There’s now a ton of social media sites to sign up for, more than anyone can ever use. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still create an account. Who’s to say which site will be the next Facebook or Twitter? And when that time arrives, don’t you want to own your brand?

I just came across a site (thanks to the Bivings Report) that will check your chosen username across various sites (I counted 68 today, but they’re adding more) such as Flickr, Friendfeed, even eBay, and tell you if it’s available. It’s a good thing to check with both your own name (if you’re interested in owning it across the Internet) and your magazine’s name. If you haven’t done so already, sign up for as many of the popular sites as you can using the name of your magazine, even if you don’t plan to use it right away or perhaps ever – if you don’t do it now, it might be unavailable when you do want it. And above all, keep a list of the sites, usernames and passwords somewhere in the office where the next person to take an interest in such things can find it, if you ever leave.

Otherwise, when the next big site hits the mainstream, you may end up joining it as CanMag12345.