Ugh, a company has contacted me and wants me to release my Twitter name to them.

[threeprong]

So I use Twitter .....

I am a big fan of a particular company and have been posting info to other like minded folks for several months.

Yesterday, I received a message from their Marketing-in-charge person requesting me to call them. I did so and left a message and an email to be contacted with. (I've been in contact with the company over the years once or twice and have made purchases from them directly, they sell only to distributors etc... I'm not a distributor.) They are a Global International corporation.

Today i receive the following email...

__________________________________________________________________________________________


Hey __________

Thanks for getting in touch with me. I really appreciate all you have done to help keep fans of ________ informed. In fact, the first time I saw your tweets I thought you must be someone in my own marketing department.

As I mentioned in my message, we don’t want to shut you down. However, we are uncomfortable with you representing yourself as ____________. I would much prefer you to change it to _____________ Fans or something similar.

It is our plan to start tweeting ourselves in early 2010.

I’ll also need you to change some of the phrasing on the home page to make it clear you are not speaking directly for _______________. Once you have done this we will work with Twitter to get control of the ___________________ page. I don’t want to slow you down, but I do want to make sure it is clear that you do not directly represent ________________.

Let me know what you think. I’m open to reasonable suggestions.

Also, if you want to send me your physical address and your size I’ll send out a swag package with _________________________. to thank you for all of your hard work to date. I’d like to maintain an open dialog and even feed you exclusive information from time to time.

Feel free to call my cell again at ___-___-____ to discuss. Keep in mind I am Pacific time zone and will not answer after about 9PM.

Again, I want to emphasize that we are happy with what you have been doing and do not want to shut you down. We just want it to be clear that you are a fan of ____________ and not _______ itself.

Thanks,

(Name withheld>


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Okay, before any of you jump on some sort of twitter name squatting rant, I'd like to point out that the name I'm using is not the name the company uses as it's domain name. My Twitter page is loaded with
___________________ FANS terminology.

There's a disclaimer that says it's an unofficial fan club etc. It's large.

I have been a large part of the online community of this company's fans for awhile, from Yahoo groups to FaceBook fan sites etc. They are a popular company, the biggest in the world at what they do. (Not Apple, or even a tech company for that matter.)

I know this company has secured several Twitter names that are more closely related to their business name and to their domain name. I kind of feel they are reaching a bit so far as my Twitter name, and also I have a
large following on Twitter. This company, while they have many Twitter names secured has no real presence there. Also, it's not possible character count wise to add "Fans" to my Twitter name.

I file like I'm being asked to give up my hobby so this company can capitalize on it.

I'm trying to think of a good analogy on the Twitter name so you have a better idea as to the name issues in play here.

Imagines Chevrolet wanting your Twitter account because it's called @ChevyMotors

that's not a great analogy...

I understand a company's right to protect their brand name.... but how far and how many iterations do they need to protect?

Anyway... that's today's issue.

3p

[mattkime]

write them a polite response pointing out how you'd prefer to keep the name and that you're stating that you're not said company.

[AAA]

You have bigger issues, I would suspect, in life. Move on.

[MikeF]

Hold out for more swag or cold hard cash...

[Will Collier]

I'm with Mike. If they want it, they should pay you for it.

[mikebw]

Say that you don't feel your name is confusingly similar to theirs, but if they are adamant about it you would be willing to negotiate for a fee.

[Blankity Blank]

You won't have to give up your 'hobby'; you can come up with another name, and the nice little ego stroke of a large twitter following will quickly recreate itself as it seems people are following your unique contributions, not just the twitter name. A few preemptive tweets before you switch names and notices on your web site will get most people on the new wave length pretty quickly.

I'd look at it as a simple business transaction, Their concern for confusion doesn't sound entirely unreasonable, and they seem to be in a bargaining posture. They've, as expected, opened with a low offer, a swag bag and possibly access to "inside" information to be named later, but also say they're, "...open to reasonable suggestions."

I'd set pride and territoriality aside for the duration and craft a polite, respectful counter offer reply. Whether that's putting the ball back in their court with 'make an offer' or naming a specific figure, that's your call, but I would make clear to them that, while you're not trying to soak them, you're aware of the value of what they want, as well as the value of the good will your hard work has now attached to the name, and would like to receive fair value for what they're asking.

With any luck it will stay on a cordial footing and you can get through this without lawyers getting involved except to dot the i's and cross the t's on a final agreement.

[3d]

For the time being, until you decide how you want to move forward, do not accept ANYTHING (swag, shirts, mugs..etc) from them. Ignore their request for your shirt size.

[deckeda]

Well said, Blankity Blank.

And take 3d's advice---if you take anything or agree to anything at all from them now you've agreed in principle to whatever they want from you, as-is.

Focus on the name issue, not the disclaimer issue first, even as a stop-gap or temporary measure. (See 3d's advice again!) But if you keep the name, modifying the disclaimer to add some verbiage is easy.

[cbelt3]

The amount of effort you want to put into this is based entirely on how much you *want* to fight or argue with them. They're trolling and sending out these letters to everyone whose account is even close.

A Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Blog are all considered assets these days. They are known, identifiable marques. You've built up your 'brand' over time. If you want to sell your 'brand', well and good. Sell it. But be prepared to abandon your interest, OR be hired as a part time marketing flack for this company, subject to their rules and direction, etc. Essentially becoming a shill.

It's all in what YOU want to do.