Twitter: Automakers frequently find someone else in their nest

November 10, 1:11 PMSF Autos ExaminerMichael Sheena

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Jail bird: Twitter's suspended logo (courtesy: twitter)

Back when Al Gore was inventing the Internet, most companies did not understand the importance of registering their own domain name.  Subsequently, squatters who grasped the significance of this burgeoning technology rushed in to register company names in the hopes of cashing in.  Twitter.com is no different and now that it has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity, automotive companies are finding that their names have already been taken.  Take for example Hyundai.  You might expect that if you visit twitter.com/Hyundai that you would get the automaker, but in fact you get a suspended account.  I will not go into graphic detail as to why the account was suspended for, but it involved scantily clad ladies and had nothing to do with Hyundai the automaker.

Hyundai is working with Twitter to get the matter resolved, but it has been slow going and in the meantime the company can be found at twitter.com/HyundaiNews.  The issue is common and companies must be ever vigilant to hot new trends, lest they find themselves in protracted battles.  For its part, Twitter is rumored to be working on a new service "Twitter Pro" to help marketers resolve issues like this in a timely manner.

Twitter has been proven to be a goldmine for automakers.  The free service has allowed them to connect directly with customers and score big publicity coups such as when General Motors invited members of the public to see their current lineup and top secret cars that the automaker was working on, attendees gleefully tweeted about the GM products they were seeing and those tweets in turn were picked up by the media.  Auto companies are hosting "TweetUps" to meet customers face to face and showcase new models, such as GM has recently done for its 2010 Buick LaCrosse and 2010 Cadillac SRX.  Ford has also made good use of Twitter while championing its Fiesta Movement.