Ghosts In The Star Machine

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook may be essential to modern fame, but many stars and politicians can’t (or won’t) handle them. It’s the social media manager who keeps a celeb on message, out of trouble and – above all – ‘authentic’

- Josh Duboff

Hiring a social media manager is like handing your car keys over to someone you’ve had coffee with once, maybe twice. Sure, he seems nice; his shirt is tucked in; he appears to have a handle on the basic workings of Twitter and Facebook and Instagram – have at it! And just like that, he has your Twitter password and he’s going to take your account out for the day. He may make a few wrong turns, run a few red lights – you see where we’re going with this – but he’ll have it back for you in the garage by nightfall.

Sometimes, though, the car gets totalled and you have to take the keys back.

In May, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio hired Scott Kleinberg, who had been running social media at the Chicago Tribune, as his social media director, one of the more high-profile digital management positions, at least in the political realm. After just eight weeks, Kleinberg quit, writing on Facebook that his “dream job” had turned out to be just the opposite. “I tried to stick it out, but it was impossible,” Kleinberg wrote, explaining he had to leave for “the sake of my health and my sanity.” He vented that he was working “13-hour” days (plus weekends) in the role and also said the mayor’s office had mandated that he get approval on anything he posted, even on his personal social media accounts.