Introduction
When attempting to perfect your reputation management online, it is important to remember that the smallest details are likely the most important. One of those small details is your username. While you may want to have your anonymity, you need to make sure that the people that need to find you have the opportunity to find you. This means that you are going to have to take a great deal of care when you are selecting your username for different platforms. There are a number of social media sites on the internet and anyone of them could have someone looking at you for a job or something business-related. If you are masking who you are or have a silly name, they may not be able to find you or want to do business with you. Let’s take a look at how you can go about picking your professional username.
Use Your Real Name
In all honesty, your name is not as unique as you may think. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. For the most part, there is someone with your name out there. So, don’t worry too much about that. While your username from when you were younger may have given you street cred as a blogger or tweeter, it simply will hinder you in the adult world. Think of the reputation that you gained by having that name when you were younger. The same reputation can be gained when you use your real name as an adult. People are not looking to find you under @number1slacker420. This actually might put them off from hiring you. So, use your real name and we will call that step one.
Consistency
You are going to want to secure the same name across the board. This may involve having to check all the social media sites to see if the username is available, but it will be well worth it in the end. The people that are looking for you will know that if your name exists on a couple of the social media channels the same way, the likelihood they can find you on the other ones under the same name will be good. This lets them use a multitude of platforms to look and see who you are and to get in contact with you.
Qualifiers
If you have a common name, you are going to have to get a little creative. The use of “leet speak” is not an option. For those of you that don’t know leet speak is the replacement of letters with numbers. All you really have to do is try to attach your business, city, or state to your username. This should be enough to differentiate you from other people with your name.
Conclusion
Reputation management online is something that you have to work at. It does not come naturally to some of us and needs to be carefully examined. We hope that the tips we provided above will help you to get a professional username that others will be able to find. Best of luck to you.
