Don't be fooled by P. Allen Smith's fake Twitter persona

March 2, 6:08 PMGardening ExaminerRobin Ripley

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P. Allen Smith really exists,
but his Twitter persona is
a fake. Image: Barnes & Noble

P. Allen Smith, the gardening author and television personality who hypes the Proven Winners brand of plants, is making the rounds of the season's garden and flower shows, including this week's show here in Philadelphia. So despite some of the snipy comments I've read on the Internet about P. Allen being a Tommy Bahama-like fictional character, I can vouch for the fact that he truly exists. However, the same cannot be said of his Twitter persona.

I had the chance to chat with P. Allen following one of his standing-room-only lectures here at the show. (By the way, what do his friends call him? P.? P. Allen? Allen? Your Highness?) As we chatted, I asked if he had abandoned his efforts to connect with other gardeners on Twitter since his last message was posted in January. His response?

"Oh, I Twitter?"

According to P. Allen, he has a "very small staff" of 15 underlings who are charged with such mundane matters as web design, answering questions and, well, apparently with being him. They are dabbling in social media and he expects that one of them is trying  it out.

Now, for those of you who haven't yet jumped onto the social media bandwagon, let me back up for just a minute to explain what Twitter is. Twitter is a web-based platform that allows you to post short messages about what you're doing or have to say or in response to what other people are doing or have to say. Some call it microblogging because there is a 140 character limit to what you can post. You can follow people and they can follow you, which means what they post shows up in your Twitter account page.

In the world of Twitter and other social media, it is considered extremely bad etiquette to pretend to be someone you are not or to otherwise practice deception in a media that is built on mutual respect and trust. (Well, most of the time.) It wouldn't be bad form if the profile made it clear that the person posting wasn't P. Allen but was a staffer, much like the Dalai Lama's Twitter presence clearly isn't him, but rather one or several staff people sharing information about him and his activities.

But P. Allen Smith's Twitter profile clearly represents the person posting as him, saying "I enjoy designing gardens, vegetable gardens, and sharing tips about gardening, recipes and entertaining."

What's more, the short posts also misrepresent the writer as being P. Allen, as in the exchange between one follower asking if it was really him. The response?

"This is *really* me. Make sure to say hi to your mom for me."

Other messages include these:

"Want to see my very own Garden Home Retreat?"

"Just received the first copy of my new book..."

"Updating my facebook page. If you are a facebook member you can find it here..."

Now, I know it's possible to set up a fake Twitter account and pretend to be someone else in a malicious way. Twitter is very good about policing and deleting these accounts when they are discovered. But according to P. Allen, his staff is experimenting in social media. In addition, all of the posts are P. Allen Smith promotional posts. And he was not at all surprised to find that he was on Twitter.

I say, shame on you P. Allen Smith for allowing your staff to misrepresent themselves as you. It's a breach of trust and just plain deceitful--not to mention that it makes you look like a prima donna that you have to hire out to underlings to talk with the little people who buy your books, watch your shows and shell out money at garden centers for Proven Winner plants because you tell them to.

If Lance Armstrong, Shaquille O'Neal, Britney Spears and hundreds of others can Twitter to connect with the people who have supported them, why not you?

Too busy to Twitter? I understand that. But at the very least, you should advise your staff to stop pretending they are P. Allen Smith.

You for reading! You can reach me at gardeningexaminer@gmail.com and can follow me on Twitter at @RobinRipley.

Did you also know I write about fresh foods? You can read my food columns at the D.C. Fresh Foods Examiner.

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