Manage your online identity: Use your name before it gets used
Have you heard about the fake Exxon twitter account? A non-employee posed as an insider to Exxon mobile, twittered about the company and responded to customers. Exxon completely freaked out, but they had an army of lawyers and technologists to attack the problem. I'm pretty sure the problem is solved and Exxon is Exxon again.
Now, I don't think you have an army. I know I don't have an army. So, what to do?
Claim your name. Now. On every major service that's out there. I've claimed the name Zesmerelda for the past 15 years on everything, but I no longer think that's good enough. All it takes is someone to grab my actual name, a picture of me, and they can pose as Tammy Green online. Not that I'm paranoid, but if someone wanted to trash me online that's all it would take. (No, I'm not paranoid. Not really. Not very much.)
So where have I been, name-wise? If you know me at all, your first try would probably be Zesmerelda. I started using it back in the day because Tammy Green isn't a particularly distinctive name. That, and I was brainwashed as an Internet newbie by AOL who started their intake to the service by asking you to pick a cool screen name. Screen name? Bah. Transparency is the rule now.
Anyway, I stuck with a screen name because there are other legit Tammy Green's out there (hello namesakes!). Believe me. It took years of checking the "tammygreen.com" domain name and waiting for the other Tammy to get tired of it before it came available. It took another little while to bump off the Tammy who wrote X-Files fan fic from the top of Google results. Yeah, that's right -- owning your name and using it everywhere increases the odds of search results on your name actually being you.
Upshot? Own your name even if you don't end up using it. Oh hey, if you have kids, be a good parent and register their domain name (at the very least). I think it ranks right up there with starting a college fund. Seriously.
I've written about issues with names and on-line identity before. Here are my related posts on the topic:
Tips on monitoring & namesakes
Screen name angst
The last domain name I'll ever need?
Baby name optimization?
Now, I don't think you have an army. I know I don't have an army. So, what to do?
Claim your name. Now. On every major service that's out there. I've claimed the name Zesmerelda for the past 15 years on everything, but I no longer think that's good enough. All it takes is someone to grab my actual name, a picture of me, and they can pose as Tammy Green online. Not that I'm paranoid, but if someone wanted to trash me online that's all it would take. (No, I'm not paranoid. Not really. Not very much.)
So where have I been, name-wise? If you know me at all, your first try would probably be Zesmerelda. I started using it back in the day because Tammy Green isn't a particularly distinctive name. That, and I was brainwashed as an Internet newbie by AOL who started their intake to the service by asking you to pick a cool screen name. Screen name? Bah. Transparency is the rule now.
Anyway, I stuck with a screen name because there are other legit Tammy Green's out there (hello namesakes!). Believe me. It took years of checking the "tammygreen.com" domain name and waiting for the other Tammy to get tired of it before it came available. It took another little while to bump off the Tammy who wrote X-Files fan fic from the top of Google results. Yeah, that's right -- owning your name and using it everywhere increases the odds of search results on your name actually being you.
Upshot? Own your name even if you don't end up using it. Oh hey, if you have kids, be a good parent and register their domain name (at the very least). I think it ranks right up there with starting a college fund. Seriously.
I've written about issues with names and on-line identity before. Here are my related posts on the topic:
Tips on monitoring & namesakes
Screen name angst
The last domain name I'll ever need?
Baby name optimization?
NaNoWriMo
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