It’s extremely annoying when you can’t get your username on a platform, and with the rise of so many different platforms, it’s increasingly difficult to secure your name across those platforms. This has been a problem not only for individuals and small businesses. But also large entities, including global corporations, celebrities with millions of followers and professional sports teams.
So let’s talk about some of the problems that result from not having your username. And then at the end, I will talk about ways to try to acquire or secure that username. So one obvious problem is brand confusion. Consumers, followers, et cetera, get easily confused. And so if you don’t have your brand name locked down, it can create confusion.
This is why with marketing, we try to make the messaging as simple as possible. There can also be a perceived lack of legitimacy or a loss of trust. If you’re working under a weak username, it can make people question your credibility. And people are already so leery of scams, they may back away. Also, missed engagement opportunities.
So this applies especially to large or not large, small businesses and individuals. If you don’t have your brand name locked up, someone may type in the URL directly, and then the username goes somewhere else, their attention is diverted. And they’ve lost focus and now they’re on to something else.
We know people have shorter attention spans, so you can lose opportunities. Of course one theme here is this. It’s difficult to market bad usernames and also uneven usernames. So let’s say you have your desired username on multiple platforms, but then a weak username or a different username on another.
This isn’t going to pass the radio test and it can be even difficult online when users are having to remember multiple different usernames. So it can be difficult to market and this leads to inconsistent branding, which leads to brand dilution. If your username is different across platforms, it’s a problem and your brand becomes harder to recognize.
There’s also the potential for miscommunication we’ve seen on. Numerous Instagram and Twitter profiles where we will have this prominent figure that’s taking up their bio, their very limited bio to warn users of scams, and this is because someone is potentially scamming users using Alternate usernames and because they didn’t lock down their username, other people are using those usernames to scam people.
And then the last point I have here is a loss of traffic. So let’s say that you are going viral on Twitter, but it’s at the wrong username. So this can lead to less and less page people going to your Twitter page. And so the different platforms obviously there are the major platforms, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
You want to lock down those if at all possible, but there are other platforms where usernames really matter. Patreon, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitch, Reddit, Spotify, Etsy, Medium, and the list goes on and on. Now, obviously some of these other platforms. They may not matter, right? If your audience isn’t on Pinterest, it’s not a big deal if you don’t have your Pinterest username.
But if your demographic resides on Pinterest, then it is a big deal. So then you’re, then you have to revert to using a weaker username. And so you might put official in front of it or real or I am, or this is. You might have a suffix like hq. com or com for your domain name. The worst is when you have a completely different username.
You may have a variation. You may use underscores. Rachel Nichols famously had double underscores in her Twitter name, and that created a problem at one point. So there are any number of variations, but they’re all a problem. You want to avoid them, but sometimes it’s just not possible. And this is part of the reason why I’m creating this episode is because there really isn’t a way sometimes for you to get your username.
And yet the impact is so large. So who’s been impacted? Well, the prime example I have is Taylor Swift on Twitter. The at Taylor Swift account is suspended. So Taylor Swift, who has 94 million followers, uses at Taylor Swift 13. With YouTube there are Some influencers named the Nelk Boys and they work under at Nelk Films with a Z and at Nelk Boys is taken and then so they also have their Full Send podcast and The at Full Send is unavailable So they use at Full Send podcast, but then on Facebook that’s taken so ideally they’d like to have at full send, right?
But that can be difficult. So they went to at full send podcast, but then on Facebook, it’s taken by another page. Ferrari is another great example. They have at Ferrari at on everything except for Twitch, where it’s at Ferrari e sports twitch. tv slash Ferrari e sports. And then continuing on. So we have Lowe’s and the one, the one platform where they missed out was Instagram at Lowe’s Home Improvement.
Tesla is Tesla Motors on everything except for it’s, it’s Tesla prefers Tesla. They have at Tesla on a few of a few channels, but are a few platforms, but on. On others where they can’t get Tesla, they’ve taken Tesla motors. For example, on Instagram they have at Tesla motors, but on Facebook, even that was taken.
So they had to resort to at Tesla motors corp and better homes and gardens. I’ll, I’ll end with them. They, they like to have BGH. They love that three letter branding, but on Facebook, it’s my BGH and. Then on Tik Tok, it’s at better. homes. and. gardens. And so that’s their Tik Tok username. So you can see this can be a problem for anybody.
So how do you get your username if it’s been taken? Well, obviously, if you want to go the direct route, you can contact the current holder and try to negotiate a purchase or an acquisition. You can also hire a broker. So there are brokers who specialize in domain name acquisitions. But there’s even there’s even, there are even brokers for username acquisitions.
You can also wait for the platforms to purge the usernames. We’ve heard about this from Twitter recently that they’re going to purge inactive accounts. So if, if that’s the case, then you could be watching the wire for that to happen. You can also make a trademark claim with the platform. And we know of several major platforms that allow for this and we’ll take requests based on trademark infringement.
And then beyond trademark, sometimes you just want the name and you can contact the platform directly. And this is where having inside connections help. And we know that inside connections do happen. We’ve also seen. Many celebrities not have their name originally and then end up getting their name.
And then the last thing I have is the legal route. And so if, if you can’t secure your username, you may end up going and filing a complaint in court. That’s also a possibility, but it’s going to be hard there if you don’t have that trademark. And then one more thing I have here is that you may lose your username because you just can’t log into your account.
So you’ve lost your password. Someone else has it. Someone else created it. The employee left. You don’t have the two-factor authentication method necessary, and so you may have just lost your username. So in some circumstances it really does just become a, a case of the appropriate brand or the appropriate person can’t secure their username.
And I think there needs to be a better, I think platforms need to be more receptive to usernames, given just how important usernames are. to these different figures and companies. So there needs to be a better process. And right now, it looks like the process is more of a one off. And sometimes if you have an inside connection, if you are, if you are so well known, it can play a factor.
But other times we’ve seen where these major entities aren’t able to lock in their domain names. And so in the aggregate, It really does cause a tremendous impact and, and this is a loss for these various entities, right? They could lose millions of dollars in marketing or people could be scammed as a result.
And so I think both in the interest of the platform and just running a good platform and the entities. These platforms need to be more receptive to username requests, and also just be alert of if people aren’t using using the usernames. Now, if someone is legitimately using the username. I don’t think a large entity should be able to take it just because they’re a large entity.
But in many cases, we know that nothing is happening with these usernames. And so I think the platforms need to work with people to make sure that the right person ends up with the username.