could open an account in your name on Twitter or other social media sites, pose as you, and do things that could be detrimental to your reputation, whether it be spamming people, giving out inaccurate advice or just generally being a douchebag.
(Mentioned in the article was the fact that even though the faker wasn't doing anything inherently malicious, some of Seth's unsuspecting followers were put off by the fact that "he" wouldn't ever reply to anything they said and only seemed interested in promoting his blog posts.)
I'm not sure what legal actions might apply if you caught someone posing as you online (I'd imagine you could send the offender a cease and desist letter or have the site shut their account down?), but if your social media brand is important to you, and especially if you're fairly well known, you may want to consider opening an account in your name, before someone else does.
Your thoughts?
When Seth Godin isn't Seth Godin
Seth Godin (he of Purple Cow and Squidoo fame) had, as of the time of the article being written, over 1400 Twitter followers. Most of those followers were presumably people who admired Mr. Godin and wanted a venue to interact with him. The only thing is that Seth Godin wasn't using Twitter.
Apparently someone had set up an account in Seth's name and was using it to disseminate his blog posts to people following him on Twitter. Fortunately, the person behind the fake Seth account appeared to only be using it for this purpose, so in a sense, it was free publicity.
The bigger point is that anyone could open an account in your name on Twitter or other social media sites, pose as you, and do things that could be detrimental to your reputation, whether it be spamming people, giving out inaccurate advice or just generally being a douchebag.
(Mentioned in the article was the fact that even though the faker wasn't doing anything inherently malicious, some of Seth's unsuspecting followers were put off by the fact that "he" wouldn't ever reply to anything they said and only seemed interested in promoting his blog posts.)
I'm not sure what legal actions might apply if you caught someone posing as you online (I'd imagine you could send the offender a cease and desist letter or have the site shut their account down?), but if your social media brand is important to you, and especially if you're fairly well known, you may want to consider opening an account in your name, before someone else does.
Your thoughts?
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