Fraudulent tweets from an impostor?

Here’s how you can and can’t respond when your brand is attacked on Twitter

Imagine this scenario: You run a PR firm and go to meet with a client. After exchanging pleasantries, the client crinkles her face and asks, “What’s the deal with that stuff you and your staff are posting on your Twitter feed?”

You pause, confused.

“Uh … we don’t have a Twitter feed.”

“Yes, you do! I saw it myself the other day. Here, let me show you.”

With that, your client taps away at her keyboard and turns her monitor to show you a Twitter page emblazoned with your firm’s logo and filled with tweets that don’t exactly flatter your firm or invite confidence from prospective clients. And you didn’t post any of it.

Sound scary? Of course it does.

Think this is pure fiction? Think again.

Take the case of Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Tanner Friedman Strategic Communications, which was the victim of “false tweets” sent from a Twitter account that appeared to belong to the company.