Social media screen names are the new domains names

Last year, I was having a conversion with my friend Droze about the ridiculous amount of new web applications coming out every month. Yet, I told him that I sign up for them all. Why, because screen names are not just your handle or usernames anymore. A screen name is really your personal brand. Similar to a domain name, you need to register your brand or it will get jacked by someone else. Maybe even a competitor.

Then I was surprised when I read that the Twitter feed from Seth Godin is really not the best selling author. He mentions how he doesnt even use Twitter. It was interesting to hear that someone else was using his name, even though it wasn't for anything negative, but it easily could have been. Everyone else thought it was him, he has 1,417 followers and they are using a picture of him.

So whenever a new service comes out and gets popular I immediately sign up using my company name as the screen name (AlexDesigns). Here are a few examples:

http://twitter.com/alexdesigns
http://linkedin.com/in/alexdesigns
http://9rules.com/my/alexdesigns/
http://del.icio.us/alexdesigns
http://myspace.com/alexdesigns
http://vimeo.com/alexdesigns
http://virb.com/alexdesigns
http://ma.gnolia.com/people/alexdesigns

On the following, I was too late to get the correct URLs I wanted:
http://flickr.com/photos/alexharris/
http://youtube.com/alexdesignsllc

So as the next big thing comes out, it doesn't hurt to just snatch up your screen name. Else you have some impersonators when you become famous too.

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