When I woke up this morning the first blog I visited was Techcrunch and this is the headline that greeted me, “Someone Please Wake Up @MarkDavidson – One Of His Twitter Ghostwriters Went Rogue“. I’ve been following Mark for some time on Twitter so of course I clicked through to see what was happening. The story goes that Mark Davidson had been using a team of 3 Twitter ghostwriters for the last 4 years. His decision to fire one of them has lead to a major falling out between the two.
Seeing as Mark allegedly chose to outsource his social media efforts, it only makes sense that it didn’t occur to him to change his Twitter password after the firing. Now the disgruntled ex-employee has taken control of the account and has posted a series of tell all tweets detailing Mark’s use of ghostwriters as well as the poor wages paid to do the job. Check out a screen shot of how it all unfolded.
Mark Davidson's Twitter Ghostwriter Gets Revenge
The result of Mark’s social media fail is spreading across the blogosphere like wild fire. There are currently several running threads across Reddit, Google Plus and Twitter of people wondering how he will handle this once he wakes up or actual logs in to Twitter himself.
Twitter Reacts To Rogue Mark Davidson Tweets
Since no official conformation has come from Mark himself, we still don’t know if his account was hacked or if this is just a publicity stunt on his part. From where I stand, there doesn’t seem to be any major benefits to trolling his followers. Any notoriety gained from this would be for all the wrong reasons, it’s a cheap way to get attention.
On the flip side, if this ghostwriter situation is real, Mark now has to work overtime to repair his online brand as a “Internet sales & marketing professional.”
The one good thing that has come out of this debacle is a renewed conversation about the need for authenticity within social media. When you chose to put your face and personal brand online it is generally expected that people interacting with you are getting the real deal not a facsimile.
Update:
In an equally strange twist of events another Twitter account DMReporter, which spoofs as a Daily Mail Reporter is showing eerily similar tweets to that of Mark Davidson’s.
DMReporter account claims similar firing of ghost tweeters
Note the reference to 3 unpaid interns and “playing golf” that shows up in each set of tweets. Within the same 8 hour period both accounts displayed a similar set of tweets from a supposedly disgruntled ex-employee.
DMReporter Timeline
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