(updated post - June 13, 2009)
Use the same account name for all Web 2.0 Services
The Facebook url land grab this weekend, brought to mind the importance of cleaning up your Web 2.0 brand and making it easy for your fans to find you where ever you are. Use the same account name for every account you create in the future.
Yesterday I added a new Facebook url to my account. Now you can find me at http://www.facebook.com/toddlucier. Now my username matches most of my Web 2.0 most used accounts.
Back in December, I changed my twitter username to @toddlucier which matches my gmail address toddlucier@gmail.com. It was just the start of a much bigger and much more important project, anchoring my Web 2.0 presence in the most important brand I have - me.
We didn’t know it would be this way:
When I signed up for youtube, twitter, flickr and a host of other Web 2.0 services I didn’t take much time to consider the importance of my username. As a result I’ve got more than a few different usernames in play. Providing links across my Web 2.0 presence to fans can be a bit of a chore as each service uses my username to setup a personal home page.
At the time I was creating my accounts, I had no idea I’d be using them as brand identifiers. So I’ve stuck myself with a wide array of useless personal brands (Seesmic, Youtube and a few other services still do not allow updates or changes to account usernames). Here are just a few:
- http://www.youtube.com/toddlesbycanoe
- http://edge.libsyn.com/
- http://offthegrid.blip.tv
- http://pressroom.prlog.org/NorthernEdge
- http://www.picasaweb.google.com/northernedgealgonquin
- http://delicious.com/tourismkey
- http://feeds.feedburner.com/internetmarketingfortourism
- skype user: toddles_by_canoe
I didn’t think I’d be putting any of these addresses on my business card, but it’s time to rethink that (if you use business cards!). Even the idea of putting your email address on your business card was once considered avant-garde.
If I had it to do all over again, I’d either use our complete incorporated name for our business I.D. or my personal name for every Web 2.0 service I use. Wouldn’t this be cleaner and make it easier for fans to find my content?
- http://www.youtube.com/toddlucier
- http://toddlucier.libsyn.com/
- http://toddlucier.blip.tv
- http://pressroom.prlog.org/toddlucier
- http://www.picasaweb.google.com/toddlucier
- http://delicious.com/toddlucier
- http://feeds.feedburner.com/toddlucier
- skype user: toddlucier
You can do it all over again!
It may take a bit of time, but putting a new shine on your Web presence will be good for your brand.
A few tips for Anchoring your Brand in Web 2.0
- stick with your name as your username if at all possible! Web 2.0 is more and more about your personal brand than about your business name. Business names may change, careers may change, but in most cases, your name will stay the same for the rest of your life.
- think long term. Last week I picked up a follow on Twitter from the current Canadian Prime Minister, Steven Harper who goes by the username: @pmharper. As fate will have it, Harper won’t likely be prime minister for his entire career. In such a case, he may have to change his username to something like @looharper (leader of the official opposition) if he wants to keep the title abbreviation in front of his name (hint: not too sure this new brand would have much caché).
- redirect your fans. If you do change your username in Twitter, set up an account to catch strays with your original username and inform visitors who stumble across older links to your @oldtwitterid where to find you (You’ll need to use a different email address for each account). Visit this second account from time to time to find stray followers and get them back into your main account. Put notes on Web 2.0 services in the settings or description tags letting fans know where to find your most recent updates.
- What is the brand for your blog? Should I also consider moving this blog to a personally branded domain name like http://chrisbrogan.com does? Thinking about it. . .
- Get started cleaning up your online brand today. Start with a spreadsheet and record all the Web 2.0 services you use, the homepages, rss feed links, etc. and rebrand them together under one shiny new brand - YOU!
If we each take the time to clean our little corner of the Web, we’ll have a nice neat and tidy Internet, where connecting with our fans will be easier and more fulfilling.
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Couldn’t agree with you more. When I started actively blogging and participating about 2 years ago I had to compete with “Stephen James Joyce”, the grandson of James Joyce for Google Rank. The only way I was going to have a hope in H3LL of competing was if I had enough exposure with my real name. Since then I have set-up a ton of accounts, all using the “stephenjoyce” where I could and “stephenajoyce” when the former was taken. Like you said Todd, it has made things a lot simpler in terms of organization, Google rank, and remember using names.
This is a good point. I’ve got 3 or 4 usernames, but it would have been so much tidier to have just one.
Great information…was struggling with the web id situation…have been using sunnyclairc …so far there is only 1 of me… as a woman with more last names than 1 it is a big decision as to which name to use. Can see the benefit of making that decision soon. Thanks for your input.
Am so happy to have taken your GMIST Edge of the Wedge session and met you… you continue to push the Edge.
Now to get proficient at connecting all these to my web presence.