Exxon Mobil did not authorize activities on Twitter

The latest news which first appeared in Computerworld’s print edition where Exxon Mobile made its way to Twitter unwittingly is very interesting indeed, well for some anyway.

Someone claiming the be an Exxon Mobil Corp employee and user of Twitter microblogging site decided to create a page on Twitter on July 28 with the firm’s name and part of its logo and even photos of the an Exxon gas station, this page had over 400 users sign up to this group that was created to receive messages being posted on the Janet at ExxonMobil.

Well apparently and according to Computer World “Exxon Mobil” did not authorize these activities on Twitter and doe’s not know who Janet is or even if she or he really does work at the company.

Alan Jeffers, Exxon Mobil spokesman said:

Whoever is posting the messages “is not an authorized person to speak on behalf of the company,” he also added Exxon Mobil hasn’t officially started using any social networking sites to communicate with customers.

Jeffers said that after he became aware of this page was created on Twitter by Janet, Exxon Mobil contacted officials at Twitter Inc and asked them if they could reserve this for company use and any potential account names associated with its various business brands, of course Twitter agreed to this.

The unauthorized page was still live on Friday and Janet started to post new messages after being absent for two days. Analyst Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester Research Inc said that companies need to keep track on Twitter and other Web 2.0 sites to make sure they do not get brand-jacked.

Read the full article here.