chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Whats Not In a Name

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Gotham — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:33:23 -0000

I specialze in Online PR, Twitter branding and marketing, Social Media Campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

ericmarmar — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:04:22 -0000

Social link used to change so much, twitter the last one, used to be offline, facebook became the place of spammer and the rest of the Web used to became a Giant Market place.

But that should be normal, the Web can't live without money, and now we are all in the spirit that in Free everywhere.

We Change, Facebook Change, See you ;)

PS: sorry for my French's english :)

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Swanton F Fleming — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:26:37 -0000

yup really valuable things you have said about facebook as i never find it so easy to use.It was the same when i had first time visited http://thetwittersecret.com/ to know about the twitter applications.But i got failed.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Ann Evanston — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:08:14 -0000

I completely agree Chris, my facebook page already came up SEO without the "vanity" plate. If I cannot demonstrate online my integrity, credibility and trustworthiness, no one will hire me!

Ann Evanston
http://Warrior-Preneur.com
The Warro=ior is Within You

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Chris Brogan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:56:06 -0000

It's a mix of my own brand beliefs and also a dangerous experiment. I'm making the statement that I don't think FB really cares about me and my success, which is a weird thing to consider, but why are we NOT considering that?

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Greg Pincus — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:57:34 -0000

Christina - I think we all have personal brands, and online is a fantastic place to build that brand up. It's different than a corporate brand to some extent, and it doesn't prevent you from being "you" - in fact, it requires you to be you.

I guess Chris's personal brand is that he's the guy who will make choices just like this Facebook one - he can see it's unlikely to cause much harm and can make a point. So maybe my question was wrong - it's not about the difference between what he'd recommend to a corporate client vs. him as a person, but is his action just a case of being true to his "brand"?

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Christina Katz — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:23:28 -0000

Greg, I don't think people are brands, do you? I don't think Chris is a brand. Does he? Chris do you think of yourself as a brand?

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Christina Katz — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:21:52 -0000

You said:

"It’s never about the sites and services. Never forget that. YOU add value to them, not the other way around."

I could not agree more. Similarly, I never get hung up on taking on the identity of the technology I use. For example, I blog, I tweet, I use Facebook...but I used Myspace too. I didn't get overly attached to it. I have a blast connecting with other writers on Facebook, but would we all go somewhere else if the digs were nicer? I'm thinking we would. Because it's a technology, not a person.

We are still humans, right? That means people get addicted. They confuse the medium for the message.

I'm much more interested to know what's your message than what medium you are using to spread it.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

wchingya — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:41:28 -0000

Maybe the FB vanity URL day has been slightly over-exaggerated. As much as we are encouraged to secure own digital identity, Chris, you did make a good point: it's not the Name/Site, but that person's value and how he/she carries him/herself that shapes the branding. Username is a representative, it could be altered, modified, changed... but it's the personality that stays and makes us different.

@wchingya
social media/blogging

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Kathy Breitenbucher — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:54:48 -0000

Awesome - you are so right and thank you for going against the current thinking because you hit it on the head.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Kristiana — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:06:21 -0000

Greetings Chris and Friends-

I believe there is no need for the custom FB URL if you have branded yourself well enough. Chris, everyone in this field knows who you are, therefore having the "dotchrisbrogan" will probably be completely irrelevant in searching for you...people have MANY other ways of finding you on the net that contain links to your FB page. I am almost positive that certain national brands will experience the same...

However, the customized FB URL will probably incredibly helpful to people/businesses who are still in the early stages of branding themselves.

I doubt your brand will come crashing down, but the "small guy" who pulls the same stunt probably won't experience the same result.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Gary — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:16:15 -0000

Chris I love your move. I do speeches on networking. One of the things I preach is that knowing where to put your nametag or having a great elevator speech is so much less important than being interesting and valuable. Even if you don't give out your card, people who like your game will find you.

And by the way, your posts are very valuable to me. No matter what fb name you used, I would find you

Re: Whats Not In a Name

sharonhayes — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:45:24 -0000

I understand what you are getting at here Chris, but I think there is a definite benefit to using your actual name on Facebook as your URL. There are over 300 people with the same exact name as me on Facebook. I've had 2 old friends find me already since the vanity URLs came out - both said they took a shot I got my name and were right. For that alone, it showed it was worth it.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Peter Cooper — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:39:16 -0000

I took the same approach, but in a somewhat more "do or die" fashion ;-) My vanity URL is "can.kiss.my.ass" :)

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Jamie Favreau — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:22:08 -0000

I couldn't get the Jfavreau I wanted so I had to go with my name. I think it is great to have your name but at the same time. You have let everyone know how to find you here so I doubt it is going to make a big difference concerning you.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Billy J — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:48:33 -0000

I disagree with that, this post just puts a positive spin on folks who weren't able to get their urls. Easy as that. There are hundreds of quality posts out there but no one knows about them because the sites aren't optimized and no one can remember their URL.

Lots of "FREE" academic papers are hidden away within the non-optimized .edu domains.

Sad post Chris. There is only so much you can put a positive spin on. You lost the url and now you are just making it seem like you did it on purpose. You do post quality material but this one isn't on par with it.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

wendy soucie — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:30:55 -0000

Chris, Thanks for reminding everyone that social media is about people. We so quickly lose site of that very point as the push to monetize everything is nipping at our heals.

Digging into the core of any issue requires you to find the people and influencers. And your right, those of us who want to follow you will exactly know the name change you made and we will retweet and talk about it on our own blogs and on all our social media places/spaces
www.facebook.com/wendy.soucie

Re: Whats Not In a Name

lou suSi — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:42:35 -0000

good point Chris ... you are NOT your profile on the social web ... that's why i signed in a few days after the big Facebook vanity plate deal and register myself as 'cranksturgeon' ... i just thought it sounded more interesting than my real name + i wanted to teach everyone out there a lesson in social site netiquette ;]

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Aron Stevenson — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:11:57 -0000

I don't think it matters that much either. Consider this, type in www.apple.co.uk and you would expect to get a page full of cool mac stuff. Well you don't, here in the UK it's apple.com/uk to get to the apple site. Most would just google it anyway.

It's not a problem for apple and it won't be a problem for Chris Brogan either.

I'm sure all this publicity has actually been very positive for Chris. Those that are unfamiliar with his work will be asking who's Chris Brogan and are google-ing him as we speak.... Remarkable :-)

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Bill Cammack — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:10:38 -0000

Actually, Mack. You're right about Chris Penn posting about this on twitter at 12:08am EST (7 minutes after vanity urls became available):

http://twitter.com/cspenn/s...

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Bad Chris Brogan — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:58:49 -0000

Would you look at that .... someone else does have http://www.facebook.com/chr...

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Jeff Korhan — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:24:51 -0000

The map is not the territory. I like that. For me, I like sameness with my urls just so I can remember the darn things!

Beyond that, it's all about where we want to go. And who is going to be on that journey with us. If we do what we do well, the everything usually works out, doesn't it?

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Bad Chris Brogan — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:11:19 -0000

HA HAA HAAAA. SOMEONE TOOK HIS NAME AND HE'S TRYING TO SPIN IT. LMFAO.

Yeah, look at me, I'm trying to be "different". Look at me I'm making a "point".

Please, spare us. How stupid would it be if a company like say ... oh ... I don't know .... GM tired to male a "point". They went with the name dotGeneralMotors. Way to annoy your customers.

Dumbass

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Mack Collier — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:04:05 -0000

Chris did you get this name on purpose, or was it cause www.facebook.com/chrisbrogan wasn't available? I saw Chris Penn tweeting that someone else had your name, and if they cyber-squatted it that's lame beyond belief, but a story for another day.

Ultimately, I think the URL you chose is actually more consistent with your branding as someone that's experimenting with these tools, and sharing the results you find. So it might be an SEO loss, but I think it's a 'personal branding' win for you.

Re: Whats Not In a Name

Jessica Smith - JessicaKnows — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:41:42 -0000

Chris, I kind of agree with you on this.

I was thinking at 11pm on Friday night how tired I was and that I SHOULD be staying up to get my Facebook profile name.

First, I'll say I'd be going for JessicaKnows instead of JessicaSmith because someone took that latter url a long time ago, and I consider JessicaKnows more what people identify with.

Which got me thinking...if someone Googles me by inputting "Jessica Smith" they're going to get the girl from Laguna Beach that got a DUI, the girl from Survivor who also goes by Flicka, and a few other people that happen to have the same name, doing pretty cool things, but who aren't me.

So, if someone HAD gotten my vanity url of JessicaKnows and people found it, and they decided to do unsavory things with it, it'd be clear to most that it was merely a squatter and not me.

Why?

Because, like a lot of us, my name is part of the fabric of who I am. People know my name, but what's more important, is that there is a set of traits, feelings, and value that people associate with my name. And if someone else takes my name and tries to change those, they're going to have a hard time, because those belong to me.

And really it's those traits, feelings a name evokes, and value that makes BRANDING what it is.

I'm debating whether or not I need to race to get 1000 fans for my Fan Page by June 28 to claim that Facebook url. But I think I'm just going to sit tight. After all, I already own that Facebook page http://facebook.jessicaknow... ...so in a way I've already taken ownership of my fan page, the question is, I guess, will it matter if someone tries to take ownership over it too?