What if you are online with several different names (e.g. nicknames, formal name, etc.)?
One of the first steps in building a consistent personal brand is to decide what name you want to go by, and it which parts of your life. If you want to truly keep your professional brand separate from your personal life, you could decide to use two different names, one for professional things (Linkedin profile and perhaps Twitter), and a different name for personal things (like Facebook). However, if these two names are similar enough to each other, your “personal” name probably will be discovered by a recruiter who searches for your “professional” name. So my suggestion is to think deliberately about what you want to be out on the internet and for what reason. Ideally, if you decide you want to make your personal brand consistent, you will need to choose a specific name and go by that in all your future discussions, use it for your Twitter handle and blog name, your personal website, etc.
Heather Krasna, PhD & Associates 