Some of the more observant of you will notice that I change my Twitter bio from time to time. Over the last week or two it’s been the image above…
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’ve never written for Wired, Mashable or Vice.
However.
My lack of writing ability or social skills won’t hold me back. My goal was to one day be acknowledged as a decent writer and now I have proof!
Ladies and gentleman, I’ve made ‘the list’ (although maybe not for long). Look at me below in my natural habitat, my account will be verified soon enough… Are there any SEO’s out there that have verified Twitter accounts?
This made me think about a few things.
- Online persona’s are all based on perception (o.k, fairly obvious). If you’re a bit of a dick online then guess what? People will think you’re a dick (unfortunately). If you say you’ve written for Wired (even with no proof) then you’ve written for Wired. Basically if man say imma ting, then imma ting.
- Could I use this type of idea for outreach? Would I get a better response rate if I told a editor/‘webmaster’ that I had previously written for Wired? No-one lies about stuff like that…
- Is this a way that you/your persona could gain more followers, more retweets and generally influence behaviour in a positive tone? Highly likely.
- How about a negative light? Lets ignore that.
- Could it be used on Google+ to gain more followers and potentially more visibility in le SERPs?
- Could it potentially help improve your perceived ‘authorship’ and thus any link weight you look to pass on via guest posts?
I’m not really sure how you could use this ‘properly’ but I think this is an interesting area to consider.
Byyyyyyyye.
Amazing. Master of deceit.
What can I say Emma, I try… 🙂
Entertaining story but how is this “amazing” or indicative of masterful deceit?
…Dude just lied in his twitter bio. He’s not the first and if more people do the same we’ll all just be more careful in vetting others’ online personas.
Hey Michael, this is just a personal blog where I write about and discuss ideas that I’ve had. Apologies for attempting to sabotage the industry.
Uh, no harm homie.
…I mean, there’s at least a few mil other fake bios out in twitter-land
Cogs Whirring….
Haha, glad to hear it! I’m sure you can make more from an idea like this than I ever will.
It definitely works. I put horseshit in my bio once. I still get equine followers.
Ahh, Equine Articles. I miss that place.
Dude, stop giving away my secrets!
LOL.
Yeah there have been the unscrupulous among us who may have tried and succeeded using this tactic, not that i would ever point elbows 😉
Nice post mate, just remember me when you get verified and published on wired!
I think I’d be tempted to use it at some point but I’m not sure what for yet. I know there are white knights out there worried about the implications of such an idea but I’d rather at least discuss it than just think ‘this could be good’.
I’ll try to man, no promises though…
I tried to write for Wired once and they shot me down. At least they got back to me. I wrote for The Wire once and they should have shot me down but didn’t. I gave a copy of the magazine to my mom and she was like “well that sounds like a bunch of weird noises. I’m not surprised they couldn’t get anyone else to write about that.”
Now in my outreach I’ll tell people I wrote for Wired and if they call me on it I’ll say it was a typo and I meant ‘The Wire.’ Perfect!
Win/win! Is there a link to your post or was it purely boring offline?
It was published in the most boring way possible– a magazine. No online version exists. Really helps with my Google Authorship!
Joking aside, having a real magazine I can show to people (other than my mom, apparently) is pretty rad.
I’ve considered it. If I could find a decent magazine dumb enough to listen and share my views I’d be happy with that.
There was a Leonardo DiCaprio movie about this…called Me a Pilot.