In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet famously asks, “What’s in a name?” She argues that it is the person who matters, not an arbitrary label (like Romeo). That’s love.
And yet, over 400 years later, I’ve discovered the opposite: that for online networking, your preferred name is not arbitrary – it’s critical to your brand.
I know this because I failed LinkedIn Profile 101. Networking sites thrive on specificity, and on a whim, I naively switched from Larry, my nickname, to Lawrence, my birth name.
And so began the rolling disaster. As a marketer with branding experience, I should have seen it coming. Bad on me.
Immediately, all references to “Larry” disappeared. Not so bad, I thought, even though that’s how I refer to myself.
Then, I noticed that acquaintances – both new and old – began to address me as Lawrence. More than one person asked if I’d changed my name. It was awkward.
To compound the issue, the messaging autofill suggestions, now rife with Lawrence references (“Thanks, Lawrence!”, “A pleasure to meet you, Lawrence”), reinforced the new standard. It all felt overly formal.
And worst of all, without intention, I had erected a barrier for friends and recruiters who were searching to find Larry Goldman. “It’s still me!” I shouted into the ether.
Flailing but stubborn, I tried the preferred name feature that put Larry in parenthesis in the middle of my profile name. No one noticed and nothing changed.
Last week, I admitted defeat and switched the profile back to Larry. I’ve never felt more myself. As someone who is regularly confused with his identical twin, that’s saying something.
What I should have remembered is the power of brand consistency. In marketing, your product name is shorthand for the entire customer experience – your brand. Done right, it’s all you need to evoke an emotional connection. Modifying a product name is always risky and complicated.
The same apparently goes for networking. Unwittingly, I had undermined my established human brand and “caused confusion and delay,” to quote the venerable Sir Topham Hatt.
I appreciate the lesson. When people work with you, link with you, or meet you at events, they know only your social name. If they like you, then that positive sentiment accrues under that name, not a variant of it.
But I still wonder: what to do when you like both your formal and preferred names? If you have found a viable solution, let me know.
For now, I remain your friend, Larry.