No I’m not talking about the high-pitched sound that a bird makes, I’m talking about “Twitter” on the Internet, a free social-networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates and is gaining popularity fast (www.twitter.com).

Firstly, before you continue reading this article, if your company/brand does not have a twitter account then you need to go and register quickly before someone registers a twitter account in your companies name before you get the chance. Then come back to this article and I will tell you why it is so important. Register on twitter at https://twitter.com/signup. Go…

Welcome back. So, why did you just signup for a twitter account? To increase your brand awareness that’s why and to prevent someone ripping-off your brand. Let me explain.

Brand awareness

Of all the social-networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, etc), Twitter arguably comes the closest to enabling real-time conversation with one’s audience. The simplicity of Twitter’s interface puts peoples’ voices front and center, and the short format “posts” encourage brief but intense content exchanges. Also, you can make lots of contacts between people that could potentially become customers or fellow business owners. The only negative I can see in Twitter is the amount of time you would need to make it useful although I suppose that once you get into a routine the benefits should far outweigh the negatives.

Preventing your brand being ripped-off

When a user fills in the registration form on Twitter they can choose any username they want. If you don’t signup for an account in your brand name before they do then this could lead to your brand being ripped-off.

Lets

It’s essential that you ensure you’re the named owner of a domain name when it’s registered on your behalf. Domain names are so valuable that it could have a drastic effect on your business if you are not the owner of the domain name. Let me explain why…

Once its gone, its gone

All things considered, domain names are cheap to purchase and renew each year, herein lies the problem. If someone owns a domain that you like chances are unless you make them an “offer they can’t refuse” then you will never get control of it as the person that owns it doesn’t have to break-the-bank to renew it each year when it is due to expire.

Just because a domain name has been used for your website doesn’t mean you own it

You only own your domain name if your name is listed as the registrant. It’s a sad but true fact that some website designers register domain names for their clients and set themselves as the registrar for that domain name.

Why is all this important?

Consider the following scenario, it might sound crazy now but your website designer may hold your domain name “hostage” so to speak and not give you control of it if for example you decided to move to a different website designer. I hear cases of this fairly frequently and of course the “client” has the understandable feelings of outrage since it is them that owns the company and paid for the domain name and website to be developed etc. However, in the eyes of the registrars it is the person who is listed as the registrar for the domain name that is the owner.

How do I find out if I own my own domain name?

You can do what’s called a WHOIS search using a website like http://www.domaintools.com/. Simply enter your domain name in the search box a the top of the page and click on the “Search” button. The page will then reload and you will see all the information about your domain name like of course the registrant, and things like when the domain name is due to expire.

What are my options to get the domain name in my control?

If you don’t own the domain name you think you should then all is not lost, it won’t be easy but there are various avenues to explore to try and gain control of a domain name but they are too involved for this post.

Don’t forget, if in doubt ask your website designer now. It could save a lot of trouble later on.