It doesn’t matter if your are a large corporation or a small business you should consider protecting your social media identity. Not sure sure what a social media identity is, let me explain.
Every time you sign up for a social media service, such as: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, etc. you choose a user name, this becomes your social media identity (or the name you are known by publicly). Let’s just say you have a local business, Joe’s Grill, you would want to register your Facebook, MySpace, etc accounts under the user name, JoesGrill (all one word), that way people would recognize your business. Establishing a social media identity makes it easy for people to find you. The same thing applies to individuals. Let’s say you are a local singer and everyone knows you by MsT, then you would want to set up all your social media accounts under that name.
Here’s an excellent article about a Panama City, FL teacher whose social identity was stolen. After you’ve read this article you’ll understand why it’s so important to protect your social media identity. It’s sad to think that people could be so cruel, but it happens to innocent people every day.
How Do You Protect Your Social Media Identity?
It’s very simple, you sign up for a service like KnowEm and reserve your name. The KnowEm site is FREE and it lists over 550 social media networks, over 150 domain names and the entire USPTO Trademark Database to instantly secure your brand on the internet. You just enter your name in the box, press the Check It button and it checks to see if your name has been registered with any sites.
You can register your name with KnowEm, create a profile and also claim the sites that you are already registered on and add those to your KnowEm profile. In addition to the free service KnowEm also offers paid services in case you simply don’t have the time to manage your social media identity. They offer the following options: individual, business, corporate, and enterprise plans.
A List Of The Type Of Social Media Networks KnowEm Checks:
- Blogging
- Bookmarking
- Community
- Design
- Entertainment
- Health
- Information
- Microblogging
- Music
- News
- Photo
- Tech
- Travel
- Video
Nearly every web site I setup has a user name or social media identity. When choosing an identity the first thing I do is go to KnowEm and check the availability of the name. In fact sometimes the availability of a social media name determines what domain name I choose. I want the domain name and the social media identity to be easy to remember.
When establishing a social media identity, you should chose a name no longer than 15 characters and no shorter than 6 characters, it has to be all one word with no spaces. There are a few social media sites that require less characters in the name, but 15 is the norm. You can capitalize the name for easy ready. When signing up for a social media site, I sign up as ReneeThronson.
KnowEm was established in April 2009 and was the first company to offer this service. Since that time other similar services have sprung up on the internet. The Know Em team has helped reserve over 350,000 profiles and they have sent reports back to clients 25,000 issues of squatting and brand misrepresentation. That’s pretty impressive!
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This article was written by Renee Thronson
I'm an affiliate marketer, web site publisher, and retired bartender. My interests are social media, geeky stuff and listening to live music. If you enjoyed this article, you can follow me on Twitter or on Facebook.
Renee has written 7 articles on Renee Thronson.com.
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