Fake Twitter accounts officially lame; they’re targeting investors

The well-documented phenomenon of fake Twitter accounts have been used to skewer the rich and famous from politics to business to sports to Hollywood.

But you know the fake Twitter trend has jumped the shark when it’s happening to little-known business incubators and largely under-the-radar seed investment funds. In recent weeks, two such Northeast Ohio groups have received the fake Twitter treatment.

Recently MedCity News reported that a Twitter “name squatter” had victimized Meridian Bioscience, a publicly traded Cincinnati-area company. But squatters are an entirely different breed than fakers, who have brought us fake Osama Bin Laden and fake BP, the latter of which has accumulated an impressive 177,000 followers. (Sample fake Bin Laden tweet: “154 people are following me on Twitter — far more than from the American army!”).

Now the Twitterverse has brought the Northeast Ohio business community fake JumpStart and fake LaunchHouse, parodies of a Cleveland-based state-funded venture development group (JumpStart) and a suburban business incubator (LaunchHouse). (Disclosure: JumpStart is an investor in MedCity News’ parent company, MedCity Media.)

Fake JumpStart, with its profile photo of Bernie Madoff, seems largely focused on parodying its target with corporate buzzwords like “ecosystem” and “aligning,” with other tweets suggesting that the author believes JumpStart isn’t worthy of the tax dollars it receives — sentiments that sometimes-anonymous MedCity News commenters have echoed. (Sample tweet: “We’re an Ohio job-making machine — creating jobs for other parts of the country. You’re welcome Ohio!”)

Sadly, we can’t be sure exactly what fake JumpStart’s author is trying to convey about the group he/she is parodying because the author didn’t return a direct message asking for comment.

Fake LaunchHouse, on the other hand, seems intent on skewering the group for its investment decisions and seems to enjoy references to coffee as much as Fake JumpStart relishes “ecosystem” references. (Sample tweet: “We love to invest in companies who’s tech applies to every industry in every country for every reason. Requirements: alligator noteboooks.”)

The targets of the two fake accounts professed to be largely unconcerned, if not exactly thrilled, that they’re being parodied.

Dar Caldwell of LaunchHouse said he’d been told about the fake account, but hadn’t checked it out himself.

“I think it’s just pretty telling of the city and its mindset,” he said. “I don’t want to get dragged down into the sh*t that exists here in this town.”

Samantha Fryberger, JumpStart’s director of communications, said JumpStart occasionally monitors its namesake’s fake account, but the investment group hasn’t gone so far as to become a follower. “Most of all, we’re grateful that they’ve identified their account as fake,” she said, to prevent any confusion for readers who wouldn’t otherwise realize the account was a parody.

“They’re trying to get out things they believe to be true,” she said. “It’s supposed to be a commentary.”

If it’s any consolation to JumpStart and LaunchHouse, they can boast that they’ve risen to such a level of prominence that at least one Twitter user thought they were deserving of parodies — so, better to be hated than ignored, perhaps.

And it’s not like the two don’t have things to boast about in their Twitter accounts. JumpStart, in particular, has been riding high recently after President Obama lauded its work and held it up as a model for other cities to emulate. LaunchHouse, for its part, is no doubt excited to move into new and much-larger space in suburban Shaker Heights.

Cleveland’s far from alone in having plenty of Twitter parodies, of course. Washington, D.C. — never short on politicians and pundits with out-sized egos and a penchant for hyperbole — is likely the most obvious and most active haven for Twitter fakers, inspiring a recent New York Times article on the subject.

“The Washington parlor game of the moment is trying to puzzle out just who is behind each new parody account. Casual conversations in newsrooms, at bars and even over Twitter are peppered with allusions to ‘fake Rahm Emanuel‘ and ‘DCJourno‘ as the city’s insiders laugh about the accounts and lament that they did not think of them first,” the Times reported.

Photo from flickr user styro