Squatted Brand Usernames on Twitter
There are a lot of people on twitter {tweeple as I like to call them} and there are a lot of real life brands on twitter too. Some of the more memorable ones are @google, @yahoo, @thisishowtofly, @CNN, @zappos among many many others.
Twitter is slowly becoming synonymous with a brands real life identity, it’s being used by many as an official PR channel. That is why it is becoming increasingly important for a brand to get it’s username on twitter as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the rest of the Internet knows this basic fact as well.
This has led to an increasing number of recognized brand names being squatted upon by a bunch of nobodies. For instance, McDonalds would probably want to get @mcdonalds on twitter, as you can see it is being held by a squatter. This is where the brand name has lost out on getting the one username on twitter that would be the most obvious choice {I’m sure they can easily switch it over though}.
Here is a list of some more usernames on twitter that are being squatted upon. I have to say that some are actual people, so I doubt the company can do anything there to change it.
- @dell – 4 Tweets since 2007? Seriously, you should sell it to Michael for a good amount. Speaking of which, @MichaelDell.
- sony – 1 update, no followers or following. What a waste.
- @disney – An actual person in California.
- apple – This looks like it was recently updated. Anybody know anything?
- @msn – Someone with no updates.
- @burgerking – A squatter
- @adobe – Another squatter
- @AMD – Some dude who stopped tweeting in September, 2008
- @kodak – Squatting since 2007
- @McAfee – Some dude
- @nortonantivirus – There’s a reason it’s on this list
- @firefox – Interesting avatar, but that’s about it
- @prada – Not very stylish by my accounts
- @gucci – …not
- @chanel – Rainbows gone forever?
- @thedude – OK, not a brand but an icon by himself. It’s actually some dude in Massachusetts
- @dreamworks – Someone called Dr Eam Works. Yeah, uh huh.
- @virgin - I guess it’s still a virgin
- @mastercard – For everything else, wait…
- @visa – Beginning the day since April 3rd, 2007
- @abc – I wonder what ABC would pay to get this username?
- @circuitcity – Oh wait…nevermind
- @AIG – An actual person tweeting, not the corporate scum we have all come to know in the past couple of days
These are a but few immediate examples that come to mind. If you know of any leave a comment with the link to them and I’ll update the post.
This just goes to show you that if you are starting up a new company, or web startup, get your twitter username {and any other social media username} before someone else has the chance too.
Remember, twitter is free PR and going forward it is going to be a force to be reckoned with {like it isn’t already}.
I suppose trademark rules don’t apply to Twitter like they do to domain names. This could be an okay money making idea if you can find a company (or two or ten) that might actually care about branding themselves on Twitter.
With the rapid increase of Twitter’s popularity – and importance in the social media arena – it might not be a bad idea to spend a little time researching unclaimed brands. Especially tech-related ones.
Sara
I’m sure it’s being done already by a lot of folks. There are even tools out there that let you mass create twitter accounts, I’m not telling where though
[...] If not, you might want to grab is to stop squatters taking it over. Reading through a blog post on squatted brand username on Twitter it’s quite clear that there’s an increase in people taking up brand names without [...]
Twitter may take the names back. I had GoogleApps and it was simply taken (develop solutions with Google Apps)
Cheers
Hans
even i was so surprise that some brand username were not updating anything ,
just knew the reason behind it
People ask me why do I create accounts on every platform possible. This is exactly why I do that. Misinformation is a pain because negative press is picked up 100 times faster than positive. Sad fact about human nature — we seek negativity as some sort of balance as proof that we are a positive individual.