Twitter hoax gets all the tweeters talking

by Rebecca Burn-Callander - Thursday, 19th March 2009 - - Business comment

News spreads like wildfire on the old interweb. But that doesn't make it real news. The pranksters at BBspot had Twitter all a-tweet last night with an article about the social network's new "premium" model.

Despite the fact that the news was broken at midnight on an obscure US blog, and that the so-called premium packages included a "Fail Whale" hoodie and "25 random followers", hundreds of twits have been circulating about changes to the Twitter business model.

Four tiers: Sparrow; Dove; Owl; and Eagle were announced, with price tags ranging from $5 per month to a whopping $250.

Read the outraged tweets, and the original hoax article, and tell us whether you think that Britons would have fallen for the prank as easily as those gullible Yankees.

Check out web guru Guy Levine's article on how your business could be using Twitter in the April issue of Real Business Magazine. Sign up for your copy here.