On the first day of class, a professor in Journalism school asked us to google ourselves, because “you’d be surprised what your name is attached to”.  Of course, that was ten years ago, before social media profiles and Facebook usernames.  Heck, it was even before Merriam-Webster recognized “googling” as a proper verb.

Thing is, when someone googles your name (for business research, contact information, cyberstalking), you don’t know what they will get.  Sure, we can throw some SEO tips your way, but you’re still at the mercy of Google.  Will searchers get the best representation of you?  Will they even get you – or someone who shares your name?

Take control of your world wide self with Google Profiles. This is Google’s way of asserting some order in the process of searching for people online.   Here’s how it works: you fill out a profile form with information like where you live, work, and where you went to school.  You can add a short bio blurb and some fun facts about yourself (your superpower, interests, etc).   Then, attach links to your profile, like your website, blog, or even, your spanky new Facebook vanity URL.   If you want to, you can include photos and direct contact information.  When you’re finished, claim your profile page and personal URL (http://google.com/profiles/yourname).

Whether you’re looking to create an online presence or just solidify the one you got, Google Profiles is a smart move. If you’re reticent to put yourself out there, consider the alternatives.  Someone else’s online activity could be harmful to your reputation.

The big event over the weekend was, of course, the unveiling and subsequent frenzy of Facebook usernames.

In the footsteps of MySpace and Twitter, Facebook members are now able to register a username, and more importantly, secure their vanity URL (e.g. facebook.com/feedgrowth).  This replaces the lengthy alphanumeric URLs that are randomly assigned to Facebook members – and are impossible to remember, pass on, or promote.  It also opens up a whole world of opportunity for companies and brands looking to establish a presence on the most popular social networking site.

Here’s how it works: go to http://facebook.com/username and log in.  Enter your desired username.  If your username is already taken, Facebook will provide you with various options.  Obviously, certain names and terms are going to go fast, so you may have to get creative.  To avoid squatters from holding brand names and popular terms hostage, Facebook is making usernames permanent (no changes, no transfers).  So, like a tattoo, choose wisely.

We’ve discussed how important it is to secure your username across multiple sites and platforms as part of your digital marketing strategy.   It will be interesting to see how brand search performance is affected.  Social juggernauts like Facebook and Twitter frequently show up in the top Google search results, and depending on the search, they may even outrank a company or brand’s actual website.

If you’ve got a great idea for a product, chances are, you lack the know-how and/or the opportunity to get it off the ground. Not to mention, the capital to build and market the darn thing.

Try listing your idea on Quirky instead.  Quirky is a product development community run by the same guys behind Name This (which we discussed in Hot Pockets).   Each week, inventors submit their product ideas in a competition.  There is a $99 entrance fee, but hear the pitch out:  The Quirky community (a.k.a. Influencers) votes on the best idea, which will then be turned into a real product with the help of the community.   In other words, Quirky takes your concept and sees it through the entire product development life cycle – design, protyping, branding, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

Like Name This, Quirky offers everyone in the community a stake in the product. Influencers invest points in different ideas and receive payouts when their horse comes in first, which is motivation to keep them interested and active in the crowdsourcing process.   When a product reaches market, Quirky returns $.30 of every dollar sold to the participants involved ($.12 to the actual inventor).   While this may seem like highway robbery to someone not familiar with the benefits of crowdsourcing  – or fiercely protective of their idea – a $99 investment sees your product come to life, gives you invaluable market research and feedback during its design, and then provides a venue for sales (Quirky actually sells the products on their site).

If your idea isn’t chosen by the Quirky community, you are still provided with the demographic data of the community that reviewed your product.   This is valuable information that you can then use to improve your product idea or zero in on a target market.

Most companies are hesitant to adopt Twitter as an enterprise application.   After all, where’s the benefit?

With the unveiling of Twitter Search (technically, it’s been around, but in stealth mode), you can keep your finger on the pulse of digital culture.  What are people talking about?  And just how many people are part of the conversation?  The emerging benefit for Twitter Search – and Twitter itself – is using the application as a brand monitoring tool.   With over 6 million monthly users broadcasting their thoughts, feelings, weekend plans, and product preferences, it makes for an effective tool.

You don’t need a Twitter account to access search functionality – just plug in your query and get real-time results, including the Twitter user, their tweet, the date of the tweet, and the Twitter app they used (thanks to an open API, there are a lot).  The advanced search option lets you filter results by keyword logic, Twitter user, location, time frame, and user attitude.  You can see my search for “digital scientists” yields both our personal tweets and our company buzz (FYI, no filter here.  Thankfully, all positive).  For more fun, want to know who got booted on American Idol? It’s on Twitter Search. Latest sighting of Posh and Becks? Yep – on Twitter Search.

Twitter search also offers a “Trending Topics” feed to the right of search results, where you can see the most tweeted subjects, as well as subscribe to an RSS feed for your specific query. We’re fans of ongoing brand monitoring, as we’ve discussed in Danger, Will Robinson and Name Dropper.  Here’s one more tool for your arsenal.

Usernames are a natural extension of your online brand, an idea we discussed in Check Please (sadly, usernamecheck is now defunct).  Many people are happy to ride on the coattails of your brand’s success, so securing your username across the web is just a smart move – even if you don’t use a particular site or service (yet).

Let’s cover the primary bases first. MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, and Twitter are all well-known and widely-adopted platforms.   We’ve looked at each as an individual marketing tool, but the idea here is sign-up for all these services with a consistent username.  Why?  Well, for starters, try Googling your username and see what comes back.  I yield more search results for my brand name,  “feed growth”, because I’ve made it my default username when demoing various products for the site.   Never mind those chicken feed hormone results.

If you already have accounts with these services, shift your focus to online forums and communities.   Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, Yelp, and Flickr are a good place to start.  However, if your know your crowd, target niche sites.   Gooruze is an online marketing forum, while Fabsugar (part of the Sugar, Inc. publishing) caters to the fashion-forward.  The added benefit of including forums and communities in your strategy is the free marketing.  You can engage users in conversation, raise brand awareness, and by including a link with your post, drive traffic back to your site.

Almost all these services are free, and with a minimal time investment, you can secure your branded username rather easily.