An often-overlooked step in the process is the first one, which is the easiest one: Claim your brand name on every platform. Open at least one account on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., under your company name and brand names. Claim your online real estate before someone else does. That’s really important so I’ll wait…there’s a very reason I made you do that.

The reason is squatters. Squatters will steal your brand names and either block you from your own names or, worse, begin posting as you and potentially do significant damage to your brand. So claim your space now and thank me later.

Most of the platforms have specific rules about squatting and many will help you reclaim your rightful names, but not all. To some it’s just a platform and whatever happens, well, happens. There are numerous examples of names being claimed and even abused. Look at this screenshot from Twitter carefully:

Pfizer’s real Twitter account is @pfizer_news. The guy, I won’t name him because I don’t want to help him and I don’t support this kind of pirating, has the Pfizer name. He doesn’t appear to be malicious but neither is he flattering. Don’t you want your online representation to be flattering? If you’re Pfizer don’t you want to control your own name?

If someone is only casually paying attention, which happens a lot on Twitter, wouldn’t it be easy for them to think this was Pfizer’s official account?

Here’s a shortcut to claiming your name. There are services, such as KnowEm, that you can pay to secure your name on hundreds of social media sites. It’s a good way to secure your name even on platforms you have no intention of using without having to do all the grunt-work yourself.

Finally, after you’ve secured your name go to each one and complete your profile. I know it’s a pain but the search engines are now indexing the social media platforms so this is a quick and easy way to support your brand and increase traffic to your (official) website.

It really boils down to two choices, you claim it or someone else will. So what’s it gonna be?

Steve

800-707-9150

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