A common challenge that prominent public figures and popular brands face is having to deal with copycat and impostor social media accounts. While fans and customers are generally able to tell the difference, some fake accounts make it really difficult to do so. This can lead to inaccurate information being shared and, as a result, confuse or frustrate consumers.
The recent feat by Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel to verify his Social Media handles have been applauded to all and sundry at home and in the Diaspora! This, they say, is an indication that Governor Emmanuel is a world-class leader who has the interest of the State at heart.
This has not only made the Governor a tech-savvy Governor but one that is ready to the leverage on his position to project the State’s brand image to the outside world through his online activities to attract the much-desired foreign and direct investments to the state.
It is worthy of note that Governor Udom Emmanuel has taken impressive steps which have removed doubts from the eyes of skeptics about his sincerity and commitments to completely industrialize the state. Not only does his Social Media accounts exist, the Governor also ensured a frequent one-on-one interaction with his people at home and in the Diaspora through these channels.
Most recent is his show of excitement on Social Media as the State’s football team Akwa United, carted home the FA Cup for the first time. In his Facebook post, the Governor remarked “I congratulate Akwa United Fc Stars for making us proud by clinching the Federation Cup. We will not stop at the 100 Million Naira approved for your financial commitments but will provide support for Sport academies to be established to develop more Talents. Well done! UE”.
This post reached over 7000 people in 24hours with numerous comments, had 17 Retweets on Twitter, with an average of 371, 000 impressions still within 24 hours! Impressive! This means over three hundred thousand people (potential investors inclusive) knew about Akwa Ibom State just from one post made by the Governor!
Since Social Media strategies require a lot of financial commitments, the belief is that up to 5 million people can be reached if activities of the New Media team is boosted financially. This means, more people all over the world, will know about Government’s programs, policies, achievements and challenges all with a simple click.
For the records, Governor Udom Emmanuel and Governor Ambode of Lagos State are the only Nigerian Governors with verified Social Media Accounts. This shows the extent of work done by Governor Udom Emmanuel’s New Media Team led by Mrs. Meflyn Anwana, in managing the Governor’s image on the vast online media space.
Before now, a simple Google search would reveal scanty and untreated pictures of the Governor but since the New Media space was created, the number of quality pictures and other digital contents about the Governor is quite overwhelming.
Any time spent on Twitter or Facebook will inevitably lead one to find an account with a blue checkmark beside it. Having this checkmark means that the account has been verified as authentic. There are largely only two types of verified accounts on social media ‘- for public figures, and for popular brands.
The verification of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s accounts was timely and quite necessary to prevent fraud, and to protect the integrity of His Excellency and the Akwa Ibom State Government. After all, this is the Internet we’re talking about. People make outrageous claims every day, and are believed, hiding behind the anonymity of the Web. That checkmark is a mighty weapon against a lot of potentially bad people.
This is all about branding, and whether you are a major player or a humble brick-and-mortar small business, protecting your good name on the World Wide Web should be important to you.
You may never have the number of followers on social media to warrant that precious blue checkmark, but even a handful of followers mean that you matter to them, as they matter to you. Pay attention to them, and be vigilant about what is being said about you and your business on Social Media.
Regardless of whether impersonators aim for humor or something more sinister, government agencies should as a matter of fact and necessity, secure verification of their accounts to avoid confusion during a critical emergency management incident and improve the overall citizen experience on social media.
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