Staking Your Claim: Reserving Names in the World of Digital Media

by Mary Kate Smither

Are you a regular user of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Digg and other digital and social media sites? Even if you only have an account on one or two of these sites, you may have already discovered that it can be a challenge to claim your preferred user name. While I’ve been lucky enough to find “mksmither” as my user name most places, there have been one or two where it’s already taken. The ability to participate in these sites and many more is endless, and getting a user name related to you and your brand for consistency and ease of recognition is vital. In today’s quickly moving and global network, it’s more important than ever to reserve names that make you not only easily identifiable among your target audiences but also help continue to build brand recognition. Following are a few simple tips for checking name availability and claiming the names you want:

• Use Your Resources: Use a simple tool such as User Name Check (http://usernamecheck.com/) or Namechk (http://namechk.com/). From Hulu and Facebook to Stumbleupon and LinkedIn, these tools will search multiple social networking sites for any name you select and immediately tell you if it’s available. Namechk alone searches more than 70 social networking and bookmarking sites.
  
  
• Claim Your Name: Once you’ve determined availability, reserve your real estate. Even if there are sites you may only be interested in participating in later, it’s best to go ahead and grab your name while you can. This will save you from having multiple names and will keep competitors, fans or even detractors from developing profiles under your “brand” name.
  
  
• Make It Real: At a minimum, create a basic profile with some personality and add a photo on each site where you claim your name. Even if you’re not ready to fully participate, let people know who you are, what you’re brand is about, where you’re located and how to contact you. For example, each of my profiles includes my photo and also contains my name, that I’m a PR practitioner in Dallas who specializes in travel and hospitality PR, that I lead VOLLMER’s digital media practice, and that I love to watch sports.
  
  
• Beyond the Basics: Once you’ve established your profile, choose a few sites and start participating. Start following people, commenting, and making contacts. At this point, it might also be a good idea to check the availability of a vanity URL you’re interested in. While not all sites allow you to post a customized vanity URL, some do, and it’s best to be prepared with your selected URL. Sites such as Knowem (http://knowem.com/) will check more than 120 sites for vanity URLs, and GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com/) will also tell you URL availability. Reserving these URLs is just one more step in ensuring brand strength and familiarity.