Ever feel like there’s too many cards in your wallet, or way too many accounts and passwords to remember online? You’re not alone. Even the most die-hard social media users experience registration fatigue and sometimes don’t want to sign up for “yet another account.” But if you have the right attitude and a simple system for managing all your personal social media accounts, you can dive deep into the social web without getting tangled in it:
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Set up a dedicated “social” e-mail account.
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Register early, before your name is taken.
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DO use the same username and picture everywhere.
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DON’T use the same password everywhere.
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Use automatic form-filling tools.
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Compile and print a physical “list of accounts”
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Embrace OpenID.
Once you’re signed up on lots of sites, you’ll start to get dozens of e-mail notifications per day, and it can feel like “spam overload” when mixed in with your personal messages. Therefore, I recommend setting up a dedicated social Gmail account just for site registration and notifications. I keep tabs on my “social e-mail account” with a POP e-mail reader that can easily be turned off when I’m working or don’t want to be distracted every time someone follows me on Twitter, etc.
As soon as you hear any genuine buzz about a new site, sign up for it right away – even if you don’t have the time or interest to explore it. This will make sure you get your choice of username, and it will start aging your account and making it look more legitimate when you get active. UsernameCheck is a handy tool that will show where your username is available and where it’s not. KnowEm offers a subscription service to automatically register your name on 120+ social sites.
People are blitzed with thousands of new online names and faces every month. Make it easy for people to remember you by using the same name and the same avatar (picture icon) on each site. This way you can carry the personal brand you build up on one site over to the others.
Social media accounts are increasingly valuable and they get hacked all the time. Therefore, it’s foolish to use the same password everywhere. I recommend using a simple password algorithm based on the individual site, something like: “first 4 letter of your name + last 3 letters in the sites name + a numeral showing the number of letters in the domain” or “last 3 letters of the domain spelled backwards twice, plus your favorite number” – this would deter all but the most die-hard cracker. Make sure you fill out the security question and pay special attention to security on valuable accounts like Google and Twitter.
Professional form-filling tools like RoboForm (Windows) or 1Password (OS X) automatically fill in your username, age, zip code, phone number, etc., — with a single click — when you register for a new site. (Plus they can also auto-generate a complex, unique password for each site and automatically enter it for you.)
Make a spreadsheet with all your social media passwords and logins… especially the “vital” stuff like system, router and hosting passwords. Store it securely on your computer and also keep a physical, printed hard copy. While you might not think you’ll need it, accidents and memory lapses happen over the years.
OpenId is a open-source protocol designed to greatly simplify registration and password hassles. You can log into a 3rd party site like Mixx using your Yahoo, Google or Facebook password. Using and supporting OpenID helps evolve the web past all these the “multiple account and password” headaches.
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