AJ Vaynerchuk

Personal Brand Consistency is something I definitely believe in. Being able to mark yourself with a single “handle” or “screen name” across multiple platforms allows for your readers/fans/consumers to find and identify you with ease. Unfortunately, this concept is easier said than done. For example, I am completely aware that my personal brand consistency online STINKS.

My email is aj [at] vaynermedia.com

My twitter handle is @ajv

My Facebook vanity URL is /ajvaynerchuk

This website is ajvaynerchuk.com

Now the question is: “why is my personal brand consistency so bad?”

The first issue: my last name is hard to spell. If I had an easy last name like smith, everything would be “ajsmith,” but since Vaynerchuk is constantly spelled incorrectly, I decided going with “ajvaynerchuk” would be a losing proposition.

The next issue: keeping it short is always nice. You want your “handle” to be easy to remember and easy to spell out / type. I used “ajvchuk” for a bit, but realized people would still insert a “c” before the “k.” So on Twitter, I managed to snag “@ajv” - I thought ajv would be a great handle to use, 3 letters and represents my name.

So now I had “@ajv” and figured that would be something I could run with for the time being. My main goal is to eventually get to a simple “aj” brand - that’s why my email is currently the way it is. When Facebook announced vanity URL’s - it was going to be my mission to log in on that Friday night and grab “/aj.”

Big snag: Facebook needed every handle to be at least 5 characters!

The lack of consistency between online services is directly correlated to the difficulties of maintaining personal brand consistency. If Facebook followed Twitter’s guidelines I could have obtained either “/aj” or “/ajv” and be well on my way to honing in on my goals. Instead, I am stuck with protecting my full name on Facebook and the proposition that I may have to rethink the future of my “handle.”

Are you consistent with your personal brand and screen names? Did Facebook throw you for a loop? If you have an answer to those questions, or any other thoughts, I’d love to read it in the comments section!