One of the things I know people like about Twitter is that some famous people have started using it too. While some may not care if their co-worker is walking her dog, they might be interested to read a Twitter message from Paris Hilton walking her dog. Or paying someone to walk it, perhaps.

There’s even been some recent news about star athletes using Twitter — Charlie Villanueva, a forward for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, made news for posting to Twitter during halftime of a game on March 15, AP writer Chris Jenkins wrote a few days later. Villanueva was later asked by his team to refrain from using the service during games. Howard Beck of The New York Times reported that Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal recently started using Twitter after a 33-year-old fan named Ward Andrews was discovered impersonating O’Neal. The fake account is a violation of the Twitter terms of use, and was closed.

The news this week is not about fans impersonating their heroes, but of famous people using ghost writers to post for them. Noam Cohen, also of The New York Times, wrote today about rapper 50 Cent, who apparently doesn’t write the material behind his Twitter feed. Political candidates such as Ron Paul and Barack Obama had staffers posting material to their Twitter accounts during the presidential campaign. Britney Spears advertised publicly for someone to manage her Twitter and Facebook accounts. But the Twitterverse is still twitching violently following the news that famed Apple evangelist and later independent tech consultant Guy Kawasaki uses two (and sometimes three) ghost posters to supplement the writing he does on his own feed. All you have to do to see how serious it is, is to follow Kawasaki’s feed and watch him fielding questions about it this morning. Since the discovery, Kawasaki has disclosed the writing on his profile, but his followers — some of whom are ex-followers now — still seem disappointed that he hasn’t been writing all of the material himself.

Does it matter if people are using ghost posters? Are people concerned about the authority of those behind the feed? Is it OK as long as the Twitter user discloses that some of the work is being done by a guest poster?

And the biggest question is, how famous do I have to get before I can hire someone to write my Twitter for me?

Take a look at these great articles for more:

How Twitter Works
How Facebook Works
How Blogs Work