A long, long time ago, Saturday Night Live predicted that every single URL would be claimed one day, with their www.clownpenis.fart skit.
www.clownpenis.fart
As the marketplace becomes cluttered, individuals are struggling to break through. One important part of a digital strategy is having a consistent username. As new social networks bloom, you’ve got to be searchable. Celebrities get Verified Twitter accounts, but what about the rest of us?
Classic New Yorker drawing by Peter Steiner
Having a “real” name as your username is now ideal, as the Internet shifts from the “nobody knows you’re a dog” mentality to greater transparency. Social networks are seeking greater responsibility on the part of users. For example, YouTube’s answer to the hive of sexist, racist, homophobic comments their videos foster was forcing users to switch YouTube usernames to their Google email usernames, an identifier that allows less obscurity.
Cybersquatters can’t be evicted.
There’s also the issue of cybersquatting—people who buy up likely corporate/ artist names, or misspellings of those names, then try to sell them to the rightful owner for an inflated amount.
Even blockbuster series The Hunger Games has an issue on
Instagram:
Not a single one is official.
There aren’t a lot of Suzys in the world today, yet I ended up at lunch with two other Susies last week. There definitely aren’t a lot of Suzy Maes, yet, they exist, and I’m unable to claim every SuzyMae username.
Susie the research assistant, Suzy Mae the research analyst, and Susie the server
An increasing number of people; a limited number of names to claim. As much as we laugh at celebrity babies Bronx Mowgli, or Rainbow Aurora, they’re not going to have
much of a problem claiming a unique URL in the future. In the future, it’s people with names like David Smith who face digital social tension (who saw that coming?)
How frustrating does this get for a non-famous person when a celebrity or, god forbid, a celebrity BRAND has their name? I personally know two Mark Jacobs. Neither is the famous designer Marc Jacobs. Neither particularly enjoys the resemblance.
Not Mark Jacobs. Or Mark Jacobs.
This gets scary when people get aggressive over coveted handles. Remember Wired author Mat Honan’s devastating hack, where his computer and phone were wiped clean and he lost all photos of his baby
daughter? The hackers merely wanted his early-adopter Twitter handle, @mat.
Hypotheses & solutions.
Based on these patterns, I’m hypothesizing that the future will be filled with personal brands, rather than names as identifiers. So let’s talk solutions. There are myriad ways to strategize and create a unique username or workaround when the one you love can’t be owned exclusively.
#1. Try your first pick.
That didn’t work? Ok, move on!
#2. Create a brand.
I love Nubby Twiglet, Gala Darling, and Penelope Trunk. All have URLs that link to their
names—but those aren’t their real names. Instead of insisting on their birth names, they created new identities that reflect their creative efforts. They don’t have to be fake “names,” either. CinemaMinimal from Portland is the branded handle of musician/ artist Blake Carrillo.
#3. Talk talent.
Sites or handles like @CamilaRochaArt on Instagram or JennyLewisDesign.com are simple ways to get the point across. Use the word “portfolio,” if you have to, like Elizabeth King of kingportfolio.com.
#4. Make me laugh.
Malecopywriter.com is one of the most hilarious professional sites I have ever encountered. Not only did I find it funny, it got a lot of press. And it got the guy a job.
Senior copywriter Tom Archer goes for the gut with www.alongwayforahamsandwich.com. Hilarious.
#5. Say you did it.
Other options that are a bit more direct: Friend
and art director Will Holmes uses www.stuffIhavedone.com. Copywriter Derek Man Lui uses “Derek Did It’ as his username on CargoCollective. cargocollective.com/derekdidit.
#6. Stick with nicknames.
Anthony Clune, art director, uses www.TonkyDesigns.com, due to a childhood nickname. It’s memorable as well as an ice-breaker. I’ve also seen creatives abbreviate their names, like copywriter Alex Harvey’s alexharv.com.
#7. Use me.
No, don’t email me to do it for you. Use a unique address, such as .me or .tv. AaronLee.com is being wasted by some cybersquatter, so photographer and designer Aaron Lee created a memorable rhyming URL with AaronLee.tv.
#8. Find a homebase.
So you were lucky enough to score the URL you wanted. Congrats! But you don’t have that luxury on Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram (dangit!) So drive people to your site, and link out to your social pages. See if you can create a secondary username that won’t be as snatchable. For example, SarahJane might have
multiple social handles as MistressSarahJane.
#9. Go legal.
I maintain SuzyMaeMattay.com and SuzyMattay.com, redirecting to SuzyMae.com, my shortened legal name and face of my personal “artist and advertiser” brand. If you must go birth name, try your full name. I’ve seen quite few resumes from folks like Thomas James Henderson, David Christopher Jones, or Ashley Christina Smith (those names are all fake, FYI).
#10. Branch off.
Remember when I mentioned the Hunger Games Instagram issue? All HungerGames accounts had been taken by enthusiastic teens. So the Lionsgate marketing team created a different name, one that made just as much sense: @CapitolCouture. This official feed plays off their Tumblr blog and stays true to the marketers’ (very successful) strategy of staying true to the tone and “reality” of the books and movie. I could easily create @suzymaetwitter or @suzymaeinstagram.
On the examples I’ve used:
Most of the portfolio’s I’ve linked to are friends, but for a few I used the resource of Modern Copywriter, a site that showcases young talent. Every new group of graduates with work to show will be forced to become ever more creative.