Owning your digital identity

Do you own your corporate domain name? It sounds kind of silly in 2008 doesn't it?

Let's go a level deeper. Do you own your personal .com name (i.e. www.mattdickman.com)?

That may be a bit more of a stretch for some of you, but it's crucial from a personal branding perspective. Just ask Shel Israel who did not have www.shelisrael.com purchased and someone else put up a site devoted to poking fun at him.

Other heavyweights like Robert Scoble (www.robertscoble.com) don't own their domain names either. Re-acquiring a domain name from a cybersquatter has some legal precedent, but it can rack of legal fees or large one-time purchase amounts.

Do you own your Twitter, YouTube and Flickr usernames?

However, let me ask you this. Do you own your personal/corporate Twitter username? How about your YouTube username? How about your Flickr username? If you don't, it's probably a good idea that you do (they're mostly free anyway). I lost out personally on my YouTube name because I used my nickname instead. You may not acquire them all, but you can sure try. These usernames do come up with search result pages adding to the importance of owning your identity.

The risk to your reputation that you run when somebody does register your username is potentially huge. There is no legislation (which I am aware of) that addresses these micro level identity-squatters. It could get to a point where people/companies have to pay for their usernames ala the late 1990's domain name deals.

Once you have acquired the usernames you will need to decide how, if at all, you use the account. While I don't like the fact that accounts may sit empty in the short-term, it is advisable that you secure your ID as soon as possible.

What are you waiting for? Go get your identity!

[Update: It looks like Shel Holtz and I are on the same page today. Check out his post on the same topic with FriendFeed.]

Technorati Tags:
branding, communications, PR, social media, social networks, strategy, Techno//Marketer, identity, reputation management

Comments

[David Mead]

Its a great point and something that is becoming more and more important as both companies and individuals blur online.

I use claimID to keep track of all my online places.

Problem I have is sharing my name with a singer.

[Adam Singer]

Yup, this is great advice. There are lots of people with the same name!

http://thefuturebuzz.com/2008/04/27/ever-google-your-own-name/

[Ivana Taylor]

Excellent point Matt! I've just recently purchased my name. Of course I'm lucky because there aren't too many Ivana Taylors out there. But your point on purchasing usernames as well is an excellent one.

This is bringing up the point of how people and their organizations are branding themselves.

[Dan Schawbel]

Matt, good reminder to everyone. I feel like we will be reminding me a lot in the coming years. Sadly, the people who we will be writing to, will be asking to claim their name, even though it's taken.

[Matt Dickman]

David -- ClaimID is a good solution to keep track of everything. Sharing the name of someone famous definitely limits your options.

Adam -- I love the Facebook group idea.

Ivana -- It's absolutely a personal/corporate branding move.

Dan -- I thought of you when I wrote this so I'm glad you stopped by.

[david wesson]

excellent advice I will run a similar article on my blog http://www.davidwesson.weblog.com/ and link back to yours

cheers

David

[David Jones]

Just registered hillandknowlton on behalf of H&K. Now, I wonder if Fleishman-Hillard is still available... ;)

[David Jones]

Forgot to write that I registered hillandknowlton on Twitter.

[Kevin Mogee]

Matt,

You have to check out Kevin Huff's blog posting about what he called an 'iPersona' a few months ago. ( http://ipersona.blogspot.com/2007/11/ipersona-non-grata.html ) Your post had me thinking of his, and how your's takes his concept one step further.

Great post, keep up the great work.

Thanks,
Kevin Mogee

[Erik Kallevig]

I've been doing this quite a bit lately as I prepare to move and look for a new job (I call it 'identity management'). After years of tinkering on the web, I often forget about all the services I've tried out and the tracks I've left across the internet. Any jobhunter would do well to google themselves and clean up and outdated or unnecessary material. Nice post!