Claim Your Brand Name on Social Networks or Suffer
April 30, 2008 at 11:34 am | In Personal Branding, Reputation Management, Success Strategies, eBrand, social media |Tags: seth godin, social networks
There has been much debate in the blogosphere about Seth Godin’s Twitter account. He never registered his name on Twitter and someone took it. This individual used his avatar, information and actually tweeted using this account. Fake Seth now has 4,375 followers and has sent 476 updates. Luckily for Seth, he blogged about this and the person who owns the Twitter account has only syndicated his blog, rather than torture his brand by misrepresentation. I’ve also seen fake Chris Brogan accounts and a few other “internet celebrities” being taken on Facebook. Truth be told, many of these individuals don’t seem to care because they are so high above the status quo that they feel their reputation can’t be burst into oblivion. Some may register their domain names, while others may forget to sign-up for the top social networks. Today’s post will tell you how to protect and secure your name, so you don’t suffer later.
“I have no idea how to kick someone off my name. What if they have the same name? Is this a productive use of my time if all this person is doing is reposting my blog? That’s not dishonest or wrong, it’s sort of a nice service.” - Seth Godin, Best Selling Author and Blogger
Here is what you need to know
#1 - Purchase yourname.com and if you haven’t yet, I posted the procedure.
#2 - Review the social networking checklist to identify which social networks to join and which to stay away from.
#3 - Register your full name on each social network. I recommend Twitter, Facebook, WordPress.com, LinkedIn.com, Technorati, MyBlogLog, and YouTube for starters.
#4 - Start an excel spreadsheet or the Apple equivalent and list the social networks you’re apart of, as well as the login information and time they were last updated. The purpose here is to let each profile grow as you develop, so you aren’t misrepresented and don’t lose opportunities.
#5 - Pay attention to what social networks are gaining traction by subscribing to blogs that showcase new social networks and that keep a tally on what’s hot.
How to recover from a disaster
I would first like to start by mentioning that once someone has your name on a social network, you cannot attain it, unless they give it back to you. This is a huge call to arms for all of you, who think that it may magically return to you. A disaster that is not contained by a company or personal brand can hurt your reputation, especially if you are already a brand name. The more people that know you, the greater the chances are that someone doesn’t like you and wants to bring you under for their own satisfaction.
To recover from this situation, you must protect yourself in the first place, by using the above guidelines. If you can’t reach out to the person who stole your name, then be creative and register your name with your middle initial. I could either do danHschawbel or danielschawbel, if my name was taken. Send a note to your readership that it isn’t the real you like Seth did and if people are confused, try and message the one’s affected to contain the situation.
Reputation management concerns for the future
I have major concerns for the future of our online brand reputations. With messages traveling at the speed of light, through a magnitude of services, all accessible from a single device anywhere in the world, you are on spot 24/7. Any move you make or anyone else makes will happen as fast as lightening and recovery will be nearly impossible. There are thousands of social networks right now. Some will converge in the future, while others will fail miserably.
What if you don’t register yourname.org, yourname.net, yourname.com, yourname.name, yourname.tv, yourname.biz, yourname.mobi, etc? As the amount of domain extensions increase and as the amount of social networking websites increases, it forces us to invest more in our online reputation than ever before.
College students and businesses haven’t caught up, while high school students and people already using these services are in good shape. When everyone catches up, there will be a flood of people registered for all these services and more people equals more messaging. This is a good business case for personal brand monitoring software, but in general, we will never be able to follow that many conversations.
We don’t have a choice whether or not we participate online anymore, but at the same time, we must be careful. I don’t believe there is a clear remedy yet, but would enjoy to hear your opinions on this topic.
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Great post Dan!
It is so important to remember.
Well written! Good work!
Comment by Josh Anstey — April 30, 2008 #
Dan -
Great collection of ideas. One thing you should point out is that it does not cost anything to join the social networks.
Even if the site may not be a great fit, get in early and claim your spot. You can generally redirect information to other sites where you are more active.
Comment by Doug Cornelius — April 30, 2008 #
@ Doug - that’s why I have my readers to point things out
Comment by Dan Schawbel — April 30, 2008 #
Dan-
What do you do if you have one of the most common name combinations on the planet.
Johnson- #3 most common name.
Chris #4 mostcommon name for kids from 1974-1982.
I’ve tried making it ‘genuine chris johnson,’ but I don’t believe, not 100% .
I’ve finally made the first page of chris johnson…but
Comment by chrisdoesloans — April 30, 2008 #
@Chris - in that case I would claim a personal brand statement or niche topic and then associate it with your name..otherwise you will be lost…
Comment by Dan Schawbel — April 30, 2008 #
Thank you for commenting on my post. Also… do you really feel that college students haven’t caught up to high schools in social media? I’d agree that there are as many high schools students as college students on FB and Myspace, but I don’t believe that the average HS student understands or is more capable with the power of these tools.
Then again, as a college student, I may be a little biased…
Comment by Meg Julian — April 30, 2008 #
Awesome post. It is so important to remember that anything you say/do on any social network will be visible to the world.
Make a silly comment and that might be what your user name is associated with. Put a bad video on YouTube and that might be what you are remembered by. And so on and so forth…Definitely very important to join whatever network and also make sure you maintain your reputation once you actually become a member.
Comment by Brandon — April 30, 2008 #
Great info Dan and your right,you have to brand yourself.Awsome article
Google Me Michael I Jackson
Comment by michael I jackson — May 1, 2008 #
My Twitter Resistance…
Ever since attending the Boston KM Forum’s event KM 2.0: Real of Hype? I’ve been thinking quite a bit about my resistance to certain new technologies, specifically Twitter. Most of the attendees whose background was more in modern, applied KM than ol…
Trackback by Nullset — May 1, 2008 #
Dan,
So I recently graduated last year and I’m still very in touch with the undergraduate community. There are so many students out there who don’t understand the value of creating their personal brand!
I think the difficulty is changing the undergraduate mindset. Blogs such as your are great, but the difficulty is getting students to read it. I’m assuming that most of your readers are from the blogging community and already understand personal branding.
I’m still thinking of a way to penetrate the student community. When you figure it out, please let me know
http://www.junloayza.com
Comment by junloayza — May 2, 2008 #
[...] a great post on Dan Shwabel’s Personal Branding Blog about managing online identity. These recommendations are also important for job seekers who are trying to stand out from the crowd [...]
Pingback by CareerSolvers » Blog Archive » Tips for Managing Your Online Identity — May 4, 2008 #
Dan,
This is great advice and extremely timely! The “how to” listing is very helpful, too.
I plan to go through the checklist right now. I especially liked your idea on creating an excel spreadsheet - by memory is getting way too complicated.
Thanks!
Maria Elena Duron
Comment by Maria Elena Duron — May 5, 2008 #