Purchasing a domain name for your home staging business is only one part of claiming your company name on the Internet.

You should also go to the popular social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and ActiveRain and set up accounts/profiles in your business name. Even if you’re not going to use those accounts right now, you must claim your name while it’s still available. Otherwise it will surely be gone when you go to grab it later.

Here’s some proof with an example from Staging Diva Graduate, Susan Hollandof Fresh Insight. She wisely secured her company’s Twitter identity long before she was ready to be an active Twitter user.

This meant no one else could use it, as someone with a business of the same name in Australia soon discovered after trying to secure the Twitter name Fresh Insight for his own business months later.

Noticing that the Fresh Insight Twitter account wasn’t active, and was only following me, he guessed that I might know who it was (Susan had not put her own name or contact information on the account). So, he contacted me asking if I knew the owner and could encourage them to give up the name.

Of course, I replied that I couldn’t help him since my loyalty is to my students. The point is, that had Susan waited until she was ready to start using Twitter to grab “Fresh Insight,” this other gentleman would have already been using it and she’d have had to come up with something different.

That’s the thing about the Internet, and especially Social Networking sites, you’re not only competing for names with everyone else in your location but also worldwide!

Take a few minutes now to set up your accounts while this is fresh in your mind. It doesn’t cost anything, but you’ll be glad you took the time to do it. And while you’re there, I’d love it if you connect with me at these locations in social media:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
ActiveRain

Here’s another piece of related news, members of the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers can now include social media icons in their Profile Listings with links to their profiles in social media. This is a NEW FREE benefit for anyone who has committed to the Directory for a year.

Wondering what to do with Twitter and how it can grow your business?

I’ve written a guide especially for home stagers filled with marketing ideas for building your business on this free service. Check out the Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter: Building your home staging business one “tweet” at a time.