Take this as coming from someone who is a business owner, someone who is concerned about security and reputation but one big thing I have been doing lately is working on my "personal" branding by standardizing on a unique but descriptive user name, using the same photo everywhere as my avatar, etc.

Almost every time I hear of a significant social networking service or application I try to make a point of at least registering an account for that service to protect that user name. I know I can register for everything but I try to go "where the conversation is" and participate, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Forums and blogs.

In the early days of the Internet when being "anonymous" was a bit easier or when I was a newbie I would often ask really stupid questions but I realize how important it is to be me and to be the best "me" I can be. I want to be recognized for what I know, where I am from and who I know.

I'm also a be advocate of making an information I post as decriptive as possible. I'm talking about a semantic web where copy has very descriptive keywords as well as backend metadata. This also applies to photos, audio and video.