A Rose By Any Other Name Never Smells As Sweet
In a world of pseudo internet anonymity it is possible to register different names for the different sites that you use. So your gmail account can be joebloggs, your facebook JospehMBloggs and your myspace LordThumbleGlorydaBe. This is all great for those worried about tracking and monitoring from the government or other nefarious organisations, but it’s not really useful for those doing business.
In the much-hyped world of Web 2.0 (I prefer the term Interactive Web) your online name becomes your brand. Choosing an original name and staying with it for a long time is important. My brand name is skribe. It’s a name I’ve had since the early nineties. It’s derived from the time when I was mainly a writer. Type ’skribe’ into Google and most of the results on the front page relate to me. They all used to relate to me, but then someone invented a cool piece of software with the exact same name and so depending on the day Skribe (the software) and skribe (me) dice for top spot.
Not only is the choice of name important, but it’s necessary to register that name for every site that you use. So, I’m skribeproductions on twitter, skribeproductions on skype, and skribe Forti in Second Life. In fact I’m usually skribe or skribeproductions at just about every social networking site that I use (and even a few that I don’t). The skribe name has become so aligned with me that not only was I known as skribe amongst my rl friends, but my wife was - for a brief time - only known as MrsSkribe. It’s damning, I know, but it does demonstrate how important social networking site naming can be.
When you’re doing business over the web - without any face-to-face interaction - your name carries far more weight than it does in the real world. It is for some the great leveller. Use it to your best advantage.
Tags: branding, interactive web, naming, social networking, web2.0
