Social networking sites have become a way of life for many of us. In fact, it won’t sound like a far-fetched exaggeration to even suggest that most of us can’t seem to think of life without social networking. Same seems to be the case with celebrities (be it a movie actor, sportsman, author or a politician) who use the various social networks to connect with their fans, well-wishers among others.
For the fans, any kind of information posted by celebrities about their day-to-day happenings grab instant attention on social networks as that’s something fans crave for; stuff like what they eat, what they wear etc.
Mushrooming of celebrity accounts on social networks may be music to the ears of the owners of the site, but there’s a growing concern over presence of celebrity impostors on social networks. A lot of impostors are appearing on social networking sites as celebrities, even interacting with the fans and jacking up their friends list (Facebook) and followers (Twitter).
It wouldn’t be improper to feel that celebrities sometimes have to pay a price for being in the limelight. What’s pertinent here is that users often are not able to recognize who the real celebrity is and ends up believing the fake celebrity to be the real one and gets into interacting mode with him.
Micro-blogging platform Twitter has seen the presence of some famous celebrity impostors. Take the case of NBA star Shaquille O'Neal who started twittering with the name THE_REAL_SHAQ to brush aside any suspicions that he was an impostor and that he was the real Shaquille O'Neal. The story goes that Shaq went on to actually call one of his followers personally to prove it was him.
Even the likes of Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus and seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong have experienced the need of convincing their users on Twitter that they were the ‘real’ and not any impostor.
Even Tibetian spiritual leader Dalai Lama had to undergo a similar experience. An impostor of Dalai Lama opened a Twitter account which gathered 20,000 followers. But days later, Dalai Lama’s representative informed the company that it was not the real Dalai Lama who had opened the Twitter account and it was an impostor who was trying to make the most of the spiritual leader’s popularity as justified by the number of followers in a matter of days.
Top Indian actor Shahrukh Khan met with the same experience. The reel hero opened a Twitter account which racked up 43,504 followers with the handle Iamsrk. An impostor of the actor also opened a Twitter account with the almost same name Imsrk, and even this fake account had more than three thousand followers in days (3,359 to be precise).
Clearly, celebrity impostors are becoming a menace on social networks, more prominently on Twitter. Presence of celebrity impostors is so rampant that most users voice doubts whenever someone claiming to be a celebrity joins Twitter. The skepticism among users is so much that even if the celebrity claims to be genuine, the user may not accept him right away and would take him with a pinch of salt.
Clearly, a mechanism must be in place so that such celebrity impostors are deciphered and taken to task so that the brand image of the celebrity (real one) is kept intact and not hurt by such acts. Once that happens, celebrities can breathe a huge sigh of relief and have an enjoyable social networking experience.