subject: Every Username Is A Real Person [print this page] Every Username Is A Real Person Every Username Is A Real Person
If there is one thing that I've learned from writing on the web and partaking in a community of like-minded enthusiasts, it's the importance of creating an image of yourself and maintaining it in all aspects of your related online persona. As you become an active part of online communities and you start writing articles providing advice or suggestions and as you become a frequent user of forums or a commenter on other websites, the importance of being recognizable is vital. Very early on I set out to create a logo for my website. That logo turned into my avatar across multiple sites. Your avatar is the small icon that generally appears next to your name on blog comments, forum posts, etc. It's one of the easiest ways to help people readily identify you. Attached to that statement is the concept of using a unified username. Now you may not always have control over this. Sometimes you are forced to post with your real name, sometimes you can use a name of your choosing. But it's important that no matter what, you stay consistent. Spell your name in the same format, use the same username with the same spelling and capitalization. The human brain can easily recognize a familiar name and picture and can almost immediately identify if they know who you are. Then comes the part that actually takes work. Researching and verifying that what you want to say is correct. It seems to be a practice lost on many people in today's age of easily accessed information. And if you are part of a highly specialized community you can be absolutely sure that they will fact check you. Your statements will be verified, and woe unto the person who doesn't fact check. But if you take the time to write quality content, provide good information, and actively engage in the community, it will easily return itself in the form of views to your website, comments, Facebook "likes", retweets, and potential sales. It's hard to put a price on being a quality, contributing community personality. And if you don't think people on the Internet have personalities, you will be amazed as inflection, style, sarcasm, and wit become more apparent as you become more engaged with them. Just remember, even if you are writing online, people can see your intentions. They know if you are in it for no reason other than to make money. They know if your content is worth reading very quickly. And they will know if you are only interested in them as a number. Every Twitter follower, Facebook fan, RSS feed subscriber, or Blog commenter is a person who came to see what you had to say, share their opinions on what you said, or provide alternate thought processes. While some may only be there to try and cause grief or trouble, putting up with those people is worth it in order to continue to provide great content for your valuable readers.
