Online identity is becoming as important as your offline identity. If you are not living in stone age you will be on one of those social networks which mainly forms your identity. All those user names become part of your digital identity.

As of today, You meet most of your online business partners on Facebook¹.  You share the stuff with your friends and family. Your friends or partners search on Facebook to get your mobile number. Even Google (or any) search for you leads to your Facebook profile².  What does that mean to you and me? Facebook will own all your digital identity.With 250 million profiles online, Facebook is on its way to become online identity hub.

What happens if you are removed from their network all of a sudden? You are lost. Your friends, family and business partners are lost. A place where you were supposed to hang out fun has become your main identity. Now you are not allowed enter that place.

So what do I do?
Simple. Own a domain. Develop your domain as your identity. A domain can take various forms in various kinds of online transaction, but it will remain your center of identity. With your own domain name, YOU own your online Identity. Its worth spending $10/year.

Use social networks only for networking and meeting friends. Bring your friends from social networks to your site. I would like to be known as thejeshgn.com online than @thej on twitter. ²

1. I have taken Facebook as an example because it is the biggest social network today. It can apply to any online social network.Last few days there has been a buzz about vanity urls on Facebook. Some are happy and some arent that happy. All these buzz forced me to write this post.

2. Now you know why I am so serious about ego searches.