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Is the new domain squatting technique to grab a well known brand name and wait for them to come offering cash to give it up? Well, that’s a theory I wanted to look in to after reading Erik J. Heels notes that 93 of the top 100 global brands aren’t in control of their brand names on Twitter

I decided to do some investigating using the UK Superbands list. I picked out the Top 50, worked on the most likely version of their name on Twitter (using the current brand domain name such as TheAA.com for AA).

 

The result is below and I think we can draw some interesting thoughts from this but no hard conclusions

  • The vast majority of UK brand have no control of their brand name on Twitter. Should they care? I think so but they clearly don’t
  • Only two three brands appear to truly own their Twitter brand in this list – Tate Galleries and BA with the latter being a US owned account BA’s UK arm now has a Twitter feed. The BBC recently claimed theirs hence updated below
  • Though I have listed many that seemingly aren’t under ownership of the brand as having squatter status, that’s no slight against the owners most of who are legit
  • There are clear cases in here of Twitter domain squatting with email addresses should the brand owner be keen to secure the account
  • I’m not implying there is any financial gain for this process – though we have seen that in the past with web domain squatting.
  • Statistically, 94% of UK brands don’t own their Twitter account

 

In an era where brand is increasingly important, can these household names afford to have their brand “owned” by someone else in the increasingly popular world of Twitter where Word of Mouth rules? Or is Twitter not the place for a brand to engage with it’s customers?

Erik has done a lot more work on this than I have time for but check the list below to see how badly our so called UK top brands fare.

 

Brand by UK Rank Status on Twitter Comments Squatter Status
Google registered has employees Tweeting under their own name undetermined
Microsoft registered has employees Tweeting under their own name undetermined
Mercedes Benz registered no tweets undetermined
BBC active claimed by BBC – thanks to @RobAshton for update owned
British Airways active The official Twitterstream of British Airways North America. Neville Hobson since pointed me to the UK BA twitterfeed owned
Royal Doulton registered no tweets, no contact details squatter
BMW active Brian M. Westbrook – no relation to BMW squatters
Bosch active no relation to Bosch squatters
Nike active protected updates, suspected squatter based on follower squatters
Sony active protected updates undetermined
Apple active no tweets but has some employees Tweeting under their own name undetermined
Duracell active 2 tweets, suspected squatter squatter
Jaguar active 2 tweets, suspected squatter, protected updates squatter
Coca Cola suspended suspended due to strange activity squatter
AA registered TheAA is registered but not resolving undetermined
Lego active no relation to BMW squatters
Marks and Spencer active no tweets undetermined
Thorntons active no relation to Thorntons chocolatiers squatters
Cadbury active no relation to Cadbury squatter
Hilton active no relation to Hilton squatter
Wedgewood active has Wedgewood background so potentially owned undetermined
Dulux active no relation to Dulux squatter
Guinness active no relation to Guinness squatter
Kellogg’s active no relation to Kellogg's squatter
Dyson active no relation to Dyson squatter
Royal Albert Hall active 1 tweet, undetermined ownership undetermined
Ordnance Survey active no tweets undetermined
Fisher-Price active 3 tweets, all pointing to a fisher-price product undetermined
Encyclopaedia Britannica not registered EncyclopaediaBr is best match and not active available
Michelin registered available from twitterbrands@gmail.com squatter
Fairy registered no relation to Fairy the liquid hand wash company squatter
BP registered Bryan Pendleton - no relation to the oil company squatter
Adidas registered available from flypig@gmail.com. squatter
Parker not registered ParkerPens - their official domain - is not registered available
Harrods registered no tweets, no contact details undetermined
Heinz registered no relation to the beans company squatter
Domestos registered no relation to the cleaner though last tweet did say Going to clean my House squatter
Andrex registered no tweets, no contact details undetermined
Dettol registered no tweets, no contact details, 1 follower undetermined
Schweppes registered no relation to the fizzy drinks brand squatter
Monopoly registered no relation to the board game squatter
Sellotape not registered available available
Nescafe registered no tweets, no contact details squatter
Shell registered no relation to the oil company squatter
Robinsons registered no relation to the fruit drinks company squatter
Tate Galleries registered owned by the Tate Galleries brand! owned
Eurostar registered no relation to the train company squatter
Nokia registered no relation to the mobile phone company squatter
Playstation registered available from pleasantcreature@gmail.com squatter
Eden Project registered no tweets, no contact details undetermined