We advise clients to ALWAYS “register an account on Twitter for both the brand and company well in advance of needing it for crisis communications.”  You don’t even have to use it, just be prepared.  It’s like putting batteries in the smoke detector: it’s no fun climbing the ladder to do it, but you’ll be grateful at 3AM when it alerts you. So it’s interesting to note that Twitter is experimenting with “Verified Accounts” which promise the imprint of authenticity on a user’s Tweets.  Does this really matter?  Consider: Exxon – brand jacked by “Janet” who tweets as the putative spokeswoman for Exxon-Mobil “@1WineDude, did you know that the Valdez spill wasn’t even one of the top 10 worst spills in history? Read more »