A company want my Facebook username

vikki_louise

Hi, when Facebook let you choose your username for people to find you I signed up for a name for my hobby. A business sent me a message saying they have set up a company of the name and would I consider releasing my username to them.
I would normally think SCAM but I can see the odd person/company wanting it.
I don't know though if this is a scam. They haven't offered me anything, although I'm not a 'out to make money' person if a company want me to give up my name then I would like to ask for something but I have no idea how much/what!
Any advice would be much appreciated,
Thank you

Brassedoff

Vikki, you own the IP, its up to you.

I have in the past sold a couple of nice names to companies and made a tidy sum. My best was because I have the same name as a really famous pop star. As I own an internet company, I was really on the ball and had the .com through to .eu names. I have the facebook name, twitter etc.

At first I was threatened by his management company. I laughed in their face. The threat if "cyber squatting" would not stand and told them to give me an offer or go away.

Back to you. As its a Facebook account the thing you need to think about is it worth anything to you? My facebook being Facebook/XYZ/ has a value to me as I use my name to connect my consultancy with the linkedin, Facebook and Twitter with my consultancy business name.

As Google now uses Twitter/Facebook/Blog with just as much weight as the domain name. Company's want to get the names as close as possible. When I advise on company start-up's and web strategy, Facebook is a very important part of it.

I would say get at least £50 for it. You will spend that much time in getting all your friends to accept your new profile and you will spend that much in time doing that.

paddyrg

As long as you registered it in good faith and are using it and it isn't a breach of their trademark, let them make you an offer. Point out that you and x other people have been using the name/site for x years, so will have to do a fair amount of work to update all the links you have and so forth. See if they come back with an offer or go knowing it's not going to be a freebie.

keyser666

Brassedoff wrote: »

Vikki, you own the IP, its up to you.

I have in the past sold a couple of nice names to companies and made a tidy sum. My best was because I have the same name as a really famous pop star. As I own an internet company, I was really on the ball and had the .com through to .eu names. I have the facebook name, twitter etc.

At first I was threatened by his management company. I laughed in their face. The threat if "cyber squatting" would not stand and told them to give me an offer or go away.

Back to you. As its a Facebook account the thing you need to think about is it worth anything to you? My facebook being Facebook/XYZ/ has a value to me as I use my name to connect my consultancy with the linkedin, Facebook and Twitter with my consultancy business name.

As Google now uses Twitter/Facebook/Blog with just as much weight as the domain name. Company's want to get the names as close as possible. When I advise on company start-up's and web strategy, Facebook is a very important part of it.

I would say get at least £50 for it. You will spend that much time in getting all your friends to accept your new profile and you will spend that much in time doing that.

They dont own the IP as this is related to FB. They do.

Tony_Williams

Sayy sunglasses 1?? no 5-10 sellgive and wait - Seee if you know you can move.

RichardD1970

Tony_Williams wrote: »

Sayy sunglasses 1?? no 5-10 sellgive and wait - Seee if you know you can move.

Sorry, have you forgotten to take your medication today?

InsideInsurance

vikki_louise wrote: »

Hi, when Facebook let you choose your username for people to find you I signed up for a name for my hobby. A business sent me a message saying they have set up a company of the name and would I consider releasing my username to them.
I would normally think SCAM but I can see the odd person/company wanting it.
I don't know though if this is a scam. They haven't offered me anything, although I'm not a 'out to make money' person if a company want me to give up my name then I would like to ask for something but I have no idea how much/what!
Any advice would be much appreciated,
Thank you

If you arent too attached to it then you need to do a bit more digging into the company in question. Needless to say that Pepsi will have a bigger budget for this type of thing than Pippins Cupcakes.

Either ask them to offer or set a price you want to get though expect to be negotiated down.