What Does Your Twitter Name Say About Your Brand?
October 1, 2009 by Deb Ng
Filed under Networking, Thoughts and Stuff
I’ve been thinking a lot about my name as my brand lately. I’m not one who hides behind anonymous pen names because I feel I can’t build up my brand by being anonymous. I have always been Deborah Ng or Deb Ng. My forum handles are always a variation of my name, usually “Deb Ng”. My Twitter handle is my name, but I also have accounts for FWJ and HireVine. All of those reflect a name as a brand.
Last week at the Creators Conference, I spoke with a lot of writers about marketing. Many of them are interested on taking their writing to the next level. After talking with them about Twitter, I took a look around to see how other writers and bloggers are using Twitter as a marketing tool.
I found it interesting how many writers not only had an anonymous Twitter handle, but one I didn’t feel to be a very good representation of their names as a brand. If a potential client is looking for writers on Twitter, what do you think he will think of names that aren’t necessarily reflective of the brand, but might reflect a less desirable trait instead? If he came across someone named AngryGRRRL he’d probably steer clear. People who let everyone know they’re in a bad mood tend to scare others away. Using fluffy cute names might also scare away potential clients. Fluffybird doesn’t sound like someone who is serious about copywriting. BuffBoy4U indicates someone who might have more than work on his mind.
If you’re using Twitter to build up your brand, consider using your real name or business name for marketing and the cutesy or emotional stuff for socializing. Your online name is also a first impression. Make it a good one.
Good point. Everything I do is some variation of canderson. Usually with the number 3 as I have a very common name. But I think using your name, or at the very least, your company name is ideal. Plus consistency across platforms. Great idea.
Thanks, Chris. As the Internet is your portfolio now people know how and where to find it – and your private info can remain private.
It’s just like email addresses: I feel like a lot of people try to think up an email address or user name that will make their friends laugh when they see it. But what may make one of your buddies laugh is rarely professional or oriented towards business.
It’s okay to have a funny user name, as long as you keep a more seriously-named account for professional contacts as well.
I agree, Thursday. Someone once sent me a resume from an email address”kookie4cocopufs@…com”. It shouldn’t have any bearing on the job, but the truth is, I caught myself wondering about that person’s professionalism.
Completely agree. I don’t actually use Twitter for anything personal, so I use it as ButterflyCopy – my business name (well, the longest version of it Twitter would let me have). I also have a business domain for email. It’s all about hammering that brand into potential clients. And it also pays to separate business from personal, so that there’s less chance of anything you do online as yourself, rather than your brand, coming back to bite you.
It astonishes me how many writers do this without realizing it can hurt their careers. Many students of mine have strange email addresses and this post has reminded me to let them know it’s important to have a professional email address. Thanks, Deb!
I have a very unusual name. Princess. Actually, I don’t think it’s unusual; it’s my grandmother’s name, too. But people tend to either think I’m lying, being funny or that I really want to hear about their childhood pets. (It also doesn’t help that awhile back, my name was on everything trendy. . . including the butts of everybody’s tracksuits.) As a waitress, I used to lie about my name so people would not get caught up in it and take forever to order! (Hello, my name is Karen. I’ll be your server tonight.) As a writer, I use my initials to avoid any search engine snafus or unwanted attention. All of my handles have psjoneswrites in them so that they match. It’s actually working. Although there is another writer with my name (she’s a poet), when you search P.S. Jones, my twitter is one of the top results and my website is another.
P.S, I feel your pain! I think you’ve done a really good job of creating a handle that works across the board, though — you’re keeping it consistent and still getting in the fact that you’re a writer!
This week I created a new professional Twitter account for this very reason. On top of the name issue, I also feel uncomfortable “spamming” my family and friends with writing-related Tweets that I know won’t interest them.
P.S. Jones – I love your initials! Your name is perfect just like that. Princess is pretty darn cool too!
I hadn’t really thought about how I’m exposing my brand name to the world, and Deb makes a good point about what name you use, especially with social networking sites, like Twitter, where you can choose a display name. It made so much sense to me today that I decided to change my previous Twitter name from “yhing80″ to “tthamkru,” a variation of my name and a handle that I have always used for business purposes as a writer. I didn’t know why I didn’t use it from the beginning.
Appreciate the blog post, Deb!
I have two Twitter accounts: @MicheleTune and @RawJuiceGirl
I started with my real name first and then I thought I’d create the @RawJuiceGirl account to promote my health blog. Funny thing is, health people followed my real name as well as writers/editors and writers/editors actually ended up following @RawJuiceGirl as well as the healthy folks…. So, it’s all mixed up! LOL
Not everyone who follows one account follows the other but quite a few do.
I’m also known as “MicheleT” on some social media sites, but I pretty much go with my full name anymore. And I use Raw Juice Girl because of my raw juice blog. I’m pretty much known across the Web as Raw Juice Girl, so I’m not trying to not use my real name when I refer to myself that way.
And I agree about folks who are always making statements about being angry or using usernames that reflect that — especially if they’re networking professionally.
Great post, Deb! I re-tweeted!
Definitely a great point!
It reminds me of what hubby told me about his hiring process recently. Nothing to do with Twitter but I’ll share anyway. He had a few people send in resumes with risque email addresses and one was like blondehavingfun. Needless to say he did not take them seriously and didn’t even look further at the resume.
I really think it’s best to brand yourself with either your real name or business name.
I’ve always used professional-sounding email usernames. Even my first email account was moderately professional, and when I switched to Gmail, I quickly claimed both my nickname and my full name as email addresses. I tend to use my nickname for friends, family and personal stuff, and my full name (Zabrina) for work stuff. One forwards to the other, and I have Gmail set up to be able to reply with the other email address easily.
If you go to Settings, Accounts & Import, and click Send Mail From Another Address, you can set up another email address (definitely Gmail, not sure about other providers). Then when you compose an email, select the right one from the drop-down box and presto.
Saves me a lot of time logging in and out while still making it easy to keep things neat and tidy.
100% agreed!!!! This blog post should be given out to everyone over the age of 16.
When I was in management, I would get resumes from young women with email addresses (on their resumes!!) like:
doitlikearockstarwould
i_am_a_melon_chest
i_do_drugs
…and others with sexual phrases that I can’t even post here!
Please, for the love of all that is great and holy in our world, do not apply for jobs with these kinds of email addresses/handles/etc.
I have different Twitter accounts for each blog I write for. But this article makes me think about getting one for myself to use as a branding tool for writing. Hmmm.
I’ve used my real name and personal (but not “weird”) email address when applying for projects. Over the last week, though, I’ve read so many things about branding yourself and coming across as a business as opposed to an individual. After making a huge list of potential business names, I came up with From Pen to Page. I bought a domain and set up a website, and now I’m @PentoPageWriter on Twitter. It’s exciting!