Blue Widgets, Inc was ready to begin their big push into the Web. They had secured bluewidgetsinc.com and built a decent site; now they were ready to get into other online services. They got the username bluewidgetsinc for Flickr, but it was taken on another site and they had to settle for widgetblue1. Then Bob in Marketing said they could use his Youtube account, bobbluew, since he never did. The company was all set!

…Or were they? An outsider will never know Bob’s Youtube account name, and they wouldn’t be sure if widgetblue1 was the same business, a fan, or a different company altogether. Companies need consistent branding across all their marketing materials, sites, and services they maintain. That extends to usernames and URLs.

How can you avoid Blue Widgets’ predicament? First off, it helps to research before you launch:

1. Domain: Search for your preferred name on Register.com, Hostgator, or another registrar. Even though other top-level domain (TLD) names — .info, .us, etc — have proliferated, people still search for .com (or perhaps their local TLD such as .co.uk) by default.The ideal is to buy your company’s domain name in at least .com, .net, and .org, plus your local extension if you’re not in the US. This will help avoid inadvertent or malicious brand confusion. You may also want to get a media- or category-specific domain such as .tv (video/rich media), .mobi (mobile devices/phones), or .info, as well.
   Multi-Branding: Crossroads Communications, a.k.a. Radio Works For Me, came across the exact situation mentioned in #2. They’ve been around for 80 years, but there are many companies with similar names. They secured RadioWorksForMe.com — descriptive, unique, relatively short — to use as their online B2B brand.
2. Google: Do a quick Google search of your current or planned company name, site, or theme in quotes. If thousands of links come up, you may need to alter your branding. If you’re an established brand, this may be a bit trickier, but it is possible. Emphasize the new name consistently online and offline.
3. Social Usernames: Community sites such as Facebook and Twitter are used heavily by the masses now; businesses can and should get in on the action. To keep consistent branding across the entire Web, it’s critical to have the same username for every site on which you have an account. This will most likely be the same as your website domain, company name, or short description of your business (see sidebar).How do you easily find which usernames are available? Search the usernames of popular social media sites with a service such as  CheckUsernames. This queries many sites nearly at once to see if the one you want has been taken. It’s not the end of the world if a couple services’ usernames are taken for smaller niche sites, but if you can’t get your name on Youtube or Facebook, for instance, you may want to go back to the drawing board.

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