Do what is most comfortable for you... I am myself at google, FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, etc... Personally, I think you are just perfect as you are.. don't want to use your name? then, be Spiritrocker everywhere... I like that name, it is easy to remember and creates curiosity about the name choice... great way to break the ice and start a conversation... Julie

I forget so many things so easily when I'm working hard that I couldn't possibly remember my aliases so I went with my real name. So far my email is occupied with WA notices and family matters and a minimum of unsolicited stuff from people who pick up the address from ??? But my face wouldn't fit into that tiny box. Best wishes, Jakoba

I've always been me when writing and on social network sites. My reasoning is that every relationship is built on trust whether it's business or personal. If there is no trust then there is no relationship and so no business as I wouldn't be making sales, etc..

But having said that, keeping the same name across everything is important for branding - could you imagine John Wayne or Elton John as anything but those names? You can still build trust and relationships with a brand name.

The choice is yours as to whether to be the real person or the brand but the important thing is to be consistent.

Great post, and something I pondered as well. Ultimately, I asked myself.... What would I be hiding from?? I have nothing to hide, I'm not on any "most wanted" lists (that I know of), and I want to be recognized as an authority within my niche. I've also noticed that about 90+ or more of the folks I follow on FB, G+, Twitter, etc, use their full name. This also applies to well known bloggers & authors who I follow. Many of them have industry certifications, medical credentials, or whatever, so I'm fairly certain they are using their real names.

My thought is, for your primary niche where you want to be the authority -- use your real identity. Then, if you plan to create a bunch of other side niches, that you don't particularly care to be directly associated with, come up with a pseudonym for those.

Hey -- do we REALLY know if Carson & Kyle are using their real names?? Hmmmmm????? :)

I have no issue with using my full name. That's just who I am, and I've never been worried about being stalked or whatever people do with their spare time.

A question on my mind as well SR.

I guess when I was growing up, big brother was something we were very concerned about. Now my kids & their generation give out their info to whoever wants to have a squiz. They embrace transparency. I'm still a little wary, not sure for good reasons though. This link may give you a laugh (my daughter's class was shown this in school last week) ->

http://goo.gl/AklL42


I did hide virtually rather well until recently. My Facebook page is not in my real name etc. Trying to come to grips with the social networking thing, preparing to be Google hummingbird friendly, and appearing approachable & trustworthy online, started slowly but surely to encourage me to expose my identity online.

I think I've passed the center of this see-saw, it is certainly harder (impossible) to retract than to add. I'm putting more personal data out there & attempting to feel comfortable with it. Though also know how easy it is to get that data by parties you intended not to have access.

I once worked in a high level security server room with police/hospital/forces/bank/public infrastructure data etc. Every now and then we did training on network security and the like. Man, some scary stuff, I'd tell everyone I knew at the time (~10 yrs ago) to close all their social network accounts & never post anything online....Seems paranoid to me now.

Very interested in comments to follow in this post, will be keeping a close watch ;)

Thanks SR.....

I've often asked myself that question. I use my real name on most of my content. YesSharon is not my real name. It is a combination of a business I created (Youth Exploring Science) and my first name. For my Content, Google + and Facebook, I use my real name . Would my friends and family want to call me something else?

If you are feeling uncomfortable using your real name then choose a good pen name. In the long run it may be the better choice. No matter what we call you - your still you.

As the other say - it's a personal choice. I didn't hide my identity - but plenty of people do (like Rich). Kyle chose to be the face of his brand and be him.

I would say that's a personal choice. What I can say is that I use my full name and out of the 573 people I am following on Google+ and the 162 on Facebook, 80-90% are using their full names.

I prefer to be me and not to live in fear. So far I've had no spam, no tons of emails, no problems. - The choice is yours.

I don't think it would make a difference...as long as your building awesome content, helping people and ranking in google - you could be called Elvis lol