Owning your online personal brand identity

I just read a few different posts that speak pretty highly of the firstnamelastname.com personal brand identity. (I got a little bit smug...) Sure we'd all like to have firstname@lastname.com as an email address, but this often requires a rare single word .com domain, and these can be expensive. The key is to have an odd name--- oh wait, you've already been dealt your hand...

What can you do as an average person to PROTECT your online identity? In my last post, I commmented on the disregard for trademark rights by a certain Canadian bank. If this were a domain issue, it would most certainly be in court already, but it was just keywords, so this level of brand theft hasn't yet elevated itself to the awareness level of the courts in Canada.

The key is to make sure that when someone google's you, you are in control of what rises to the top of the SERP. If you google 'Andrew Kinnear' right now, you will likely get some results that point to this blog, or my LinkedIn profile, or maybe a facebook 'public' profile badge. All of these things come up because I am aware of my public brand and I manage it. I make sure that various social networks link back to the blog, which in turn links out to various profiles. I blog (for various reasons, but also) to create fresh content that is indexed, along with my name, ensuring my position in a SERP.

Do employers or potential employers google someone before they're hired? Industry experts say yes. Do admissions personnel at prestigious schools check people out before the final 'o.k.'? You bet.

So what do you need to do to get the ball rolling? Easy-- register your name at any registrar (mydomain.com, godaddy.com, etc). Use Google Apps and Google's free Gmail interface to give yourself email on the domain. firstname@firstnamelastname.com is what I use and it seems to work. Make some 'aliases' too, if you're worried about spam (ex. comments@firstnamelastname.com or catchall@firstnamelastname.com) this way when the spammers start hammering you because you've had your address scraped from a comment somewhere, you can turn it off without ruining your profile.

Get a free website-- oh say from?? Google?! Either a blog or a site will do, but a blog is easier to set up, manage, and update. This site uses blogger and a custom template I found somewhere.

If you're lucky, you can start to get in the search engine's 'good books' and pop to the top of the results page when your new boss decides to google you. If you're unlucky, then someone else will control your personal brand, and who knows what will happen...

If you're someone like the CEO of Telus, a major telco in Canada, then you're pretty pissed off that a pro-union, pro-consumer, semi-hate-group has a hard-on for you AND owns yourname.com: Darren Entwistle, CEO of Telus, doesn't own his personal brand, and even long after he's no longer the CEO, that messaging will still haunt his career.

Just think-- what if I ever write a book? Run for office? Get famous? Now's the time to start some simple brand maintenance.

Abuse of Adwords keywords in Canada

I recently did a search for "Free Air Miles" hoping to find some deals or promotions where I could earn some free Air Miles (for research purposes). In addition to finding what you would expect to see on a SERP, there was also a sponsored result-- for TD Canada Trust!.

TD has no affiliation with the AIR MILES Reward Program (the trademark licensee in Canada) or LoyaltyOne (the operators of the program) or even The Loyalty Management Group (which operates the trademark in various other locales). No-- this sponsored listing dropped directly to a TD Travel Points Infinite Visa landing page pitching the newest TD credit card.

Deception? I think so. Google's adwords policies DO allow a company to buy keywords that are trademarked, to try to draw competitive business. It makes sense from Google's perspective because they are never displaying the keywords, it's there system, and ultimately it makes two companies try to outbid each other for the same words of the more popular competitor.

What is Google's trademark policy?

Google takes allegations of trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we're happy to investigate matters raised by trademark owners. Also, our Terms and Conditions with advertisers prohibit intellectual property infringement by advertisers and make it clear that advertisers are responsible for the keywords they choose to generate advertisements and the text that they choose to use in those advertisements.

The trademark owner is not required to be a Google AdWords advertiser in order to send a complaint. Please also note that any such investigation will only affect ads served on or by Google. In the case of an AdSense for Domains trademark complaint, an investigation will affect only the domain names of sites in our AdSense for Domains program.

Google does block the use of trademarks in ad text, if the trademark owner has filed an objection, but it allows you to choose any keyword to trigger your ad, including competing company names and trademarks.


Can you buy trademarked keywords?

It is important to use care when doing this, to avoid misleading consumers. For example, if you use "keyword insertion" so that the search phrase is echoed in the ad headline, then consumers might be confused and believe they are clicking to the competitor's site (this is an unfair advertising tactic, and it's also not likely to be very effective since those visitors won't understand why they got to your site). Therefore, you should not use "keyword insertion" for ads that are triggered by competing company names or trademarks.

Note that the "Quality Score" for your keyword will be low unless you have prominent text on the "landing page" that refers to the competitor -- for these campaigns, it might help to create a special landing page explaining why your company is better than the competition, or with a chart comparing features or pricing or service. Again, the landing page should not be deceptive or misleading (for example, if you are Energizer and your competitor is Duracell, you can't have a landing page or ad text with the title "Buy Duracell batteries here" or "Best price on Duracell batteries" if you don't actually sell those products). Note also that Google has restrictions on "comparison" ads.

Where trademark protection comes in is with headlines, body copy, and display URL's.

But in this case, they have actually broken Google's trademark policy (and likely some kind of intellectual property law somewhere) by actually making the headline "Air Miles" (See the picture). If they had left it out of the headline they would have been fine, but because it's all happening in Canada, and LoyaltyOne owns the trademark rights to this Geo-Target, it is sloppy, and frankly underhanded for a big five bank.

How to lose a billion dollars in 15 minutes

United Airlines stock took a dive this week, and in 15 minutes lost close to $1 billion in value. The reason? The Chicago Tribune regurgitated an old article detailing the bankruptcy they faced in 2004. Not bothering to fact check, double check, or check at all, holders of the UAL stock sold right away triggering a massive dumping and reduced the stock to garbage. The error was quickly discovered, and United Airlines rebounded (almost) back to where it was at the beginning of the day.

What I'd like to examine is how closely tied our 'up to the minute' live feed, RSS, direct news, google reader, XML, active delivery world IS-- to the part of the world that has our money? It turns out that it was google, erroneously tagging a date to the story that made it spit back out to everyone (including those like Bloomberg and Reuters) and it's these mainstream services that stock brokers/traders/investors/etc get their news from.

What if you're the CEO of United Airlines, and now all of the sudden you're answering for things that have absolutely nothing to do with you. A newspaper in Chicago said something 4 years ago, google picked it up today, and now you've got a PR nightmare-- even though you're really fine...

I'd like to imagine this on a micro scale, and look at this as though United was a person. So my friend United is going about his day, then all of the sudden, his girlfriend dumps him, his boss fires him, his landlord evicts him, all seemingly for no reason. I finds out that it's because the newspaper printed an article about his uncle (with the same name to make the story work) from 30 years ago about getting busted for pot. Even though the paper can retract, and everyone can forgive, this guy now has a lot to deal with...

In the world of the web, where reputation management is so important, people need to be on top of what Google thinks of them, but also they need to be able to deal with errors and omissions. Think about it...

Hockey Night in Canada- a new theme?

CBC really wet the bed when they lost the rights to the famous 'Hockey Night in Canada' theme song. They were promptly snapped up by CTV and the song is now used for all kinds of things. CBC however may have a little bit of a buzz-builder on their hands with the 'Anthem Challenge'. This contest, to pick a winner from user submitted songs, should help CBC to find a suitable replacement, but also gives them something to talk about, and get's a lot of people engaged.



If you like the song above, visit the CBC Sports Page, and sign up so you can vote, comment, and listen to other submissions. The biggest mistake that CBC made was making it necessary to sign up before you can vote or comment. That was just greedy from a marketing perspective.

Facebook opens up to the vices

Announced recently, Facebook says that they will be implementing tools and protocols to better control, target, and ultimately market things like beer, wine, and spirits to their now over 100 million users worldwide.

Many marketers have chosen the simplest route, and that's a simple fan page with demo and geo targeted content. Facebook's tools can limit access to certain content to 13+, 17, 18, 19, 21+, or "legal drinking age where you live".

Here are 3 tactics recommended by Facebook:

1. Use Settings to Restrict Access to Your Page: Facebook allows you to restrict access to your Page to users who say they are over 13, 17, 18, 19, 21, or the “legal drinking age where they live.” To change this setting, go to its edit page and change the “Settings” at the bottom.
2. Use FBML Tags to Restrict Certain Content within Your Page: You can use FBML to restrict certain content on your Page according to the viewing user’s declared country and age. For example, if you have rights to certain content in North America but not other locations, you can show different things to folks outside that region
3. Target Your Messages to Certain Demographics: When sending a message to fans of your Page, you can restrict who receives your messages by declared age, geography, and gender. To change this setting, select the “Target this update” box when sending a message.

The two top branded app-vertisments I found, for Miller and Absolut are as follows:

1. Today I’m Toasting - Miller

“Miller was looking to engage young people online in an interactive and social way. To meet their goals, Miller and Digitas worked with us to design and build a toasting application that celebrates everyday with fun random holidays,” says Kevin Barenblat, Context CEO. The application is one of the first branded alcohol apps to use Facebook’s newly launched demographic restrictions; interaction with the app is limited to those who say they are over 21.

2. Absolut Top Bartender - Absolut

In partnership with NBC, Absolut is sponsoring a series of 5 events in 6 key US markets - New York, Chicago, LA, Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas - in a search for the best bartender. “NBC will film and distribute the real world competition, and all online activity - bartender registration, event organization and promotion, and voting for the best bartender - will be managed by us using Facebook applications we built for Absolut’s page,” says Barenblat.

No longer 'In a world'... I'll miss you Don!

For those who don't already know, Don Lafontaine died this past weekend. A legendary voice actor, artist, producer, director, comedian, and all-round amazing guy, Don was most famous for the more than 5000 films he introduced in his unique, and versatile voice. He was the 'movie trailer guy'.

I became slightly infatuated with Don Lafontaine, ever since I realized that I really liked saying "In a world...". I've been know to add my own slightly off-colour remarks following the famous line, but I've always been true to the master.

My favourite thing about Don was that he was able to make fun of the very thing that made him famous. This is one of the reasons I really like William Shatner as well. Don was recently featured in a Geico Insurance ad that had him explaining what the average person just couldn't describe with any fanfare or panache.

I'll always remember Don Lafontaine, not only as the voice of more movie trailers, FOX ads, intros for 24 and other voice work than I can remember, but as that guy would would also record your voice mail message, if he had the time. He seemed like a really great guy, that I never met. I regret not meeting him.