Interestingly, I exclude Stephen Fry @stephenfry from that, largely because his twitter persona matches his blog/public persona so closely.

I send the link to the original comment, and my response. We won’t post till we get a thumbs up or down from the client.

Interesting note, as we have gotten to know the client, we write better responses, but they have become more involved in the process, modifying the responses, and sometimes following the links themselves and getting engaged in follow up discussions.

In this instance I consider myself an ice breaker

I think after all the years in and around the PR biz, I’m a bit jaded because I’ve seen so much spin that is purely a fabrication of the PR pro and has little to do with the client. Especially in the political arena. I’ve gotten to where I’m skeptical of every word a candidate utters and I wonder who put it there…especially when the candidate appears to have “buzzword diarrhea of the mouth.” You betcha…I find the “vetting” process “fundamentally” flawed even when it pertains to “mavericks.”

So it stands to reason that I tend to view celebrities appearing on social media sites with a jaundiced eye. Especially if the patter appears too polished. I follow Rick Sanchez from CNN on Twitter and I’m actually comforted by his sketchy spelling and borderline grammar. (though the journalist within shudders) It’s a silly “marker” I know, but I tend to pay more heed because I have the sense of a real person behind the tweets and Facebook wall posts.

In my 25 years as a writer, I’ve always been cautious of putting words into someone else’s mouth. And to me, this is exactly what this potential client is asking you to do without much care about what those words are except that it creates the right public persona.

Managing identity is a tricky business. Main thing is to tell the truth.

ps I like the way Rick Sanchez handles identity on Twitter. If his producer posts something, he put an annotation on the tweet saying so.