Claim Your Name.... Before It's Too Late!

I think this is really exciting! You may have read previously on my blog about the importance of creating and getting your own Universal Identity. It's what's coming... it's what's around the corner and we're getting a peek at it more and more every day.

Two companies are going to help you get yours... so start thinking and remember what my ol' diving coach used to tell me "If you think too long, you think wrong."

The first of these helpful companies is Namechk. This is a slick quick site. Type in your username you have for your current social networks, because you'll want the same one on all your pages so you can build your own brand. Namchk will cross check this username with 128 social media networks and let you know what site that name is taken or available on.

The second site is Knowem. At Knowem, they are launching a service that will make searching and ultimately registering usernames much easier across many social sites. The basic service is free. Similar to Namechk, it will search 330 social media sites for the name you type in to see what's available and where. If you haven't chosen a username for your own personal brand or for your business, THIS IS THE TIME!

Knowem is also offering three different services too (not free). The Corporate Edition clocks in at $350, but will register your desired username across 150 of the top social websites, set-up your profile, avatar, bio/description and URL. This is all done by KnowEm staffers and they set things up so you don’t have to worry.

The Individual Edition is $99 and will start the sign-up process at 150 different social sites. You’ll still need to confirm the sign-ups and populate the accounts with your own information.

For the true social media addict, KnowEm also offers a subscription service for $49 a month that will automatically register your username on 30 new social networks a month. (Thanks Christena Warren of Mashable for the service descriptions)

As my freaky social media enthusiast and I have been discussing these sites today ... we realize many of those hundreds (possibly thousands) of social media sites may not be around in 1,2 or 5 years. However, we really don't have any way to guess which will survive and which won't. Whodathought Twitter, with it's 140 character limit would be as popular as it is? I like the idea of these two sites and I like the easy steps toward Universal Identification too. Especially for a business who plans on long term sustainability. I would like to do it for myself too... although I find I am onesy twoing it through the social networks I want to be on. We'll see how that goes.

What do you think about all this? Would YOU do this?