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September 26, 2007
It’s a Social Media World Outside…
Ever since I first engaged in Social Communications for the first time with CB Radio, (remember those? I understand there is now a CB Radio renaissance going on in the UK), I had a choice on how I wanted to be known, on how I wanted to be identified. And while I would change my “handle” from time to time, there were a few people who I got to know who were always on the same channel at the same time of day and for a moment in time, I used to experience what could now best be described as a “social communications afternoon” just about every weekday. This overlapped with a time when I was also very active on Amateur radio, but this was my opportunity to reach out to my local community while my Ham Radio was really my portal to the world.
And from the time I left CompuServe and established my presence on the Internet, I made the conscious decision to be identified as “JeffPulver.” While friends were continuing to use aliases last heard on CB Radio, I was JeffPulver and when I established pulver.com back in 1994, I made it a point to become a master of my own domain. Jeff@pulver.com is still an active email today. pulver.com was one of the first of the “dot com” companies and I believe I was one of the first people to “dot com” my own name. Over the years, I felt I have benefited a lot by making myself easy to be found on the Internet. And this is a path I would strongly recommend to others to follow.
As the world of Social Media extends its own influence on how we communicate with others on the Internet, the ways you brand yourself matter. If you are someone who has adopted twitter into your social media lifestyle and you are someone who isn’t known by the same name as your profile on LinkedIn or your profile on Facebook, why is that? Who are you hiding from? Do you think you are making it easy for any of your internet friends to connect the twitter version of “you” with the Facebook version of “you?” Are you really trying to protect your own privacy? Or is there something else? And if you do have any regrets about not using the same names, why not take a moment and establish your name brand today? Every day you wait is another day others won’t make that connection..
It is a social media world outside. If you want to get ahead, make it a point and use the same name every time you find yourself engaging in an internet activity, whether it is on Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, flickr. dopplr or something new As Social Media continues to consume your internet lifestyle, your internet presence can only grow if you made it easy for people to find the Internet YOU.
And I was wondering, how do YOU approach Social Media? Where you someone who decided to make the transition from your nickname to your real name? And if so, how did the "syncing of personalities" play out for you?
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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.
Tags: Social Media, Social Communications, Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on September 26, 2007 01:06 PM | Permalink
Additional resources: Watch PrimeTime TV Shows | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
As Dan observes it is not possible to ensure common id across many sites, the next best thing is to be able to assert claim to multiple ids in mutual sites thereby building the brand identity. This idea is explored by Six Apart (http://bradfitz.com/social-graph-problem/) and Plaxo (http://www.plaxo.com/info/opensocialgraph).
Posted by: Aswath at September 29, 2007 02:19 AM
I too have a similar story Jeff. I first got into social networks through the BBS world. My parents were both artists... and they were kind of shocked to see their son hanging out in a dark closet with another kid named Davy Greenberger. We were both nerds. We played INFOCOM games like Zork together. I was always kind of a misunderstood outcast as was and when my parents moved to Los Angeles my friendship with Davy Greenberger did not end. Davy got heavy into the BBS world. His BBS was called "Aardvark" in New York. My BBS was called "Mechanical Renaissance" in Los Angeles. My early art work was ANSI art done for BBS all around the country. Anyone remember ANSI? It's like text but in color. It is pretty dead now. There was a lot of friction in our relationship between Davy and I. Davy was kind of antisocial and very logic oriented. I was more communication based. ...but BBS is what pulled us together. Most of what was involved in BBS was stealing software and trading crude porn shorts (DAVY would have none of that!) I always felt that there would come a day when all the cool people would begin to do what me and Davy were doing in the mid-80's. In the early 90's the internet killed the BBS world. Someone mentioned to me that something new was coming. It was going to be a big BBS. I said, "What is it called". They said "World War Three". I said that sounds scary. They were talking about the "World Wide Web". They misunderstood the acronym "www". I miss the BBS we ran using "Teleguard" in the same way you miss your radio.
PS MAN WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE TWITTER LATELY... it is TWITTERING OUT!
Posted by: Noah David Simon at September 27, 2007 12:27 PM
I love that there are now multiple versions of Chris Brogan everywhere - Porn Chris Brogan, British Chris Brogan, Evil Chris Brogan etc. all "in the style" of the real Chris. How does HE escape the paradies?
A name is a just a label - best not to be too attached to only one..
Posted by: Dean Whitbread at September 27, 2007 05:16 AM
Great post. This post reminded me of something I hadn't thought of this in years...when I was in Jr. High I would sneak out my Dad's CB Radio and trash-talk truckdrivers until they screamed with rage and threatened to hunt me down. Yeah, Crested Butte could get boring. And now I don't allow anonymous posts on my blog...go figure. hahaha
Pretty much everything I do is "davidlaplante" online...but I have what my friends refer to as an "Outlaw" identity for participating in certain social endeavors that may not be as "acceptable" to the general population or damaging to the professional brand I steward as a CEO.
Much to my chagrin/amusement, my "handle" / "brand" in this circle has become more popular than the real me. Friends and people I don't even know/half my age have made stickers of my handle and they're being stuck all over the place. Sometimes they MMS/email me these photos stuck in strange places to my "Outlaw" phone. To funny.
www.davidlaplante.com
Posted by: David LaPlante at September 27, 2007 02:37 AM
Jeff, you are totally correct. Dare I say "great minds think alike?" In July I posted some similar thoughts, and also made reference to CB Radio (breaker 1-9!") Lol.
http://sassholes.blogspot.com/2007/07/non-anonymous-say-that-10-times-fast.html
Posted by: Jeffrey Sass at September 27, 2007 02:26 AM
Here via your ambassador, Chris Brogan, who also does an excellent job of being consistent across internet outlets.
I did start out with my name (Colleen Wainwright) but it was so damned long, I flipped over to "communicatrix" three years ago and never looked back.
Alas, while the one is shorter, apparently they're equally difficult to spell.
And so it goes.
Posted by: communicatrix at September 26, 2007 09:01 PM
Another item to consider is this, those of us who have very common names or names previously associated with a historical figure.
When I first decided to use alphabunny, I chose a moniker I thought exemplified my life style, personality and attitude. I never once considered using my real name simply because at the time it was Ann Frank. (Divorce has now freed me of that one, however I digress. *cough*) Branding "Ann Frank" was not an option for me for many reasons, the biggest being the previous associations made years before I was alive.
Finally, I like my online moniker. It fits me. In my real world circle of friends they know me as alphabunny, as well as Ann, and clearly they see the same person. I don't pretend to be Hot Mama 69 online and Studious University Geek in person. That fit just doesn't work.
Great topic, Jeff. I am glad to "know" the real Pulverizer. :)
Posted by: Ann Steckel at September 26, 2007 08:58 PM
Jeff,
I've always used my real name online - I didn't really see any need to do anything differently. Only about 4 years ago did I pick up my eponymous domain name (rickmahn.com) and started trying to figure out what to do with it a year later or so.
I do believe that everyone should attempt to use their real names online whenever possible. It means a lot to me to know who I'm interacting with, and builds a level of trust that can sometimes be lost with a generic handle. However, I do accept a pseudonym as a brand, like Tomas Hawk for example.
Regards,
Rick
Posted by: Rick Mahn at September 26, 2007 07:13 PM
Exactly!
I blogged about this yesterday & how over the past few months I made a conscious effort to brand myself with my own name.
http://conniebensen.com/blog/2007/09/25/personal-branding/
Posted by: Connie Bensen at September 26, 2007 06:41 PM
Totally agree, and it is somewhat important to be consistent when using a "nickname" if you are posing as yourself (But sometimes you don't - I made a post on that topic: http://thekillerattitude.com/2007/09/i-am-me-are-you-you-and-should-we-be.html
However! (if we passed the discussion on multiple "online personas"...)
A) Not all people are building a personal online brand actively, but are active online anyway under similiar nicknames - thus a good way to link together all such identities have a window of opportunity.
B) Even if you are building an online brand, for several reasons you might not be that consistent when choosing nicknames.
Myself I use "myrberger", "johan" (when still available) and sometimes "johanm" (plus eventually a few more..) I am still fortunate enough that my name (combination of first and last) is unique. But I still rarely use "johanmyrberger" - not sure why..
If you have a more common name, using "joesmith135" is of course an option, but then the extra digits must have some kind of meanig. Or?
Posted by: Johan Myrberger at September 26, 2007 05:12 PM
Right on, Jeff! I established ronaldlewis.com in 1999 -- Some eight years after I first went online with BBSs and Prodigy, and at least four after gophering my way around the Internet on a Unix shell account at Wayne State University.
People can normally find me online as "ronaldl79" (my first, last name and birth year) or, in some cases, simply "ronaldlewis". I figured that, by using my real name, it was easier to establish credibility and trust with the world at large.
I guess it's no wonder why -- in Google terms -- I'm the world's third most popular "Ronald" before former President Ronald Reagan and Ronald McDonald.
There truly isn't a need to hide behind psuedo-identities. Nothing's cooler -- or more relevant -- than your own name.
Ronald Lewis
Lifecaster, blogger, podcaster and new media producer
Denver, Colorado
http://ronaldlewis.com
Posted by: Ronald Lewis at September 26, 2007 04:42 PM
Jeff,
In my opinion, consistent use of your identity is one the most effective and simple ways to facilitate recognition. At the end of the day, your personality AND reputation is all you have -- and you should not disjoint your personal brand throughout your internet activity vs. offline activity.
It's as simple as that.
- Ramsey
Posted by: Ramsey at September 26, 2007 04:39 PM
I have had zemote.com and used the nick zemote for 7 years, it would take me forever and a day to change everything to my Real Name. So I have branded myself zemote and will probably be that way for the rest of my life with my online persona.
-Jeff "zemote" O'Hara
http://blog.zemote.com
Posted by: Jeff O'Hara at September 26, 2007 04:21 PM
Jeff, Like you, I have been using "social communications" for many years and generally have used my own name. The challenge is that if you have a more "generic" name like, oh, "Dan York", there are a lot of other people out there with the same name. In the early days of the Internet, it was fairly easy for me to always get "dyork" or "danyork", but today I do find sometimes that one of the other Dan York's got to the site first and I have to try something else.
Part of this, too, is that we now have a global namespace. In your CB radio days, your potential for name conflict was really only with those in your local area who could receive your signal. Today it is the global Internet.
Posted by: Dan York at September 26, 2007 03:51 PM