{social media} shop talk | namegrab + protecting your online identity

photo :: slim aarons

As a blogger or anyone with a web presence, you are your brand and brands need to be managed.

Everyone’s name has value, especially for small businesses or sole proprietors who use their name for their businesses.  You have an online reputation, whether you know it or not and how you look online can affect you in a HUGE way.  How many of you google that interesting guy/girl you met out last Saturday night, eager to learn more about them?  Think about how many potential clients or employers may be looking for you... do you know what they see?

According to Michael Fertik, founder of Reputation Defender, the first sign your reputation is in the gutter is usually when you hear about it from a friend.  But here’s the kicker… for every person who tells you, there’s at least another hundred who know but are quiet.  Freaky, no?

You don’t want cyber squatters posing as you, filling a page with irrelevant or offensive ads or doing/saying anything that is detrimental to your brand or name, so it is critical that you nail down your username on all of these online properties, even if you don’t use them at first.

New social networking sites are like rabbits — they are constantly multiplying!

So what’s a girl to do?  There are so many social networks or sites that require a user name out there it’s almost a full time job to search out the sites and register your name on them one-by-one.

Comments

[Elizabeth Chamberlain]

Great advice, Brett! I know lots of people who do this for their children so that one day they'll be able to use their own name. Thanks for another great post.