Use KnowEm to Secure Your Brand Identity Across Social Networks

Prior to establishing your presence on social media networks, a company or individual must check to see if their username is available across all sites. To create a level of continuity across social media networks you must make sure the name is not already taken so that you can use the same branding on each site. This calls to mind the situation Denny's restaurant faced last month after printing thousands of menus with text indicating customers could follow them on Twitter via @Dennys. Unfortunately, this name was already taken by an individual in Taiwan named Dennys Hsieh (their actual accounts are @DennysAllNightr & @DennysGrandSlam). To avoid a similar situation and properly acquire your company's brand name online, secure your usernames as soon as possible. The race to acquire domain names has now become a race to acquire your user identity on social media networks.

In April 2009, KnowEm? launched to help individuals and corporations secure their brand positioning on social media networks. They have helped reserve 350,000 profiles and can help companies spot misrepresentation of their brand. As social media networks get added to the web, KnowEm? will update their database to include them. As new sites pop up everyday you never know what will be the next big thing.

The site allows you to search for the availability of your username by category on over 400 social media sites. Some popular categories include Blogging, Bookmarking, Business, Microblogging, Music and Tech.

With the recent acquisition in January of competitor site Friendscall.me and the addition of Paige Craig and Brian Solis as advisors, I think individuals and businesses will be getting some good use of KnowEm. It is free to search through the database of sites and they offer premium profiles where they will create profiles for you. The prices are reasonable and it is a tactful preventative measure.  

KnowEm's Premium Profiles include:

Individual Plan ($99)

Signup initiation only (not full profiles) on 150 social media websites

Business Plan ($249)

Complete signup of all profile info: photos, bio, URL and description on 100 social media websites.  (this is their most popular plan)

Corporate Plan ($349)

Complete signup of all profile info: photos, bio, URL and description of 150 social media websites. (this includes 50 more social media sites than the Business Plan)

Enterprise Plan ($599)

Complete signup of all profile info: photos, bio, URL and description on 300 social media websites.

Comment and let me know if you have been using KnowEm? and what premium plan you have found most useful if any.