Top 50 UK Brands Who Haven’t Claimed Their Twitter Name
Claiming a Twitter profile name seems to be the new domain squatting, so I thought it would be interesting to see how many top brands have claimed what would be their first choice Twitter handle.
Image credit: Flickr
So for example, Sky would presumably like to have claimed twitter.com/sky – but missed out on this to another user.
This graph compares which industries have the largest percentage of brands that do not own their branded twitter domain name. Almost all of the motor industry brands we looked at hadn’t registered their brand’s twitter domain.
Here’s a list of 50 very well-known high-street and UK/Worldwide brands, many of these are using Twitter but none of these have claimed their exact brand name as their Twitter URL’s:
- http://twitter.com/Apple
- http://twitter.com/Acer
- http://twitter.com/Adidas
- http://twitter.com/Argos
- http://twitter.com/BandQ
- http://twitter.com/Barclays
- http://twitter.com/BMW
- http://twitter.com/Boots
- http://twitter.com/Dell
- http://twitter.com/Debenhams
- http://twitter.com/Dyson
- http://twitter.com/Disney
- http://twitter.com/Diesel
- http://twitter.com/Epson
- http://twitter.com/Ferrari
- http://twitter.com/Gucci
- http://twitter.com/Homebase
- http://twitter.com/HotelChocolat
- http://twitter.com/HMV
- http://twitter.com/Ikea
- http://twitter.com/Jaguar
- http://twitter.com/JohnLewis
- http://twitter.com/Kelloggs
- http://twitter.com/Kenwood
- http://twitter.com/Kodak
- http://twitter.com/LG
- http://twitter.com/Lego
- http://twitter.com/Lloyds
- http://twitter.com/Lush
- http://twitter.com/Mercedes
- http://twitter.com/Next
- http://twitter.com/Nokia
- http://twitter.com/Nike
- http://twitter.com/Nikon
- http://twitter.com/Panasonic
- http://twitter.com/Phillips
- http://twitter.com/Peugeot
- http://twitter.com/Puma
- http://twitter.com/Quiksilver
- http://twitter.com/Rayban
- http://twitter.com/Rover
- http://twitter.com/Renault
- http://twitter.com/Seat
- http://twitter.com/Sky
- http://twitter.com/Tesco – Account suspended
- http://twitter.com/Volkswagen
- http://twitter.com/Vodafone
- http://twitter.com/Volvo
- http://twitter.com/Waitrose
- http://twitter.com/WarnerBros
Of the high-street brands reviewed, the only ones who seemed to be quick enough to secure their brand name were Sainsburys, Ford, Microsoft, Nescafe and Google. There’s probably loads more brands (in addition to the big brands mentioned such as John Lewis, Asos etc) who have the same problem, perhaps Twitter should start doing something about making it more easier for this brands to claim their profiles – especially when the holder is an inactive user.
December 9th, 2009 at 6:05 am
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December 9th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Interesting post. I have found that quite a lot of brand names are taken by ‘brand-squatters’. I set up @virgintrains for, you’ve guessed it; Virgin Trains and it took a few months patience with Twitter Support to retrieve from a user.
My guidance is if your brand name is being ‘used’ by a squatter, begin the process early and keep pushing Twitter for a resolution. :-)
December 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Well researched, shows who’s asleep on the job…WAKE UP MARKETING DEPARTMENT!! the bandwagons leaving town…
December 9th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
This article goes hand in hand.
http://mashable.com/2009/11/17/fortune-100-companies-twitter/
“Fortune 100 companies don’t really get Twitter.”
December 9th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
[...] hat eine Liste mit 50 großen Marken zusammengestellt, die ihre Markennamen und die zugehörige Twitter URL (noch) nicht für sich [...]
December 14th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I’m not sure Twitter is a universal solution, some companies use Television, other direct mail outs, some prefer email, etc. It probably depends a lot on the demographic of your customer base and their responsiveness to media. As a Twitter user I would generally prefer to communicate via email – I actually read 100% of my emails and am capable of digesting more than 140 words at once!
In the UK at least, passing off as a brand will get you in trouble with the law, so I’m sure these companies will be able to claim the names back if/when they need them.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
You can add @eurostar to that list
January 4th, 2010 at 5:49 am
Nice post, it gives me some inpirations, thanks.
March 21st, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Twitter, atleast for me, is one of those sites you have to learn to love. I actually started out as a twitter hater.