Personalising social media profiles to avoid ‘cyber squatting’
Last week’s post explored online reputation management. This week, another issue relevant to the topic has emerged.
In case you haven’t heard, users of the social networking site Facebook are now able to register names for their profile pages. These names also act as a URL address extension so that users can to access their profiles directly.
The ability to register became available last Saturday June 13. Three million users have already registered individual profile names – 500, 000 of whom did so in the first 15 minutes of this feature becoming available. Source.
Connecting Images recommended to its clients with existing Facebook pages to register their business name/s as their individual profile names, so that their profiles became easier for existing and potential customers to locate. In addition, getting in early could prevent others from inappropriately registering their business name.
The process of poaching a competitor’s name online is not new – think back to the early adopters who registered well known web addresses long before the legitimate brand owner set up a website!
Poaching business names online is quite common and referred to as ‘cyber squatting’. Businesses must be able to establish their genuine presence on such sites, to avoid reputation management issues.
So what can you do to avoid cyber squatting?
Quick tips
- Regardless of whether you are currently engaged with new communication technology, stake your claim anyway, and register your business name on emerging web services.
- Don’t try to get creative! Register your most commonly used business name (the one that is on your website, in your marketing collateral and in your advertising).
- If you find that someone else has already registered your business name as their individual profile name, check it out and if you suspect it is a case of ‘cyber squatting’ take action. Some services (i.e. Facebook) offer the right of appeal.
Want to know more about how your business can best utilise emerging web services? Give Merilyn or Cal a call on (03) 9819 2566 and arrange to come in for a coffee and a chat.