Whether or not you plan on participating on every social media site out there (go ahead, I dare you), you want to take steps to protect your brand by reserving your name. If for no other reason than to make sure that someone else doesn’t grab it and “assume your identity."
There are some online tools that make checking the availability of a name across the social media world easily - UserNameCheck and KnowEm.
Simply enter your desired name and they will the check availability across 50+ sites. Then go through each of the sites and create a basic profile at the minimum.
This might seem tedious work, but it’s worth the hour or so it will take. That way you make sure that you “own your brand” across the web and no else could tinker with it.
Post by Mike Lieberman of CanarsieBK New Media Marketing
