WOULD SOCIAL MEDIA IMPERSONATION RUIN YOUR DAY?

Someone is pretending to be senior editor Tom Breihan of Stereogum on Instagram and ripping off bands.

“A month or two ago, I heard about an Instagram account that was posting and contacting bands in my name. This account was hitting artists up for $100, promising some kind of coverage on (Stereogum).”

When social media platforms make it easy to impersonate anyone (the fake account has 2,800+ followers), then drag their feet in fixing the situation, whose side are they really on?

Thankfully Tom Breihan has a little site called, ummm… Stereogum to let people know about this scam, but even with the clout of being a senior editor of a site founded in 2002, the scam account is still active:

“I’ve reported this fake account to Instagram several times, and nothing has come of it. My colleagues have reported it, too. I don’t know how common this kind of scammer is on Instagram, but it’s apparently very difficult to get through to anyone at the company to put a stop to their activities. I’m applying for a verified account, too, which feels ridiculous when I don’t actually post on the platform.”

This happened to Rolling Stone and Billboard writers earlier this year. The Avenged Sevenfold social media accounts were hacked, too, pushing out fake festival cancellations.

Thankfully Tom at Stereogum can post on their site about the scam.
Same with Rolling Stone. A7x sent out a note to their email list.

It’s 2023, people – make sure you have an official channel where you can communicate directly with your audience.

• Have an email list and a website, and turn on all security options for the service you use (Mailchimp, Squarespace, etc)
• Turn on domain name auto-renew so you don’t lose your website
• Use all the security functions on your social media, too
• Don’t reuse passwords – get your team on 1Password

Seriously – if someone were impersonating you or your business, what would you do?

What if you get hacked, like when Elder lost access to their Facebook account with 78,000 followers?

Maybe you won’t get impersonated, or hacked, but what if you get BANNED, or plain old locked out of your accounts?

And if you won’t listen to me, listen to Vince from Metal Blade:

“Creators, musicians, etc. need to use multiple platforms – patreon, twitch, youtube, etc. Any individual platform, for any reason, can ban you for a reason you may never even know.

Have a dedicated website. Have an e-mail list.”

Have a space on the internet for your project. Have an email list. It’s the only direct communication you’ll with your fans when (not if) your social media accounts go down.