Building your online presence: What's in a name?

The other day I was helping Nina of Yoga & Tea Studio get started with her online marketing strategy and a discussion about branding ensued. We started brainstorming possible Twitter and blog domain names and got into a discussion about branding yourself vs using your business name.

What name should you use?

Branding yourself offers you many more possibilities as you are not limited to discussing your business and can explore all facets of yourself. In Nina’s case, she is looking to use Twitter to gain exposure as well as demonstrate thought leadership in the area of health&wellness, self-discovery and yoga. Using her name she can do just that and connect with people on a more personal level. If in few years time she decides she wants to shift her focus, her brand will follow her. As the owner of a yoga studio, Nina plans on using social media to not only draw more local clients to her studio, but to also network with other teachers in the city, country and worldwide.

Tweeting with your business identity could be limiting and come across as too self-promotional. Not to mention if you are not a very well known brand or are in a very specific niche you may have a harder time attracting interest and engaging in interesting, meaningful conversations. That’s not to say you couldn’t create accounts with both your business name and your personal name and be selective of what you tweet on both accounts.

The same applies for your blog and domain names. If you choose to go with your name you can really discuss anything and shape your content as you get better acquainted with the medium. It is good to have a focus, however, as I mentioned above if you do decide to deviate or change directions, your name will follow you.

Again, before starting, it is always best to think about your strategy and what you are hoping to achieve in the long run. Simply joining for the sake of it will result in time and effort wasted.

Thoughts?