As I wrote on Friday at True/Slant, Sarah Palin's resignation frees her to promote her interests and issues in new ways, especially online. But to do that one has to own their "personal brand" online, including among other things reserving your name and likeness on popular information sharing sites online, such as Twitter (text), Flickr (photos), and YouTube (video).
A personal brand is personal, and it can be very tricky when it gets mixed up too closely with a current spouse, location, or employer. In my True/Slant article I noted that Gov. Palin's handle on Twitter, @AKGovSarahPalin, was branded with both her job and location. If those change, as it seems they will more rapidly than most expected, the handle becomes not only meaningless but silly. I suggested she change it.
But if you're a politician or other online figure and not paying attention to your personal branding online, there can be problems when you do it too late. As I pointed out on Twitter this morning, the more general handles of @SarahPalin and @RealSarahPalin have been taken by "Twittersquatters," or people who claim accounts for high profile people for their own purposes, or to sell them back to the marquee names. (Such cybersquatting happened a lot with domain names in the heyday of celebrity and corporate website making.)
Lesson for people inside the Beltway? Even if you don't want to use services like Twitter, Flickr, or YouTube very much if at all, you should still reserve your own name and versions of your name on them (at least the major ones). Otherwise, someone can impersonate you, or otherwise use the channels against you. What if your political opponent covertly gets them through a third party who refuses to sell them to you until its too late?
Gov. Palin, I have some breaking news for you, and of course for the rest of the world, too. The handle @TheRealSarahPalin is available as of 11:26am EST July 5th. I hope you grab it soon. Because someone else surely will.
Comments
I went to grab it but the @therealsarahpalin is 2 characters too long for a twitter user name. TheRealPalin is available though..... no wait.. nope its not. I JUST REGISTERED IT. I'm officially a squatter! WOO!
We talk about personal branding and online reputation management for students and young professionals and this is an AMAZING example of what can go wrong.
I hope you dont mind if i refer to this article in the soon to be written article on this topic.
Trace Cohen
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