You wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, and fire up your email – ready to take on the challenges of a brand new day. Then you notice a Google Alert for your brand name. Finally it hits you:
“Oh crap, someone else is using my name to publish bogus information!”
Is a scammer using your brand name and identity for their own personal gain? Are they publishing spammy blog articles, or something more serious?
Motivated squatters are looking to lock up your brand ID on the social Web, denying you the opportunity to control the image you’ve worked so hard to define. That’s the byproduct of creating something of value, it gains attention from good and bad people alike. But you don’t have to let these clowns have the last laugh.
Secure the Social Battlefield
Sarah Evans – PRSarahEvans to her thousands of Twitter followers – created a wonderful tool to help combat brand jacking, and it’s totally free. The tool is called Name Check, and it lets you secure your brands profile name across the most popular social sites on the Web.
Here’s the rub: You can’t wait until you’re ready to use each service to lock up your profile name. Take a few minutes to sign up for profiles on each of the sites listed at Name Check and sit on them. Even if you aren’t a live streaming vlogger (yet), you don’t want to allow someone else to profit off your brand identity.
This isn’t just a tip for business, either. People need to be just as diligent about wrapping up their personal brand as large multinational conglomerates. It’s true that we’re all our own brand these days, and although just having social profiles isn’t enough to boost this brand Online, ignoring the popularity of new media is treacherous!
Next, track yourself – or business, or brand – on the Web using simple tools like Google Alerts and Twitter Search. You are the commander-in-chief of your brand, so take the initiative to secure it on the Web right now!
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