This article was published on February 27, 2017

I’ve got a confession to make


I’ve got a confession to make

At last year’s TNW Conference, I faked all my social media posts. I love sharing stuff online at our events. I have the pleasure of meeting many famous and interesting people. But I’m also running around and don’t have a lot of time to compose a tweet, find a hashtag or crosspost between Facebook and Instagram. So last year I hired a social media manager to constantly shadow me.

Okay, that sounds more fancy than it was. I bribed my daughter.

For a few days, she was allowed to skip school and, in return, she’d tweet, snap, and share whatever I needed. Soon we came up with a funny way to share stuff. I call it the “fake selfie”.

My daughter would open Snapchat, I’d grab whomever I was talking to, and then stretch out an arm as if I was holding the camera myself. My daughter would then take a snap, as well as screenshot of that photo, which she’d immediately post to Instagram and crosspost to Twitter and Facebook. She’d ask the others in the photo for their names and social accounts in order to tag them.

It was super efficient and a lot of fun. I’d yell “FAKE SELFIE!!!” and grab the person next to me. 30 seconds later, their phones would light up with a ton of notifications. We had so much fun I thought about having my daughter follow me around the entire week. But, you know, her education and all…

But that hasn’t deterred me from doing it again this year. That is, unless someone from my daughter’s school happens to read this; then I’m screwed. But if you see me wandering around the conference this May, join me in a fake selfie!


This is my introduction text for last week’s issue of our TNW Weekly update. You can read the whole newsletter here, or sign up to receive your own copy. 

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