Is your social media identity being stolen?
I haven’t put a blogpost out for a week or so as I have been playing with some new social media tools and writing for my book (watch this space). So there I was suffering from social media overload and unable to sleep when it struck me (as I am sure it has others) that companies still don’t protect themselves correctly.
There has been a great deal of talk in the media of late about personal identity theft. You chuck out your old bank statements, some low life wades through your potato pealing’s and fag ends, retrieves the discarded documents, steals your identity and takes out a loan in your name. The result is bad credit and a huge waste of your time solving the issue. If, like me you live in the UK, you can be as careful as you like, but when the government loses the details of all 25million parents it doesn’t matter how careful you are.
One would have thought then, that companies would be equally as protective of their brands online. I am afraid to say they are not. So, are big companies (and small for that matter) aware that their identity or brand name may end up being used or squatted on by others?
Because this kept me awake, like the argument on social media vs cold calling, I decided I would find out just how slack these companies are and conduct ANOTHER test!
Let me give you an example. I know not everyone uses Twitter, but lets face it whether it is Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo or any other so called social media platform you don’t want someone taking your name in vain.
I remember the legal wrangles over domain squatting (still happening today) because some shark decides to take your name or brand, use it and hold you to ransom to buy it back. Now what I am going to tell you does not mean I advocate this in anyway, in fact using someone else’s brand or name in this manner is like stealing to me and needs appropriate punishment, but I am going to name and shame a few well known organisations. I have registered some well known brands and institutions on several social media platforms, if any of them notice this blog, or the fact that I have set a profile for them they can have it back free of charge, no hassle, I only want to prove their stupidity for not having done it themselves.
Lets take Twitter as our case study. Their terms and conditions state:
- We reserve the right to reclaim usernames on behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal claim or trademark on those usernames.
Fantastic, I am safe then. Anyone can use my name and when I am ready to wake up and use social media I get in touch with Twitter and WHAM! I get my name back, perrrfect.. Well not exactly! How long have they had your identity? who has been following them? how many people? have they Tweeted in a positive or negative way? has ANY damage been done?
The name and shame role call - people/companies without a profile (well they have one now cause I registered it!)
1. Magners - Irish cider brand, incredibly hip and cool summer drink, very big in England
2. Bulmers - Irish cider brand, incredibly hip and cool summer drink, very big in England
3. Micorsoft - Global software company. I thought I had struck gold here but look closely at the name!!
4. Harrods - probably the best known department store in the world!
5. ITV1 - one of the largest and oldest TV channels in england!
6. Cherirblair - Tony Blair’s (ex PM) wife!!
7. Primark - another huge department store chain
8. AsdaWalmart - just a small company (Walmart is the second largest company on the planet)
9. Sysco - 33rd largest company on the planet
10. Centrica - in other words British gas
The list goes on. What is interesting is the spread of companies, celebs and brands. Take Harrods for example, how on earth could they have missed this? who is in charge of protecting them against this sort of activity?
I understand that some may argue as to why on earth they would want a Twitter profile and I don’t want to appear biased towards one platform or another, therefore I checked out the names above on other social media with the same result.
So who is to blame? the company? the agency? or should social media sites build in a protect list of global brands? it would save an awful lot of legal paperwork, cost and heartache, but in my opinion someone within these organisations is liable for the mistake.
Companies need to keep up on what’s happening, or employ someone that can. Protecting your identity, be it personal, company or brand is important, there are individuals out there that will spend hours searching for names, registering profiles all in your name. Some may wish to write about how great you, your company or brand is, others may not.
