Since the micro-blogging site Twitter was launched in August 2006, it has grown into one of the leading social networking Web sites. In case you don't already know, here's how it works: Twitter allows account holders to send messages, called tweets, up to 140 characters long to whoever chooses to follow that account. Most of the tweets are sent from cell phones, smart phones and PDAs, but they can also be sent directly from the Twitter Web site. It's a pretty simple concept, basically allowing users to send text messages to the masses in one fail swoop.
It didn't take long before celebrities got on board, realizing that it could be a powerful public relations and marketing tool. Why wait for a publicist to arrange a press conference to refute a rumor when you can just hop on your cell phone and reach a million of your fans who are more than eager to pass along your statement? So far it's worked out well, and celebrities have made Twitter a pretty useful tool in their marketing arsenal. The only problem is that celebrities are busy folks, so some have done what any other wealthy person in the media spotlight would do -- they're hiring people to Twitter for them.
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The practice of "ghost Twittering" may be more common than people think. But since most ghost Twitterers are heard but not seen, it's impossible to know if your favorite celebrity is writing their own posts or not. The only way to know is if they cop to it. So far, not many of them have -- but the following five Twitter accounts have proven to be nothing more than ghost posts.