Screen Printers Open - A Forum for Screen Printing and Embroidery

I didn't realize that your screen name was as important as it is until I read some of the post here. So I have changed my screen name to that of my company (asdprints). Now what else am I missing?

I chose my first name for the reason mentioned. And it was available. We tend to talk openly here. Sometimes forgetting that a google search will bring up every post.

Besides after a while everyone will know who you are by your first name, using your company name is unnecessary.

Ok, I am missing something here. I thought I read preston and johnny talking about using your company name to help drive traffic to your website. Should I use my old user name and just post my company name in the posts themselves? Sorry for being so daft, but I am new and could use some advise. Thanks

I am just curious, how many of you actually use your company name as your screen name?

You are correct that using your company name as a screen name will help you show up in the searches. If there are things you wish to say that you do not ever want your customers to know about then use the spoiler function or post it in one of the secured boards.

For me, I just use a first name because I do not promote our business on the web looking for retail customers. Our shop is 99.99% contract and we actually hide from retail customers as much as we can.

The forum is a tool that can be used to shoot the shit or promote your company. Your choice, or you can do both. The reason the forum can be used to promote is because google and other search engines index the heck of of this site and put a high relevance on those indexes. #1 rule of promoting your business on the web is get your company name on as many forums as you can and participate on those forums. If you post a lot then google thinks highly of you. If you do not then google says "ok, thats nice, now what is interesting around here" and just moves on.

If you are worried about your customers reading something that may keep them away from you then you should not be on any forums in the first place. If I were any of you that are looking for retail customers I would be posting my ass off and making sure my company contact info was in their face when they clicked on the search link to come here. The only thing I would never discuss in a board that the public could read is pricing and how we derive it.

Just think of it like this. Why on earth would you even think of putting your company on Facebook if you are afraid to put it on a forum? That just does not make sense to me. Your customers can find enough negative stuff about your company on facebook or twitter if there is anything to find. If you think it is safe because you can control what is on Facebook or twitter then you are sadly mistaken.

And then there are those who use fictitious screen names so their customers will not know who they are if they come here and then at the same time have links and things to their company site in their signature. That really makes sense.. Yea, right..