A name appears in three places: the domain, the social profiles and the email addresses. When they match, customers find you without effort. When they differ, you spend money on explaining.
Think of the customer who hears about you at a stall or on a podcast. They have a name in their head and no spelling. They will try it in a search box, in the address bar and in an app. The closer those three attempts come to the same answer, the more of those people turn into visitors.
Three places, one name
The aim is not an identical string everywhere, which is rarely possible, but a recognisable core. If the domain is example.com, the best case is a profile at @example and mail at [email protected]. A near miss, such as @example_uk, is acceptable if it is consistent across platforms. A mismatch on every channel is the one to avoid.
Check before you settle
Before you settle, check the main handles for your name on the platforms your audience uses. Do it before buying the domain, not after. A business customer base may live on one professional network and a video platform. A consumer shop may care about two image-led apps. Pick the three or four that matter and ignore the rest.
If your first choice is taken on one, consider a name that is free on all. That sounds extreme until you count the cost of living for years with a handle that is not quite yours. Look at who holds the name: a dormant account with no posts may be reclaimable under the platform's policy, a competitor probably is not, and an unrelated business with the same name tells you that you will meet each other in search results forever.
Check the rules of each platform too. Length limits, allowed characters and whether underscores or dots are permitted differ, and a name that fits on one may not fit on another.
Email on your own domain from day one
Use your domain for email from day one; a business card with a free webmail address sends a message of its own. It suggests that nobody has got round to it, and for some buyers, particularly in trades where trust matters, it counts against you.
It is also cheap. Mail on your own domain usually costs a few pounds per mailbox per month, or comes with your hosting plan. The domain is already paid for. Set up the address you will print on materials first, then aliases for the others. Role addresses such as hello@, support@ and billing@ can all forward to one inbox until you have staff to read them separately.
See the earlier piece on email in this series for authentication records, and the SPF builder for the first one.
When the name you want is already taken
It will happen. The usual options are to add a word, to change the spelling or to choose another name altogether. Each has a cost. A prefix such as "get" or "try" is common and so generic that it dilutes the brand. A deliberately misspelt name means people type the wrong version. Adding your location works for local trades and fails when you grow.
Whichever you choose, apply it to all three places at once. A business that is example.com on the web, @example on one platform and @example_shop on another is making visitors guess. Write the final form down in one place, along with the platforms where it is registered, and give that document to anyone who sets up a new account for you.
Finally, search for the name as a whole. If a famous business shares it, you will spend your life behind them in results, however many handles you hold.
Claim defensively, use selectively
Claim the handles on platforms you might use even if you do not plan to post yet. An empty profile with a link to your site is better than a squatter's. Be aware that some platforms remove inactive accounts, so a placeholder may need an occasional login.
Register the common variations on the domain side too, but see the piece on how many domains to own before you go mad. Trademark rights help here as well. If you hold a registered mark, most platforms have a route for recovering a handle that infringes it.