Unmasking the sock puppets

‘I like Mackey’s haircut. I think he looks cute!’
– Rahodeb (aka John Mackey, chief executive of Whole Foods Market)

John Mackey, chief executive of Whole Foods Market had a good run – nearly eight years – under his assumed named of Rahodeb (an anagram of his wife’s name). Rahodeb liked to big up Whole Foods Market (and the CEO’s fashion sense) while being less kind to the competition.

It’s easy to understand the temptations of setting up what geeks call a sock puppet and the New York Times has a good round up of recent puppetry, including Conrad Black who could die in prison following his conviction for fraud. Amongst other, more serious misdemeanours, Black apparently wanted to blag away in Yahoo! finance forums in clear breach of stock exchange rules.

With a free email account in a false name so easy to establish, the chat room doors are too easily opened and a blog is just a few clicks away. It seems so easy to pick off enemies, competitors and those who simply annoy us.

But in truth it’s a difficult trick to pull off. If you’re successful the world will want to know your name (if you’re unsuccessful who cares?) and those in the know will find it hard not to let on. As soon as three people – including the author – know who the sock puppet is, that identity is leakable. In the corporate world anonymity is almost impossible to sustain.

And that’s not all. A sock puppet’s agenda, writing style, hates, loves, the audience they attract, the places they hang out, the time and frequency of posting et cetera all combine to reveal the puppet master… eventually.

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