What About Your Name on Social Websites?

Do you know if your business name, brand name, or personal name is available on the plethora of social media websites?  Many large corporations that are just starting to get involved in social media are hit upside the head with a big surprise.  They have lost their brand name in the top social sites.

On Twitter the name “McDonalds” is not owned by the famous clown – Ronald McDonald (www.twitter.com/McDonalds).  Verizon and Microsoft are also not owned by their brand name owners (www.twitter.com/verizon and www.twitter.com/Microsoft.)  Sprint and Google on the other hand do own their names on Twitter.

Impersonation Policy

Sites like Twitter do have an Impersonation Policy that says you cannot impersonate another person or companies brand.  That may not make it clear that someone other than you is representing your brand.  I could use the Microsoft name as my username to disparage the brand, as long as I disclosed that I am not Microsoft.  If you suspect someone is impersonating you or your company, here are a few places you can go:

• Twitter Impersonation Policy:  http://help.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/18366
• FaceBook Policy:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/terms.php?ref=pf
• LinkedIn User Agreement:  http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=user_agreement&trk=hb_ft_userag

Most social media sites will respond to your inquires quickly; but you need to take action.

Should You Secure Your Brand In the Major Social Networks?

I think so.  But that can be time consuming.  So lets make it easy.  KnowEm (http://knowem.com/) checks the availability of your brand name, user name or vanity URL on 120 popular Social Media websites. It is simple and will tell you if your brand is being used by someone else.  Give it a try.

Got a comment?  Let me hear them.  I do respond to ALL comments.

25 Random Things About Me

Remember the “25 Random Things About Me” that spread like a virus across Facebook?  Millions of people saw it and participated in it.  I actually learned a lot about my sister-in-law and several of my friends.  There are some things that you should never share in a social network.  Here are a few of those:

1. Your anniversary date
2. Name of your first pet
3. Mothers maiden name
4. Birth dates
5. City you were born in
6. Favorite teacher

Why Not Share This Information You May Ask!

In social networks such as these, it may seen innocent to share this information, but this is information that is commonly asked for to validate your identity online. Do remember filling out that form on an ecommerce site that asked for a security questions?  These sites tend to ask questions similar to the 6 questions above.  What about your password for your blog?  Is that password the answer to one of those questions?

If It Is Easy For You to Remember, Is It Easy For a Hacker to Figure Out?

It is not that hacker are smarter than the average person, it is that the average person doesn’t make it hard for a hacker to figure out their passwords.  A hacker typically will try all of the common passwords, and when they do not succeed, they move on.  In many cases, they are using automatic systems to try and hack into your personal information.  They can use these same automatic systems to ‘harvest’ your personal data out of social networks.  What are the odds that they will be successful in harvesting your personal data?  If you are using common information and sharing that information in your social networks – the odds are not in your favor.

What is Known About You?

My life is online.  Your life is also online.  Our businesses are online.  Be smart about what you share – but also be smart about how you choose your passwords. Here is a great site that contains a lot of information about you.  Take a look at what the “Internet” knows about you right now at http://www.pipl.com – then go and change your passwords.