Businesses and people often times rush to a decision when defining their online brand. Worse yet, sometimes branding is not even considered when creating a Social Media presence. This can lead to serious problems in the future especially with Twitter. Let’s explore how to properly change your Twitter username and why it is so important to follow this process.

Humans are naturally competitive so I know there are thousands of Twitter Users that wonder how their account compares to accounts of friends or other Tweeters living in their location. Well there just happens to be a solution out there that ranks Twitter accounts based upon total followers. Twitaholic ranks Twitter accounts using only one metric; total followers. This is completely different from Klout which measures your online influence by calculating numerous variables.

I enjoy Twitter because the community sharing aspect, and I follow as many people as possible. When I recognize someone as consistently sharing high quality content I diligently add them to a subject matter list so I can easily parse their tweets  from the thousands in my general Twitter feed.

I have been part of the LinkedIn community since late 2006, and as a community junkie I try to utilize every aspect of LinkedIn. One huge advantage LinkedIn provides is your network of contacts. You can use this vast network to land a job interview even in this difficult economic climate. Are you wondering how is this possible? So what I have 500+ connections how are they going to help?

Microsoft Windows releases a monthly newsletter called Springboard Series Insider. This is a vastly popular online publication targeting IT Pros and anyone interested in Windows. The newsletter provides the following knowledge for their subscribers:

Klout is one of many popular tools that will help you determine your overall online influence. Klout is widely respected amongst the Social Media community and business world. In fact advertisers are looking at powerful influencers as vehicles to deliver their client’s message instead of traditional print means. Also, some businesses are rewarding their customers with strong Klout scores because those individuals are more likely to shout a positive message about their experience. The Palms in Las Vegas has hosted special events for guests with high Klout scores. So there is a rush to improve your Klout score and presence on the Internet.

A Social Media related measuring tool has been released by MyCareerWeb.com. Their solution helps you review your “professional online brand” by mining data from your social networks. Essentially, the tool will scrape your social network activity and provides detailed analysis about your presence and conduct on the Internet. So if you love drunk posting  or cursing like a sailor on Facebook or Twitter this might be a good tool to utilize before applying for that dream job. After hooking in your social networks the tool might provide comments like this one: