shaq

One of the most read posts on this site has been, Do You Own Your .Com? It talked about the importance of claiming your domain name before someone else beats you to it. Well, here’s a new question: Do You Own Your Social Networks? If not, you should.

TWICKED

Here are a few reasons why you should own your MyLinkedinTwitterFacebookSpace. It was reported recently that well known political pollster Frank Luntz got “Twicked.” Twicked is a generic word I’ll use that loosely defines when a social media profile is purposely hijacked.

Apparently a year ago a guy named Brian Devine, a so-called friend and former Luntz employee created a Twitter account using Luntz’s name. Devine “tweeted” as Luntz more than 100 times; and the fake Luntz had nearly 2,000 people following him. The real Luntz had no idea he had been twicked.

A few months ago, NBA star Shaquille O’ Neal was also twicked when a fan began impersonating O’Neal on Twitter. When the Big Fella found out somebody was pretending to be him and sending out bogus tweets, he got twicked off and decided to take matters into his own hands. Actually it was his fingers. He logged onto Twitter and signed up for an account. Now, O’Neal is one of the most prolific Twitter users — at last count he had more than 383,000 people following him. What O’Neal did was a slam-dunk of an idea.

WHO, WHAT AND WHY?

It doesn’t matter that O’Neal is rich and famous and naturally became a target of twicksters. The same thing could happen to you for a variety of reasons. Do you have an old flame who might be out for revenge? Do you have a few friends who love practicing the art of the practical joke on you? Is someone out to ruin your reputation?

FAKE FACEBOOK PROFILES

A few weeks ago I picked up a new consulting gig. The client wants all of its top employees to start using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter as a way to better communicate with its customers. But even before I could start working with any of the employees I was asked to help one worker remove a fake Facebook profile that was set up to appear as though my client’s employee had created the account. I’m still not sure why this particular employee became a target of the twickster, but it was my job to get the fake site removed.

The entire process was a big pain the in the butt!

Good luck trying to find a phone number to call and complain to someone at Facebook– a number doesn’t exist. With no phone number available to call all requests for a profile removal must be done by correspondence via the Facebook site. I was finally able to get the fake profile removed after I falsely (heck I lied) said in an email to Facebook that the fake profile had porn on it! That finally got Facebook’s attention and within minutes of them receiving my email the fake site was taken down.

GO AHEAD, BE SOCIAL

I beleive an easier way to avoid having to deal with “customer no service” at Facebook is to just go ahead and create an account on your own even if you have no plans or desire to use it on a regular basis. Laying claim to your social media space will go a long way in preventing someone else from pretending to be you.

And while you are at it you may want to think about signing up for accounts at other popular social media sites: MySpace, Linkedin, Friendster, YouTube and Flickr to name a few. I can also make an argument that you want to mark your personal territory at some of the popular social bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious and Reddit.

You should note that unlike a web url where you can claim exclusive domain ownership to your name, many of the social networking sites let multiple people with the same name, like John Smith or Tom Jones, register that name on those sites. So, if you do have a fairly common name it’s wise to provide at least a minimum amount of information about yourself in your profile so people searching those sites will have an easier time figuring out if “you are the you” they are looking for.

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MORE TO COME

Social media use has exploded to surprising levels. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have gone way beyond just connecting friends to one another. New businesses are being created everyday to specifically feed the social media niche. My consulting business has increased tremendously in recent months all based on educating clients on how to use social media. Next fall I’ll be teaching a new class I’m creating at the University of Connecticut called “Social Media and the Future of News.”

More on that last point: social media and the news media. Coming soon to Rick’s RSS (as soon as I hire a new blogger) we will start a regular series called, “Know Your Social Neighborhood: A User Guide to Social Networks. The focus of the series will be to show communicators, specifically journalists, how to use social media as a reporting tool. Stay tuned.