Years ago, many companies didn’t think to register URLs with their business name – then found themselves paying cyber-ID-thieves (IMHO) a pretty penny to claim their name, either to launch their site or just to protect themselves from someone else owning it. But did we learn that digital lesson? Apparently not, since the same thing is happening on social media sites. So today – right now – take 30 minutes to go on each of the major social media networks and claim your name…for free. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to start using all (or any) of those sites now (or ever). But you do want to stop someone else from doing it, trust me.
Start with these currently most popular social media sites (listed below, with convenient links – no excuses!). Then as you hear buzz about new sites starting, add them to the list. Oh, and speaking of lists, be sure to keep a list handy of your email addresses and passwords for future reference. You may even want to start a special email address (such as “social@[yourcompanyemail.com]” that will be dedicated to this purpose.
Or just ignore it and see if someone (a disgruntled vendor, competitor, ex-boyfriend) claims your name and starts Tweeting, Pinning and Facebooking as you / your brand – in a way you never would. Then spend tons more time trying to handle damage control, proving to customers and other professional / personal contacts that you didn’t do it…and spend even more time trying to wrangle your name away from these cyber thieves.
I opt for the proactive reputation management route – and hope you’ll take the time today to Stop Social Squatting!
~ Denise Blasevick, @AdvertGirl & CEO, The S3 Agency
