How To Set Up Your Username Across All Social Media Sites

If you want to make an impact online, you need people to know you exist, right? That’s what social media is for! For people and companies to digitally scream “Hi, world! Look at me!” and hopefully pick up some raving fans along the way!

If you want people to really remember your name or your company’s name, you need to establish a standard username (or profile name) across a variety of social media sources. But there are SO MANY social media sites out there – how can you decide on a great profile name without spending hours visiting each one to see if it’s available?

FIRST of all, research your current or proposed name online using Knowem or Namechk. Knowem is likely your best choice for this – not only do they search the largest number of sites, but they also have paid-for ‘do it for you’ services which will register your username and fill out your profile on all the sites it supports for you.

You DEFINITELY want to use the same profile name (or as close as possible) on the different sites because you’ll want to start establishing your “brand” online and have a cohesive presence across all the different sites. Checking your username first means you can choose one that is available on the maximum number of sites.

Researching your name first also means you won’t go and register your name on a bunch of sites, only to find it’s already been taken on others… meaning you have to start again! If you use Knowem you’ll also see whether your name is likely to be accepted on the different sites (e.g. is it too long or too short?) so that can save you loads of time too.

THEN you can use something like LastPass (which is free) to automatically fill in profile information on all the social sites you join.

TIP: Be sure to put the URL to your site someplace in your profile! Unless someone has made it their life’s purpose to own a bit of your wares, they will not feel like searching for you on Google. The more convenient and accessible you make your site, the more likely people are to visit. PLUS this is another link to your site, which will give you some “SEO juice” and push you up the search engine rankings!

After you’ve decided on a username, you should secure your name in as many places as possible… not only for the SEO value, but also to prevent problems later. If you decide to join another site you weren’t part of initially, someone else may have your username by the time you decide to open an account there. Even if you don’t think you’ll use a Flickr page at first, get it anyway just in case you want to use it later. I can’t stress enough how important this is. A little time spent now could save you big headaches in the future (plus, you’d be surprised where you can pick up followers!)

Here are some of the sites you’ll definitely want to make accounts on (in no particular order):

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• MySpace
• Flickr (most important if you’re doing anything at all creative)
• LinkedIn (most important if you’re working with businesses)
• Some kind of blog (WordPress.com and Blogspot are good choices)
• StumbleUpon, Digg or Delicious (for sharing your favorite bookmarks and resources with your followers)

There are other networks you can join based on your company’s specific niche. For example, if you sell art you should also make a DeviantArt account. If you want some kind of local special interest group started, check out Meetup.com. Promoting a band? Put some music on Pandora Radio and Last.fm. There are way too many niche social sites to list here, but your main priority should be launching a name on the really popular sites (the ones I’ve listed above).

TIP: make sure you use those cute shiny buttons on your site to link to whatever social networks you’ve joined. Put them on your website and you’ll pick up some extra followers that way.

Tagged as: Blogspot, Delicious, DeviantArt, Digg, facebook, Flickr, Knowem, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Meetup.com, MySpace, Namechk, Pandora Radio, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Wordpress, youtube