By Matthew Kaufmann

When the Twitter boom took America by storm, internet savvy superfans received the ultimate golden ticket into the lives of their favorite stars.  Overnight, little girls went from dreaming about Justin Timberlake on their walls to living with him on their computer.  Because, obviously, who doesn’t swoon when Justin lets us know that:

However, as tweets poured in and Twitter battles became more popular than tabloid headlines, celebrities found themselves in the middle of a PR nightmare.

Before the little blue bird, publicists could contact media outlets directly to confirm that “rumors of Charlie Sheen fighting with coworkers are fabricated exaggerations,” immediately shutting down image-damaging gossip.  But when said celebrities go to Twitter with their ALL-CAPS INSULTS, it becomes increasingly difficult for publicists to control the message.

So what happened? Publicists became Twitter pros.  Taking over the tweeting urge of artists and editing their brand image.  And unlike general users who are posting pictures of their DIY avocado, tomato and corn spread, publicists are strategically focusing their tweets into an overall agenda.

Enter @LollaLeaks.  Have you been following?

LollaLeaks garnered enormous internet buzz when it entered the twittosphere as “An Anonymous Lollapalooza Insider, Bringing You Info About the 2012 Festival”. LollaLeaks began tweeting teasers and heckling media sources such as Time Out Chicago and Redeye Chicago, eventually leaking the music festival’s 2012 headliners:

In a matter of 12 days, LollaLeaks gained over 2,000 followers, made headlines in national media outlets, and received thousands of retweets.  In under two weeks, the anonymous insider had busted Lollapalooza right open and hyped up an already excitable crowd. The Twitter battle between LollaLeaks and Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrel (@perryfarrell) kept us on the edge of our seats.

Concluding an emotional two weeks, LollaLeaks turned to Tumblr to come clean; he wasn’t an insider.  In fact, he had no affiliation to Lollapalooza at all.  It was all part of some sick social experiment….or was it?

This entire frenzy took place shortly following the announcement of Coachella‘s 2012 line-up,  stealing the spotlight from this California-based music festival.  With immeasurable exposure and publicity, are we really to believe that some random with nothing better to do is behind this scheme? Or is this the crime of a genius PR team gearing up for an epic 3-day festival?

If it is, some would argue that this PR team could be found fraudulent and deceiving under FCC rules that require disclosure.  In my opinion?  Twitter is fair game.

Either way, it goes to show that Twitter’s free barrier-to-entry is a PR tool of the future.  A necessity for any client.