Universal Usernames: Why it’s important to maintain username consistency

May 26, 2010 by mandeewidrick

Rewind back to September 26, 2007. I was just signing up for my first YouTube account. This was back before I knew anything about social media, or so I thought. I was fairly new to the world wide web at that time, but I was already marketing my family’s farm and gaining new customers. I had no idea what I was doing yet I was already successful. However, I was also in the dark about the importance of username consistency.

As I registered for my first YouTube account, I entered the first name that came to my mind: “LarknMe”. It was a name I used on a couple other sites at the time so why not? Now, two and a half years later, I finally decided that it was time for the old account to go. “LarknMe” isn’t exactly how I want to brand myself these days…

I recently heard of this handy site called NameChk.com, so I looked it up. Upon typing my most current username in, I discovered that it was still available on YouTube. Duh, of course it was. I mulled the idea of transiting to a new YouTube account around in my mind, then decided to make the switch. I only have a handful of subscribers/friends on the old channel anyhow so it’s still early in the game.

Why did I bother changing it? After all, it’s a bit of a hassle to try to tell everyone I’ve moved. However, consistency is very important when trying to build your brand online, so I shrugged it off and went through with the move.

Here are a few reasons why username consistency is important:

• First and foremost, it keeps things simple for your online followers. They aren’t trying to remember which name belongs to you on what network. That’s just downright confusing.

• It makes the links easy for YOU to remember. Chances are, you’re going to want to share the links with others, and it will make things simpler for you to do so.

• It ensures other people won’t gain your business. If you don’t secure your name on every network possible, someone else might grab it and take away from your potential traffic. (That would annoy me so bad…)

I don’t have to give an extensive list of reasons explaining why username consistency is important…it’s just a good rule of thumb to live by. If someone else has already taken the username you wanted, find something close but try to remain as similar to your brand name as possible. (I originally reserved my Horse Familyâ„¢ Facebook fan page as facebook.com/horsefamily, only to discover that the username was taken on most other networks by squatters. I resorted to “horsefamilymag” on every other network.)