It’s important to note that Twitter has no tolerance of people who claim usernames for the sake of hoarding them, never using them, using them to spam others, claiming them for blackmail, or claiming them to eventually sell them off on a private market. There’s a whole sub-section of their terms of service in regard to Twitter username socialsquatting. If you’ve wanted a Twitter account badly and intend to really make it great but some scum has already taken the account name and has obviously done nothing with it, then you’ve got a prime candidate for sending a complaint to Twitter over.

Reporting a Twitter Squatter

If the Twitter account you’re wanting has nothing but spam links (such as “check this out!” with a Bit.ly link, it’s most likely affiliate marketing spam), report the account as spam. You might not be able to nail the guy for cybersquatting, even though he’s probably being active on a regular basis just to hold on to the name, but you can at least get him suspended for spamming.

If anyone has ever tried to blackmail you by registering your company name as a Twitter address, be sure to report it, and they will get a perma-ban by Twitter. Nice.

Now that all of the scenarios are out of the way, here’s how you can actually submit the complaint. Twitter doesn’t make the process very straightforward, and it can be a real pain to figure out how to report someone for squatting. If you need to do so, visit the “Submit a Request” form. The options for the form are rather ridiculous – you should select “I have a bone to pick with you” and “inactive username” or “trademark/brand cybersquatting.” Then, state the @username that is being squatted, and mention how there is no activity on the account. Twitter should be able to handle the request.

Suspended Twitter accounts go into limbo...sometimes forever!

There are three possible scenarios that may come from this: 1) Nothing happens (doubtful, since Twitter is more aggressive than ever with socialsquatters), 2) The username gets deleted and locked (bummer…now nobody can use it), 3), The user is deleted, and the username goes back up for dibs (be sure to check every day so that you can be the one to snag it!)

Twitter usernames that are suspended go back up for grabs in 60 days, or so they say.

Even if you find names that you don’t care about claiming, be sure to report them anyway. Do it for your fellow community. Don’t let these jerks get away with it!

In past articles, I’ve spoken about the bastards that are known as cybersquatters, and how they not only go after domain names that either are exact to or similar to an existing company name. I’ve also ranted about their little bastard cousins known as “socialsquatters” who perform the same acts with user names on social networking accounts. One of the most devastating social networking account user names to not own as your exact company name is Youtube; therefore, I stress the importance of getting the account name back on any of your businesses that will be doing video promotions.

Contacting Youtube to Report a Squatter

Much like contacting Google, it’s really hard to figure out how to contact Youtube. They make you jump through hoops if you click the “contact” link. In short, you’ll never find it through there (believe me, I’ve tried for a half hour once) – you’ll just get dragged through pages and pages of FAQs and other nonsense. If you’re looking to dispute a cybersquatter that has registered Youtube.com/YourName, you’ll have to do it through the Youtube Legal Issues Form. As the form says, this is the best way to file a claim; better than doing so by snail mail or fax.

Click through two descriptive pages, then click “trademark” from the link list, and you’ll get to the form itself. Here, you’ll have to fill out the trademark owner’s name (hopefully, that’s you), address and contact information, along with the ID# of your registered trademark. When describing the issue at hand, you’ll really want to play up the fact that this name has been intentionally cybersquatted. Mention your company’s life span. Hopefully your company has been around before the cybersquatter took your user name…otherwise, you might run into a roadblock. State the date that your trademark was registered, and when it was first used in commerce. Explain that this account is causing “commercial confusion” with the public. In other words, people are assuming the account in question is the official Youtube account of your company, when it is not.

At the end of the form, be sure to state that you want the account to be closed AND handed over to you. Otherwise, it will be gone forever, and that defeats the purpose.

If Youtube reviews everything and it all checks out, you’ll receive an email stating that the account has successfully been transferred and a temporary password has been assigned. This is the part where you can start doing the Cabbage Patch.

Above: The email confirming Youtube's transferal of a cybersquatted account to me.

The more of these things you have on your side, the better your chances of getting your username back will be:

• You own the registered trademark of the word, and it’s a “made-up” word (i.e., ‘Flarg’ instead of ‘MotorcycleVideos’)
• The socialsquatter hasn’t done anything with the account beyond registering the user name, making it blatantly obvious that the intent was to squat it
• The account you’re trying to gain ownership of was squatted a long time ago, and the account has no activity on it in months or years

What If You Don’t Own a Registered Trademark?

If none of this was helpful to you because you only have a lowly “implied trademark,” it’s never too late to register a trademark for your online presence. Seriously, the benefits far outweigh that $500 fee, especially when fighting these cybersquatting pricks! It’s really easy to do, too. I did it on my own, but services like Legalzoom’s online trademark service will do all of the grunt work for you.

If the Youtube username you desire has been taken by a squatter, or someone who registered it years ago and has never logged in since then, you’re out of luck. Youtube never releases squatted or suspended usernames – EVER…even though they claim that it happens within 6 months of the action taken. The only way to get one is to register a trademark, be patient through the registration process (usually 1 full year) and attempt to write Youtube using your trademark serial number as your saving grace.

Otherwise, you can always resort to “Youtube.com/mysitedotcom” (note the “dot com” spelled out at the end), I’ll promise not to make fun of you, though.

Possibly the worst move I ever made (or didn’t make) was securing a couple of my well-established brand name’s usernames on Youtube. Getting a good username on Youtube is nearly impossible these days. If you have low blood pressure, please don’t even attempt it. I can honestly find an available premium .com domain name faster than I can find a decent, brandable Youtube username. Getting back to it, some scum sucker registered my trademarked brand name as a Youtube account – one of which I want to be in my possession SO badly. The account has been inactive for well over a year and a half.

How Big Business Fights Socialsquatting

I’ve worked with corporate legal departments at past jobs to gain possession of a cybersquatted social networking accounts. It always helps to be a “big business” with an official letter that came from someone who has the tag “Corporate Counsel” after his or her name. Basically, you can send these social networking companies a dispute, stating that someone has “cybersquatted” (be sure to use that word) your company’s registered trademark with the intention of benefiting from your company’s popularity. It helps if the account you’re looking to gain control of actually has something related to your business category within it, which will make your complaint more concrete. Include your company name and/or registered trademark S/N identification (the registered trademark will count much more than an un-protected company name that has been used in commerce). Send out this quasi-C&D letter and hope for the best. If you get no reply, try a follow-up. If that doesn’t work, then you’re SOL.

How to Combat Socialsquatting On Your Own

What to do? Here’s my suggestion: be on top of every social network that comes out. If you don’t read RSS feeds from companies like Mashable or Search Engine Land, start doing so immediately. Mashable.com in particular gives featured promos on start-up social networking services, basically introducing them to the internet marketing public. You never know which one of them will  be the next Twitter, Tumblr or FriendFeed, and you’ll want to register your brand name on them immediately before someone else gets to it first, even if they wind up being failed projects. If anything, include a link to your home page from your account on these sites – it will only help you to continue ranking high for your own company name. The best and easiest way to see which usernames are available on social networking accounts is to use NameChk or KnowEm, both of which will scan dozens of sites at once and let you know which sites have that username as an availability.

As for Facebook…if you’re a business owner, it’s in your best interest to start a Facebook Page for your company, amass exactly 25 fans or more, and unlock the ability to name your page. Name it for the exact name of your company or brand name (hopefully it is still available). Facebook continues to be the only social network that makes you jump through hoops to register a branded URL (unless you own a registered trademark for it, in which case, you go immediately to the front of the line and/or will have any existing page for it be surrendered over to you).

Twitter has wizened up to socialsquatters recently. Don’t even think about socialsquatting an actual brand name: there’s an algorithm for that. Or, some kind soul will defend a brand and simply report you, prompting your ban from Twitter altogether.

Owning the exact name of your company/brand as a social network username is key. It’s a must-have. It’s something everyone will expect you to own…otherwise, you’ll resort to looking like a horse’s ass, with an “alternate version” username that most people will not remember (like Twitter.com/mysitedotcom – boo hoo). Think smart by acting fast – cybersquatters and socialsquatters have no life beyond chasing delusions and thinking they’ll get big bucks for owning top brand-name accounts. It’s easy to combat a cybersquatter in your homeland (send off a C&D to the server host), but a socialsquatter is truly someone who will ruin your day, and your branding campaign.