As a company, your name is everything to you, and trademark laws protect your brand’s identity from malicious use. Brand ownership within the social media space, however, is a separate entity. User names within social networks are up for grabs on a first come, first serve basis; therefore, claiming your identity on the networks, particularly giants such as Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, and MySpace, is essential. Even if you have absolutely no intention of maintaining these accounts for marketing purposes, registering your company’s name will prohibit others from brand-squatting. Furthermore, you eradicate the potential of those squatters from damaging your reputation through negative or even malicious content posts. Ultimately, taking control in this space should be a priority for your business.
Squatters Already Squatting?
Should this advice reach you too late, and you’ve already forfeited the ability to use your trademark or brand name in the social space, all is not lost. You may appeal to either the person running the account to hand it over, or you can go directly to the people running the social media site and ask them to take over the account.
Appealing to the Squatter
When moving with this approach, keep your rights in mind. It is often against the Terms of Service of a site, for instance, to purchase names. You can approach the person who is running the account and try to strike a deal with them, especially if it is a fan who is not misusing your name. CNNbrk did so by offering the fan running their hi-jacked account a position to train people at CNN to use Twitter.
The Squatter Said No?
If approaching the owner of the account doesn’t work, you can always go to the source: the social media site. Often times they will take control of the account and give access to it to the company with brand and trademark rights.
The best way to protect your name though is to simply register early at the sites, even if you have no intent to use it. An easy way to do that is by using a site like NameChk. Uncover other social media outlets where your name is available and register them.
The amount of time it takes to cover your social bases is pittance compared to the amount potential damage to your company. Don’t believe me? Look no further then a recent article about Kanye West and Twitter. A fan registered Kanye West’s name on Twitter and proceeded to tweet via his famous pseudonym. When Kanye discovered the farce, he retorted on his blog, stating it was not him and that he doesn’t have time to waste on the site. It wasn’t long after that that the account in question was closed.
As another article points out, while Twitter does have rules covering impersonation and trademark infringement, it is still quite possible for your small business name to be hijacked. Protect your business and its identity so that it doesn’t go the way of Apple’s Johnathan Ive.
Image via ~~zorro~~ on Flickr.
