If you go poking around for advice on how to succeed on Twitter, you’ll find a lot of people saying “be authentic.” Or something similar. Sort of like telling the nerdy kid with no chance to “be himself” when he asks that girl out. “Himself” is the guy in mom’s basement drinking Mountain Dew, playing D&D, and editing Wikipedia articles on Marvel Comic characters. Still, in some ways it’s good advice. We follow people on Twitter because we think we have some kind of connection with a real person. When celebrities came into the medium, they offered a behind the scenes, informal connection. At least the real ones did.
But a lot of the best celebrities weren’t. Christopher Walken was hilarious, but he wasn’t really Christopher Walken. Abe Vigoda was not really tweeting to his followers that he was still alive. Some were real. Shaq found it helpful to add the word “real” to his Twitter ID. This article tried to list the “real” celebrities, though it included Twitter feeds that were largely staff-written.
Meanwhile, crazed scientists who have failed to grasp the central message of every robot movie ever developed robots that pretend to be human and engage people over Twitter. The robots beat out humans on the somewhat questionable metrics people use to claim “engagement” on Twitter. So being “real” turned out not to be a winning strategy.
Now, as the 2012 election cycle looms over all of social media, President Obama faced the need to provide both a lively ongoing Twitter stream and some sense of actual connection. Everybody knows staffers write most of the Tweets, but he will sign any Tweets he personally sends with -BO. So, even though most of it isn’t his, it contains just enough Real Obama to be called his Twitter account. I think it’s a great idea, though I can’t help thinking that our world is one in which someone can ask the question: “Is there really any chicken in my cream of chicken soup?” Answer? A little.