Don’t Set Up Fake FB & Twitter Profiles – It’s Unethical!

If you’re on social media, you should be authentic.

What do I mean by this? You shouldn’t have an alias or fake username or persona. You should be you. People trust other people to be honest and be who they say they are.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Not so much.

An article in the Dallas Morning News confirmed my suspicions that people can be real jerks when it comes to manipulation.

Here’s the story: A new condo tower was built in Downtown Dallas directly next to the Nasher Sculpture Museum. The sun’s reflection off the tower on the outdoor sculpture garden and skylights at the museum is causing damage to the art. The museum and the owners of the tower, the Dallas Police & Fire Pension, can come to any kind of amicable agreement on how to prevent further damage.

The part of the story I’m offended by is how on former news anchor set up a fake profile of himself on Facebook and Twitter as part of a public relations campaign to make us more sympathetic to the tower’s problems.

This backfired in big ways – you can read the story here. I can’t share the Dallas Morning News article because it’s password-protected.

So what does this tell us for firms and companies who are in social media? Again, the message here is to be authentic – be yourself. I don’t have a problem with firms who want to hire people like me to “ghost tweet,” but make sure you’re tweeting for a real person, not some fake persona.

How do you feel about this?