How To: Deal With A Twitter Impostor
Monday, January 5, 2009 at 09:14AM I recently had the unique opportunity to deal with an impostor on Twitter. Brand-jacking is serious. There's a fine line between good fun and libel. For example, when Dan Lyons from Forbes was still writing his 'blog', 'Fake Steve Jobs', that was all in good fun. The name, after all, says it all. He's not really Steve Jobs. Or even on Twitter, @michael_bay is clearly a parody of the Hollywood director. (BOOM!!!) But, when does it stop being a parody and start being impersonation? Some would argue that if you're being parodied, then you've made it (to some extent). That is a statement I'd agree with. Crossing the line, however, into impersonating is something different altogether.
Where's the distinction? Well, a parody will (or should) never refute a claim that they are not actually the person they are parodying. For example, during the time which I was being impersonated, I tweeted regularly that the person behind the offending Twitter handle was, indeed, not me. Once the offender began responding to my tweets and to the tweets of my followers arguing that he was, in fact, me; the line was crossed. The account was no longer being used to parody me, but it was claiming to actually be me. Not to mention that they were spam-tastic. They constantly fed nonsense tweets to #TCOT which soon began infuriating members.
So, be thoughtful in your actions, but if you are think that you are being impersonated, there are a few things you can do:
1. Do not, under any circumstance, engage the impostor.
Outside of referencing the offender in tweets or other announcements so that your followers and readers don't think it's you, do not attempt to engage the offender. More often than not, practices we learned in grade school and high school still apply to our lives, especially in this medium. Chances are, they're just trying to get a rise out of you. Don't let them.
2. Stand your ground.
Just because you shouldn't engage the impostor doesn't mean you shouldn't stand your ground. Send tweets, write blog posts, write emails, whatever. Tell all your family, friends, followers, readers and otherwise loyal people that the impostor is not you. Brand-jacking can severely damage a personal brand. That's bad. You don't want that. You want your loyalists to stay that way. You don't want them thinking you've become some spammy self-centered troll. Not to mention, that repeated announcements will help your case when trying to prove that the impersonator is not you.
3. Give them enough rope to hang themselves with.
And give them time, too. If you're standing your ground, and you've got nothing to hide, let the offender go off as much as they like. Give them the time and space to fall flat on their face. If you can afford to, wait until other parties get involved and start going after him or her on your behalf. Most importantly, wait until they slip up. Sooner or later, they're bound to do something (like claiming to be you in a public forum) that will be the linchpin in getting rid of them.
4. Do your research.
Research your medium's Terms of Service, and your state's laws. If the offender's actions cause harm to your business or brand, harass, or otherwise cause significant trauma to you or your loved ones, you may be able to take legal action. Of course, that is an extreme case. What's more likely is that the offender is violating one or more of the Terms of Service of the medium they are using. Twitter, for example, protects its users from impersonators.
5. Contact the proper parties.
Reach out in any way you can to try and do two things: a) Discover the offender's identity. If you can diffuse the situation without escalating, and through conversation, do so. If not, move on to b. b) Get in touch with someone who might be able to help you. For example, contacting Twitter's support team proved incredibly efficient. Apparently, they have a no-tolerance policy for impostors. You can also report the user as a spammer. On Twitter, you can send a DM to the Spam Patrol Team at Twitter HQ at @spam containing the offender's handle.
6. When the time is right, pull the trigger.
Finally, when the pieces are all in place, you can reach out to the offender, and give him or her a final warning. Make sure you are clear, concise, and professional. The last thing you want is for your serious warning to come off as a joke or as a childish plea. For example, I issued a cease and desist through a reply on Twitter.
If you've done everything right and covered all your bases, you should be happily surprised to wake up one morning and find that the offender has been suspended, and hopefully, they won't bother you again.
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I do have to take a second to thank those who were there to help out and spread the word through Twitter about what was going on. Of course, my family (@dburstiner @aixiab) was supportive, but what I did not expect was for some of the users on #TCOT to come to my aide. @dandraney, @timaay, @vannschaffner, and @tim_knight were helpful in retweeting and getting the word out. And of course, thanks to Twitter for addressing the situation so quickly. Hopefully this helps anyone who may need this kind of information, which I hope no one will!
Reader Comments (3)
Nice post. One comment, on the video, turn off your local sound when you record. I kept thinking I was getting messages while I was watching!
Glad you got it all sorted out! Did you ever find out who it was? Want me to beat them up?
I never had that happened to me, but I heard the similar case for several times. But just now, I heard it directly from the "victim". Thanks for sharing the tips. I hope you'll never experience it again.
ILikeMusic