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Claim Your Name, Even If You Never Plan to Use It

Posted in: Blog, Industry News by SpiderWriters on January 29, 2010

A client learned a valuable lesson today with regards to preserving himself as a brand. While he achieved success in two businesses and thought ahead to obtain a number of domain names pertinent to his business, he never bothered to register his own name as a URL. One might not consider this a bad business move, especially when you consider how strongly he promoted the brands that defined his work. Only when he agreed to attend a conference in order to sell himself as a trustworthy business partner did he realize the importance of owning his name.

The problem arose, however, when it was discovered that somebody – a person in his line of work who anticipated his eventual need for the URL – registered it himself. Rather than transfer the domain in good faith, he decided to hold it for ransom – not for an inflated price, but to force the namesake’s hand in another matter. Whether or not this act violates the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act is up for the experts to decide, but from this experience comes an important lesson in protecting all of your online interests. Business owners who focus on ensuring a specific brand name is secured through domain listings and social media vanity tags may lose sight of their own personal branding, and in turn suffer the consequences.

Everybody has a name, and more than likely there are other people in the world with the same name as yours. It’s probable for the man called John Smith, and possible for somebody with a more obscure surname. When authors come to us for advice on pseudonyms, we strongly recommend using Google for a potential non de plume to make sure it isn’t already known (or infamous) – it’s also not a bad idea to Google yourself once in a while to see what’s being written.

Given your online visibility, is it important to register your name as a domain, even if you have no use for it in business? It is definitely recommended. You can register the URL without feeling obligated to apply it to a site. Once you do, it’s yours for a year, or for however long you initially buy it. Redirect it to your company profile page, create an HTML placeholder for it, just have that ownership so nobody else will.

As your company grows, so will interest in your business and the people behind it. While success creates opportunity for you, it’s wise to think ahead before somebody unrelated sees value in things like domain names. Don’t be caught like our client.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media writing and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels and Virginia web design companies.