Fakery, Authenticity and Spotting the Twitter Pretender

Posted by Michael Owen Hill Features, Social Media Thursday, April 1st, 2010

I was thinking of calling this article, “How To Be Authentic on Twitter,” but that sounded a bit too much like one of those always-upbeat, blow-smoke-up-your-arse social-media-guru* blogs, so let’s just call this another installment of “How To Not Be a Douchebag on Twitter.”

There. That’s better. Clearer. More my style.

Now, don’t worry. As usual there’s some nice, uplifting stuff at the end. But first, there are some fakes to expose.

All Twitter’s a Stage …

It seems like a lot of my little contributions start with a question from a friend – or, more often, an indictment phrased in the form of a question. In this case, the question was almost poetic: Isn’t Twitter really just a stage for pretenders?

Well, in one obvious sense, it is. Fake celebrity accounts, the proliferation of self-described gurus* of every stripe and the ubiquity of spam-bots might lead anyone to question how many Twitter users are actual, real people.

The good news is that it’s getting easier and easier to spot a fake. With Twitter’s validated accounts and third-party services like TrueTwit – designed to weed out bots by requiring users to enter a Captcha image to verify their humanity – it is now much easier to identify real people.

The problem is that a significant number of the “real people” on Twitter are fakes.

What do I mean by fake? It’s not just a matter of misrepresentation – pretending to be someone who you are not. It also has to do with failure to engage, inauthenticity, and the use of lazy, shady, scummy “get more followers” tactics.

How to spot a fake

Yes, It’s Fake (and you can “quote” me on that)

A good example of Twitter fakery is the type of user whose stream is made up of nothing but “uplifting” quotes, often posted by API. These tweeps are a dime a dozen, but are also frequently popular (at least in terms of the sheer number of followers).

Yes, I am calling many – though certainly not all – of the quote-loving twitterers fakes. Why? Let’s be h

onest. The uplifting-quote-autotweet approach is lazy. It’s not about conversing or engaging, it’s about broadcasting inoffensive, unchallenging material in hopes of attracting more followers. Furthermore, it’s often just a weak emulation of the successful practices of people who have truly earned their following.

In most cases it’s not even about actually inspiring anyone. It’s often pure gaminess and self-promotion wrapped up in a saintly costume. In fact, this tactic only became widely popular because several social media gurus* proclaimed that one of the easy ways to grow a big following on Twitter was to post a whole lot of positive quotes.

If you’re just in it to acquire followers, you’re playing a numbers game. And if you’re playing a numbers game, you’re fake.

Quote me.

How to Spot a Fake

When asked how she spots a fake, my real-life friend Sue (@ssodonn on Twitter) – who happens to be both quite discerning and an extraordinarily experienced speechwriter – said simply, “Fakes have an agenda, and they just want to use you to further that agenda.”

Wise words, and a good way to identify a fake.

Some of the specific characteristics and behaviors that can help you spot a fake on Twitter include:

All broadcast, no conversation (self-absorbed)
Twitter stream as dumping ground for blog posts (self-serving)
All RTs and responses to Twitter celebrities (pathetic)
Random, insensible tweets with lots of hashtags and trending topics (idiotic)

Here’s another hint: The words “make money,” “MLM,” “FOREX,” “affiliate marketing,” “laws of attraction,” “NLP,” or “guru*” in a Twitter profile are often the first unmistakable sign of fakeness. Follow at your peril.

The Pretenders

Why Are There So Many Fakes and Pretenders?

Short answer: Because fake, gamey, gimmicky tactics work, or at least seem to.

Lazy, spammy, crap-laden Twitter streams attract followers for the same reason phishing scams still work – some people will click on just about anything.

The fact is it’s absolutely possible to be a fake and have tens of thousands of followers. The important question is what is the true measure of success: number of followers or quality of engagement? I believe it is the latter.

For those who are tempted to resort to fakery or manipulation in order to boost your following (and perhaps give a bit of a boost to the old fragile self-image) consider this: No matter how popular they seem, those fake, unengaged, inauthentic, agenda-driven Twitterers are generally only followed by other fake, unengaged, inauthentic, agenda-driven Twitterers.

[And perhaps those who are a bit naïve or very new. Or total twitterwhores like me. Hey, if it’s got a pulse, I’ll generally follow it. But then I like to think of my entire life as some sort of grand sociological experiment. That way I can justify any odd behavior or apparent hypocrisy as “research.” So there.]

The point is, how much is getting a few more followers worth? When it comes at the cost of authenticity, I say the price is too high.

Authenticity Is What It’s All About (the uplifting stuff)

Just be yourself, don't fake it

I’m absolutely serious. Authenticity is one of the most valuable personal characteristics and social media skills you can possess. In any relationship – personal, professional or virtual – authenticity is essential. Authenticity, like art, is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. And you can definitely feel that little inner squinge when you aren’t being authentic.

[Unless you're a sociopath or a "make money on Twitter" freak or "get more followers free" scammer. (Wait ... isn't that redundant?) All those folks feel is brutish self-satisfaction when their follower number goes up and stupefied anger when it goes down. Troglodytes.]

So be yourself. Say what you think. Don’t hold back out of fear of losing a follower. I’m not advocating saying hurtful things that drive people away, but if you censor yourself because you’re afraid the truth might not be popular, you’re only a hop, skip and a jump away from fakesville.

Being authentic makes you interesting. It makes you valuable. It makes you a member of a real community, instead of a player in a meaningless game. If you simply “be yourself,” people will follow. Maybe not tens of thousands or thousands or even hundreds, but how much artificial validation do you really need?

As I said in an earlier article, it is absolutely possible to form real connections and even friendships on Twitter. But that’ll never happen if you don’t let people see the real you.

Be yourself, follow people who are interesting and real, talk to them, post and retweet things you think others might like to see. This, my friends, is the “super duper Twitter secret to success.” Nothing more.

Go ahead. Give it a try. Be authentically you. And if some people don’t like it … well, you know the saying.

I’ll follow you.

[Unless you’re evil, that is. Not “muahahaha” zombie-vampire-alien-overlord-goth-teen-angst evil. I mean hateful racist violent evil. Following someone is like a vote of support. I don’t support hate. Neither should you.]

In Conclusion …

I thought I’d close this particular rant with some more words of wisdom from Sue: “Twitter is a community. If all you are going to do is pontificate, I don’t care whether you are real or fake – I won’t follow you.”

Good thing for me I save most of my pontification for these articles, right Sue? Hey, at least I’m not a guru*.

*Note: “Guru” is, I believe, a Sanskrit word meaning “irrelevant, self-important douchebag.”

Short URL: http://utweet.it/?p=5941