Digital Marketing Commentary (Now With 15% More Snark!) » social media

Twitter Now Enforcing Trademarks

jilliantate — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:02:05 +0000

I wrote to Twitter this morning (via their lawenforcement @ twitter (dot) com) address, to complain that a client’s trademarks were being used illicitly. The client is a well known brand, and the violator was using their product name to sell knock-offs. I didn’t expect much of a response – after all, even Google isn’t that vigilant about protecting trademark use.

Regardless, I did a little research, and found one great article that proved we were in the right. The violator was using the client’s brand to confuse consumers into buying a competing product. Clear trademark infringement. I just wasn’t sure how much bandwidth Twitter dedicated to these issues.

I was very pleasantly surprised. I received an auto-response confirming Twitter’s policies on infringement, which includes a crackdown on cyber-squatting. Then I got an email from Twitter’s support, within three hours, to confirm that they had disabled the violating account. Case closed.

I’m very impressed with Twitter’s support levels on this subject. I have several clients with well known brands that are leveraged by competitors – especially competitors with MLM marketing schemes. It’s hard to stamp out that kind of low-level violation, when it’s small time individuals. But Twitter has evidently brought in the support to keep on top of it. Maybe this is part of their long term business strategy to keep advertisers happy??

Facebook updates page URL policy

jilliantate — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:11:14 +0000

I was horrified when I saw that Facebook would only allow for pages to claim URLs if they had 1,000 fans as of May 31st. That was just silly on SO MANY LEVELS. What if the page was on the verge of getting 1,000 fans – when would they be allowed to get a URL once they achieved the goal? And what if a page was a smaller brand? How could Facebook expect pages for small businesses to compete with national brands, or expect indie bands to compete with major label artists with lots of exposure?

However, it didn’t surprise me AT ALL that Facebook was overlooking an actual opportunity to make money. They could have charged a nominal fee per URL for pages with less than 1,000 fans and made a quick six-figures. Worse, the policy would likely alienate advertisers, and make it difficult for companies starting out in the Facebook environment to launch successful campaigns that included paid ads.

So it was with great joy that I announced to my clients yesterday that Facebook had changed their policy. Mashable broke the news yesterday afternoon. As of June 28th, pages with less than 1,000 fans will be able to claim URLs, just like the super big guys.

Thank you, Facebook, for seeing some light here. Now, remind me tonight to snag my own personal username, OK?

A Less Narrow Social Media Universe

jilliantate — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:44:25 +0000

No, I do not think that social media is just Twitter and Facebook. And to even ask that question is, in itself, short sighted.

Here’s why: A year ago, I would never have even included microblogging (Twitter) as a major social media category. I either counted it as a social network, or as a blog site, depending on the client & their objectives. Now, I count microblogging as its own category – and explain that it also includes sites like Tumblr. Twitter is the site within the channel, not a social media channel it itself.
That’s how I explain it to my clients, and then I tell them what the best practices are…and whether its even a relevant channel to their marketing.

To even ask the question, is this all there is? is to forget the very nature of the Internet. There are constant shifts happening, and there is always a game changer. To plan only for Facebook and Twitter because that’s all a client is familiar with, is irresponsible to the client. Now, on the other hand, to only use Facebook and Twitter in a social media plan because they have the biggest audiences, and therefore have adequate reach to your target where other social media sites may not…that’s a different story.