An intriguing story hitting my inbox today is that members of Michael Jackson’s family paid USocial to buy and add 25,000 Twitter followers to the official “in memory of” Twitter account.

It’s not clear from the report I read exactly when this deal occurred, or how successful it was, but it’s surprising that the account only has around 30,000 followers. I’m surprised it didn’t have more organic adds, despite the fact that it’s only been online since 7th July this year.

Then again, three tweets in one month isn’t exactly scintillating stuff. It’s also worth noting that the account doesn’t have a Twitter “Verified” badge, but I suppose granting it one would be a rather special, and slightly macabre, case. [Read more…]