Don’t Fall Victim to B2B Twitter Squatting
By Jeffrey L. Cohen
Wed, Nov 11, 2009
According to this article in Ad Age, a long list of major brands including Kellogg’s, GE and General Motors do not own the Twitter ID that is their company name. Not only do they not own the most obvious Twitter name, but someone else does. There is definitely some similarity to the early wild west days of the internet and registering domain names, complete with squatters.
This is a tremendous advantage for B2B companies, as brand squatters are not yet looking to cash in on stealing your Twitter name. If your company has a common name, or something similar to a large company, you are more likely at risk to Twitter squatting. Regardless, you should go register your company name on Twitter right now. I can wait if I need to. Okay, now that you are back, here’s why you just did it. The branding of your company is important and having predictable and findable names on internet platforms is key to your success online. Maybe you are still trying to convince your boss, or the Director of Marketing, or even the CEO, of the value of social media, and even more specifically Twitter, but that should not prevent your company from setting up a corporate Twitter account today to make sure you secure your company.
Now that it is registered, follow these basic Twitter etiquette steps so people know that this is your Twitter account.
1. Put the company name (with correct spaces) in the Name field.
2. Add your company website address in the More Info URL field. Use your blog address instead if you have one.
3. Describe your company using appropriate keywords in One Line Bio.
4. Add the location of your company headquarters to the Location field.
5. Go to the Picture tab and upload a company logo as your Twitter photo.
6. Tweet one time, again so people know this is a real account. Here’s an example of a first tweet: Still developing Twitter strategy, but we are listening. You can also contact us by email info@yourcompany.com
The other benefit of signing up for Twitter is that it will force your company to start listening on Twitter. This will teach you what to listen for, how to listen, and it will give you ideas for tweeting when you get there.
If you have any experience with people squatting on your company or brand names, let us know if the comments below.
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Tags: GE, General Motors, GM, Kelloggs, Twitter
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Jeff,
Great post. Good piggyback on what Wayne Sutton wrote about earlier. http://socialwayne.com/2009/11/10/twitter-brands-squatters/. I wanted to ask you the same questions I asked Wayne to garner your expertise: Are there ever under-the-table negotiations to resolve these squatter issues? Have you ever come across a brand or company that was unable to actually take over their rightful handle?
Jeff, good advice for the B2B companies to evaluate their Twitter strategy.
Patrick, confession I actually got my post idea from Jeff. I just posted mine first as we were talking about the AdAge article. I did update my post and link to this one though.
Wayne – gotcha, no worries. Makes sense – they both read like y’all bounced some good ideas back and forth offline.
And Jeff, just to clarify, my intent was certainly not to call you out in any way (I reread my comment and realize it could be construed that way). It’s that I had just read Wayne’s post earlier and wanted to share that perspective, as well as ask the same questions to get another veteran insight.
Patrick: Thanks for the follow-up comments. I did laugh about it with Wayne that he got credit for something that he wrote after talking to me while I was writing my blog post. Yes, I agree the two posts go together, and there’s even another follow-up from an attorney who describes what to do if you need to go the legal route. (http://mogsipblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/twitter-id-squatting-what-to-do-if-you.html).
As far as companies unable to secure their Twitter account, I am not aware of any. What we do know is that proof of registered trademarks do help your case with Twitter. This is the same as with domain name squatters.