Debra Mastaler’s Grab Your Profile Link Before Some Jerk Does points out almost the obvious, but when you think about it, many brands don’t bother with it. I cannot express enough how important it is for you to secure your brand name on all the major social sites and communities, espesially those that may have an impact on your brand.

For example, do you think Paris Hilton secured twitter.com/parishilton or did some savvy web marketer grab it and is using it to promote their own site? But it can get bad or evil even. If someone who hates you grabs your profile and uses it against you, it can get nasty. So it is very important to try to grab all your social networking profiles and register them, even if you don’t bother using them.

Which profiles do I recommend you obtain?
DiggDeliciousTwitterPlurkLinkedinFlickrFacebookYouTubeGmail accountYahoo ProfileMSN profileFriendFeedBeboMyBlogLogMySpaceNetscapePownceStumbleUponNiche social sites (aka Sphinn)

I am sure I am missing some, but you should seriously consider securing your brands, names, products, trademarks and so on at these sites.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.