Santiago Swallow
Internet personalities are intriguing entities.
So often they spew forth cute soundbites that collapse under the slightest scrutiny.
Many times they offer up a view of the future that could be predicted by the stupider of my two cats (in case Tyler is reading this I’m referring to Dave).
Regularly they frustrate those of us who believe you need something substantial to support your ability to claim greater knowledge then the next guy/gal.
And that leads us to Santiago Swallow. You can read about him here but for the lazier among you I’ll condense the crux of that link:
Swallow is “a Mexican-born, American motivational speaker, consultant, educator, and author, whose speeches and publications focus on understanding modern culture in the age of social networking, globally interconnected media, user generated content and the Internet.”
He has almost 100,000 Twitter followers (and one of those natty blue ticks).
And he has a Kred influence score of 754 out of 1000.
But the most startling thing about him?
He doesn’t exist.
He was invented by Kevin Ashton as a sort of prank/experiment that exposes the depths (or lack thereof) required to become an internet ‘star’.
When I was told about Santiago (by Dave Dye. Thanks, D) I remarked that if you were down to your last £500 you could take this route to become a big enough internet personality/speaker etc. that you could make a living from it.
Anyone fancy trying that?
I’m sorry Ben, I don’t believe you exist anymore.