Is it important to stake your claim in sites that require registration? In my mind, that’s a huge “yes.” An easily-tracked personal or professional brand is critical in building an online presence, especially if you are looking to make a living with your online activities. To have my usual username being used by someone else makes me nervous; so many people know me by the name I use that I do a lot of crossing of fingers hoping that no one finds that alternate “Susabelle” out there and gets confused. So far, my alter-ego doesn’t seem to be very active on the Internet, and has not done anything that would embarrass me.
But I worry anyway. So when the opportunity arises and I think the Next Big Thing will be important to my personal brand, or at least that misuse by someone else may be damaging to my personal brand, then I register my username so that I have control over what happens. This applies even if I choose to never use that Next Big Thing and it becomes the Latest Old Thing.
If you are a Facebook user, have you staked your claim yet? You can find me at www.facebook.com/susabelle/.