Hey guys! Welcome to Shama.TV. Often I get questions from the Ask Shama section, which is on the right side of the screen. So you can go click there and ask me your questions. One question I got was “Shama, I am a small business owner, should I come off as the business by using my business name when I network online, or should I use my personal name?” So I think for small businesses and for businesses in general we have to realize that people connect very well with other people. So if you have a small company where you know your clients on a first name basis, I would go ahead and use your name. Even if you have a big company, I’d still encourage you to teach your employees to use their name when networking online. The reason is because people like to connect with people. Think about yourself. When you are looking to connect, are you more comfortable with connecting with XYZ Consulting, or the person who works for XYZ consulting. Again, this is also a great strategy for when you are trying to brand yourself as the expert. You really want to build that brand around your name. Now that being said, you also want to have, where it’s appropriate, things under your business name. Facebook, for example, allows you pages where you can set up a business page. Even on Twitter you can have a personal account, and you can also have a business account for the sake of taking customer queries, dealing with customer service issues, or just making sure that the company itself is represented on Twitter. But I think my final, bottom-line recommendation here is use your name whenever possible because again, people want to connect with people.