Some of you might be familiar with CheckUserNames, which was a service to check user name availability on popular sites throughout the Web, so you could use one name across several sites. Well, the site has revamped and renamed itself and is now KnowEm.
The new service is much more robust than its older counterpart, allowing you to brand your name (or business) across over 100 social media sites on the Web. Now you can not only instantly check to see if a name is available, but you can also register it quickly on a wide spectrum of sites.
Let’s face it, anyone who does any Web marketing, blogging, or freelancing on the ‘Net knows that social media marketing is where it’s at. It’s how you establish your identity, build a network of contacts, and otherwise promote yourself or your business on the Web. Trust me, we at VOIS are well aware of this fact.
So KnowEm’s new tool might be exactly what you need to do that in a much quicker rand easier way. It can take all day to go through 100+ social media sites like Digg, Twitter, Friendfeed, etc. just to see if a name is universally available. It can take even longer to sign up, set up a quick account, and secure that name on all those sites. That’s where KnowEm.com comes in.
Of course, the service comes at a price. Better, though, not only does it check for availability and set up your account for you, but it will monitor new sites as they are added to KnowEm and automatically register your name there too. Thus your brand won’t be subject to theft by someone—like a competitor or disgruntled employee.
Monthly subscriptions are only $9.95 and KnowEm claims to be “first in line” for many beta sites and brand new social media sites as well.
While the idea isn’t entirely new, the service is definitely worth the money for those who have a real interest in securing their brand. Large companies like Coca-Cola and Nike pay salaries to marketers just to do this same thing. I guarantee they’re paying more than $10/month.
If the service can keep afloat (it’s just started under the new guise), I think it could catch on and be extremely useful. Checking username availability is still free, of course.
