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  1. #1
    Mike Phillips
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    Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Copyright ©PBMA - AutogeekOnline.net® All Rights Reserved


    Here's some free advice that I use myself and have found it to be immeasurably beneficial at least in my own circumstances.

    If you're into detailing as a business or even a serious hobby for the long run, then either brand your name or brand your business name and when you choose a business name, see if you can work your real name into your business name and that way you'll be branding both.

    My name is Mike Phillips and on all discussion forums I belong to I use my real name. I don't post anything that I would not want other's to see or read so I don't have anything to hide or keep secret. I've never had my identity stolen, (knock on cyber-wood), and I've never had any problems on any forum related to using my real name.

    My main website is called ShowCarGarage.com and without trying much I've also branded it, at least in the online detailing world.

    In the Cyberworld, on detailing discussion forums, your forum buddies get to know you by your forum nickname whether it's your real name or not, but in the real world where you make your money, nobody knows who FuzzyBunny77 is and nobody's ever going to know or care who FuzzyBunny77 is, so to some degree, investing your time posting under a cute nickname like FuzzyBunny77 or fill in the blank doesn't ever really help you, especially if you're in this for the long run.

    Because you use your real name in the real world, it can only help to use your real name or a portion of it in the online world, not always but it depends upon how you market yourself and your business and discussion forums can be great ways to get new business. The problem is that non- forum people, (a portion of your customer base, maybe even the largest segment of it), may find it difficult to relate to you in the forum world and the last thing you want to do is make it hard for your customer to relate to you and recommend you to their friends.

    Here's an example,


    Hi Mr. Smith, Mike Phillips here, thank you for calling and I would be happy to swing by your house and give you an estimate to detail your Yugo.


    Mr. Smith can relate to you as a person in the real world and then later if you somehow introduce him to your online presence he will still know and UNDERSTAND who you on online, or if he found you online first he can easily relate to you and associate a real name with you in the real world.

    That doesn't work as well if you go by a forum nickname. It's not to say that you can't brand a nickname as you certainly can, but it will take longer, it will require more work on your part and it will never have as much impact as meeting people in person and having to try to explain who you are via your nickname in the online world.


    Your name as a forum name, business name and domain name
    This would also apply if your forum nickname is your business name or if you have worked your real name into your business name. Here's a few examples of people that have worked their real name into their business name,

    Nickname - Real Name - Business name + Website name
    Scottwax = Scot Hair = Scottwax.com
    Jimmy Buff-it's Auto Detailing = Jim Schliebner = Jimmybuffit.com
    Nick's Custom Detailing = Nick Chapman = Nickscustomdetailing.com


    See how they all tie together seamlessly?


    They brand themselves, (their real name), their forum name and their business name.


    If you're reading this article and you're in the detailing business for the long run, (I am), then consider the above when choosing a,

    • Forum Nickname
    • Business Name
    • Domain Name



    If you do good work and you take pride in your work, then brand yourself...


    Here's an interesting and true story,
    One time while doing a Half & Half, Before & After for an upcoming Miata club, I was in the Meguiar's Garage around 11:00pm on a week night buffing out just one half of two Miata's for the event, a black one and a red one.

    No one was around as it was way past closing time and the garage doors were closed. Because I was running a rotary buffer I never heard the garage door go up or down in the next garage over so when Barry Meguiar walked into the garage it caught me by surprise.

    He had just returned from the John Wayne airport after returning from a trip overseas to visit many of Meguiar's overseas Business Partners and usually these were the prime distributors for a specific countries.

    He asked me what I was doing? I said, buffing out a couple of cars for a car show for a before and after, side-by-side demonstration.

    He said, very good. He then turned to walk down the hall that leads to some stairs to his office when he turned and said,

    By the way, I just returned from an overseas trip where I probably visited around 20 international distributors and at least half of them told me to,

    "Say hello to Mike Phillips" .

    (This also caught me by surprise).

    My take on his comment was that it may have caught him off guard because he probably didn't realize at that time, how strong my reach was into the car enthusiasts market through my articles on the MeguiarsOnline.com discussion forum since at that time it was still fairly new. This would be back in the spring of 2005.

    In the bigger picture of Meguiar's Corporate structure, I was a long ways down the food chain from upper management and certainly of no regard in the hierarchy of that business that I should have received any recognition from very diverse people around the world.
    The point being, my name was known or branded by my posts on a discussion forum and I honestly don't think it would have meant much, or had as much value had I been using a forum nickname like FuzzyBunny77 or Speeder88, or fill-in-the-blank.

    If you're reading this and you're using a forum nickname that is undecipherable to just about anyone but yourself, AND you would like to change your forum nickname to something that has more value and is more brandable, you can usually send a polite request to most Forum Admins asking for the change and I know at least in my experience, I would always accommodate the request and change their name for them. You don't lose your post count and now all your past posts and future posts will be branded with your new name.

    Here's a brand for you and an end to this article...

    Just do it!


    Related Thread
    How to choose a name for your detailing business


  2. Thanks Jacob Harrod AUTOCLEAN thanked for this post
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  3. #2
    Super Member VR8's Avatar
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike.Phillips@Autogeek View Post
    If you're reading this and you're using a forum nickname that is undecipherable to just about anyone but yourself, AND you would like to change your forum nickname to something that has more value and is more brandable, you can usually send a polite request to most Forum Admins asking for the change and I know at least in my experience, I would always accommodate the request and change their name for them. You don't lose your post count and now all your past posts and future posts will be branded with your new name.
    Man oh man are the forum admins gonna hate that you just said that!

    Great thread of advice Mike.

  4. #3
    Mike Phillips
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Quote Originally Posted by VR8 View Post

    Man oh man are the forum admins gonna hate that you just said that!
    Actually, the number of people that ever take action on a suggestion like this is usually so negligible that it's nothing to worry about.

    I've shared this idea with a lot of people in the forum world over the years, most people don't want to use their real names in any way, shape or fashion and that's understandable.

    My good friend Nick Chapman is a good example of someone that took the advice and now he has a fairly well recognized name, his forum name use to be some type of "airplane reference", it was n737nc and I kept telling him no one would ever be able to remember it, recognize it or say it.





    I won't take credit for convincing either of the below friends of mine to brand their real names but I do remember having conversations with them about it.

    Kevin Brown started out as iamwaxman on the forums and now goes by Kevin Brown





    And I don't remember that Renny ever used a forum nickname on the forums I've seen him posting to but he also goes by his real name and he too has a stellar reputation in the detailing world.






    One thing I've learned for sure though is good branding has value in a good way and bad branding has value in a bad way... always try to brand in a good way...


    I also recommended this to other online detailing personalities, at least one guy tried it for a while and then switched back, I never knew why though?



  5. #4
    Super Member TLMitchell's Avatar
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike.Phillips@Autogeek View Post
    My name is Mike Phillips and on all discussion forums I belong to I use my real name. I don't post anything that I would not want other's to see or read so I don't have anything to hide or keep secret.


    I do the same on Forums, e-mail addresses... the works... for similar yet different reasons. Back in the days of Compuserve you were identifiable and accountable for what you posted. Then with the advent of any number of online services and the explosion of the WWW it became fashinable to become anonymous and spout all kinds of flames and crud. I believe if you're going to open your yap or post something you ought to have enough belief in your words to put your name on them and be accountable, simple as that. I get tired of all the "FuzzyBunnies" hiding in the ether behind their cowardly anonymity after spouting crap.

    My $.02.

    Does this make me "branded"?

    TL

  6. #5
    360Detail.com Kris R's Avatar
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    As soon as I get through my New business name dilema I will be doing just this.

    Thanks Mike. I sure hope they learn how to download brain data soon because I'd pay for a 100TB hard drive full of your knowledge and insight!

    Kris R
    Kris R
    360detail.com

  7. #6
    Regular Member
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Awesome write up! I think I'll be doing this, too. Don't have a detailing business, but I've thought about it...Plus I already have a name picked out!

  8. #7
    Super Member Shane731's Avatar
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Quote Originally Posted by Clutch34 View Post
    Awesome write up! I think I'll be doing this, too. Don't have a detailing business, but I've thought about it...Plus I already have a name picked out!
    Same here. I don't really want to change my user name, but I do have a name in mind for a detailing business that I feel is unique.
    Shane
    2021 Honda Civic Hatchback EX Lunar Silver

  9. #8
    Junior Member Mark Preus's Avatar
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Ive always used my name so I could build up a reputation just off of my name.

  10. #9
    Regular Member
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    Quote Originally Posted by CieraSL View Post
    Same here. I don't really want to change my user name, but I do have a name in mind for a detailing business that I feel is unique.
    I hope it's not similar to what I'm thinking... lol

  11. #10
    Junior Member Sal's Avatar
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    Re: Brand Yourself, Brand your Forum Nickname and Brand your Business Name

    This is some great advice and for free...priceless. Thanks Mike!

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