As part of putting a "new coat of paint" for the online identities for a rockstar pal o mine, I'm THISCLOSE to locking down/merging their social media accounts with Facebook & Twitter, and it's been an interesting experience getting there.
Although I didn't set out initially to familiarize myself with this stuff - it's mostly very non-exciting time spent on research, emailing, follow-ups, etc. - I have found myself navigating the unknown waters and cutting edge of online identities, social media accounts and changes, name squatting & ownership of domain names, etc.
One problem for celebrities: It doesn't require any proof or authentication to grab a user name & account. Facebook is particularly loose with that, which is why you see so many different pages purporting to be the same famous person.
TRADEMARKS. Although YouTube and Twitter seem to have somewhat decent response times for legit claims for those having an actual registered trademark, Facebook doesn't really seem to give a damn about anyone or anything EXCEPT paid advertisers. The only reason I had success with a user name migration was by NOT following the rules they put down for reporting bugs - and I actually got response from a real human.
And so, here's what I've done for my rockstar pal so far:
1. Recovered their domain name;
2. Recovered their YouTube name/account;
3. Recovered their Twitter name/account;
4. Migrated their personal page (which had maxed out at 5000 friends) to a fan page.
Now, I'm trying to merge two different accounts & variations (Twitter & Facebook) of their name into one - WITHOUT losing or deleting existing likes & followers. Can it be done without direct human intervention? I wonder who else out there is doing this sort of thing - anyone? And how much would they charge?
Labels: facebook merge, name squatting, social media, twitter merge, user impersonation
