Posting your real name in *any* forum ...

Agnieszka

Hi there.

Just a side note ... but thought it is a "worthy" one

Watch out with listing your REAL name / website in your signature / avatar ... or wherever you put it. Your brides will most likely google you before they sign a contract with you, and they will find your name on here and .... depending on the thread you don't want your name to be found :thumb

This is not about not being proud of what you say or do. Business is business, and private stuff should be kept private :thumb

I am alllll for linking your name in your signature (in fact I'd encourage it), but I'd recommend just LINKING it. If you don't know how to do that (11th icon on the second row - "insert link" right above the text field) shoot me a PM.

My 2 cents. :lust

mmmatt

Agnieszka wrote:

Hi there.

Just a side note ... but thought it is a "worthy" one

Watch out with listing your REAL name / website in your signature / avatar ... or wherever you put it. Your brides will most likely google you before they sign a contract with you, and they will find your name on here and .... depending on the thread you don't want your name to be found

This is not about not being proud of what you say or do. Business is business, and private stuff should be kept private

I am alllll for linking your name in your signature (in fact I'd encourage it), but I'd recommend just LINKING it. If you don't know how to do that (11th icon on the second row - "insert link" right above the text field) shoot me a PM.

My 2 cents.

Real full name you mean right? People not signing there real name is a pet peve of mine. It is all about me, right? As for my website, I guess that never occurred to me. I just googled and came up with a couple of threads here. I guess I'll make it a crappy old link.

Matt

Agnieszka

mmmatt wrote:

Real full name you mean right? People not signing there real name is a pet peve of mine. It is all about me, right? As for my website, I guess that never occurred to me. I just googled and came up with a couple of threads here. I guess I'll make it a crappy old link.

Matt

Yeah ... "real, full name ..." I'd go with either just a nickname, or the first name + link

GeneralZod

Great Tip!
Thanks for the tip. Great one.

Fake Namer
GeneralZod

Agnieszka wrote:

Hi there.

Just a side note ... but thought it is a "worthy" one

Watch out with listing your REAL name / website in your signature / avatar ... or wherever you put it. Your brides will most likely google you before they sign a contract with you, and they will find your name on here and .... depending on the thread you don't want your name to be found

This is not about not being proud of what you say or do. Business is business, and private stuff should be kept private

I am alllll for linking your name in your signature (in fact I'd encourage it), but I'd recommend just LINKING it. If you don't know how to do that (11th icon on the second row - "insert link" right above the text field) shoot me a PM.

My 2 cents.

ChatKat

Old!
I have always been aware of that fact that you are on a public forum and if you do a lot of SEO your clients are going to find you. Don't whisper in public if you don't want to be heard.

mmmatt

ChatKat wrote:

I have always been aware of that fact that you are on a public forum and if you do a lot of SEO your clients are going to find you. Don't whisper in public if you don't want to be heard.

you realize that by goggling your website as listed in your siggy that it brings you to dgrin about 1/2 way down the page right?

Matt

Agnieszka

ChatKat wrote:

I have always been aware of that fact that you are on a public forum and if you do a lot of SEO your clients are going to find you. Don't whisper in public if you don't want to be heard.

Well .. I'm just saying. We also have a lot of newbies on here. And one might love & be very proud of a first wedding shoot, but some months or years down the road you might prefer that nobody ever sees those photos again.

I'm not saying that with anybody particular in mind, but it might look very unprofessional in certain cases ... Anyway .... my 2 cents, .... take it ... or don't.

ChatKat

Yes!
That's what I said. You might want to think about what you say and show online and don't say anything you don't want to broadcast to the world - friends, enemies, and clients.

Everything you do and say - even as far as going to the grocery store, the gym and the car wash reflect who you are. People hire you for who you are or who you are not.

People talk about your business practices all the time. It's a very small world. For example I was shooting a Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting/new member event. The host business had a friend come who was a photographer shoot the event. I am the official photographer for the Chamber. I asked him nicely at the beginning to please not shoot over my shoulder because I have specific shots that the newspaper and the chamber ask me to do. He didn't care and actually pushed me out of the way while I was shooting. Everyone saw and commented and were astounded how rude he was. I turned to him and said something nicely again, stepped aside, bowed to him and smiled allowing him to get his shots.. Not only did that business lose business because they aren't getting the publicity, the link on my website but that photographer also will not get one job from his behavior. I booked two sessions from being there and how I behaved.

Same thing goes here. How you act, post and behave shows your personality, how you conduct business. Class never goes out of style.

Mox

It's good advice, Angie. Thank you. I noticed a couple of months ago that googling my business name brought up links to dgrin, so I changed my link. Happily, this site is re-indexed regularly.

My name is weird enough, too, that I don't like to sign it just in case - sorry, Matt. It's easy to find via my link - I'm not hiding anything!

BizShotz

Or, you could just not say anything on the internet that would compromise your obviously outstanding character.....;)


I can promise you that filtering your thoughts and posts (in your brain) takes on a whole new level of importance if you are trying to create your place in the business world. Internet websites and forums such as this one are anything but "private."

just a thought.

Mox

I agree completely. But this has been a good source of information and critique as I start out. It's not a problem for people to see that I've had tax and marketing questions, or have looked to improve my work through feedback, but I'd prefer that my website be found first.

ChatKat

Dgrin

Mox wrote:

I agree completely. But this has been a good source of information and critique as I start out. It's not a problem for people to see that I've had tax and marketing questions, or have looked to improve my work through feedback, but I'd prefer that my website be found first.

I can tell you that I have booked work because of my involvement here.

coldclimb

I'm on the transparency bandwagon, I use the same nick everywhere and it's openly attached to my name, and I really like that people can find me very easily. The only "coldclimb" on the internet that isn't me is a fake account from someone else mocking me on an obscure climbing site, and if you google either me or my nick, I'm right up near the top, filling the pages.

There is a certain pride in having nothing to hide.

FedererPhoto

ChatKat wrote:

I can tell you that I have booked work because of my involvement here.

... and I have booked work due to my involvement on other sites like this one.

I very much agree - either completely hide who you are (no links, no first names, no nothing) and post things you are ashamed of ... or be open about who you are. I don't think anyone is going to not hire you for being open, helpful, kind, and passionate on a photography web forum.

I'm kind of of the persuasion that if I'm typing something on the internet that I don't want my clients to see -- maybe I shouldn't be typing it at all. There are possibly exceptions to that rule, such as pricing or "how do I deal with client situation X" .... but there are forums that keep information off google if you have a need to ask those kinds of questions. But to be honest, even those, if you aren't a shiester, simply show you are trying to do best by your clients and business -- and I hardly think anyone will ever fault you for that.

fcorin13

I go by different "names" depending on what I'm participating in. See, I'm a photographer, but I'm also a mom, a blogger, a video game player. Each of those aspects of me (while linked in real life) are not linked on the internet. Do I really want my future photography clients to know that I used to play Ragnarok Online? Not really because it's not their business nor does it affect my photography (except maybe I could be really creative on photographing a video game playing senior or something!). I have 3 different "names" that I go by online depending on what I'm participating in. My photography name is (obviously) fcorin13, but the other 2 names I go by are different. It just helps to keep things separate & "applicable". Just like I don't have my photography clients on my personal Facebook page. They are interested in my photography, not my personal life!

Just the same, though, I do think that it's important to never put anything online (especially attached to your name) that you wouldn't be proud of in person.

Scott_Quier

Agnieszka wrote:

Hi there.

Just a side note ... but thought it is a "worthy" one

Watch out with listing your REAL name / website in your signature / avatar ... or wherever you put it. Your brides will most likely google you before they sign a contract with you, and they will find your name on here and .... depending on the thread you don't want your name to be found

This is not about not being proud of what you say or do. Business is business, and private stuff should be kept private

I am alllll for linking your name in your signature (in fact I'd encourage it), but I'd recommend just LINKING it. If you don't know how to do that (11th icon on the second row - "insert link" right above the text field) shoot me a PM.

My 2 cents.

Interesting POV. I do agree that this is something potential new forum members need to think about before they sign up.

I carefully considered this when I registered here and I elected to use my full name as my nickname and then include my name (but not full name) in my signature with the intent and purpose to make it easier for potential (and past) clients to find my posts. But part of the reasoning is that my purpose and intent is/was to make each post helpful to someone.

I am a member of another forum not related to photography and there my nickname is not Scott_Quier or anything close to it.

Kevin Kramer

mmmmaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn....

can i change my name?? :cry