That’s right, after 3 years of being SharePointBen, I’m working on discontinuing SharePointBen and moving back to BenStegink. The 5 key points as to why are below if you want to keep reading. Most importantly though, this isn’t going to change anything about what I do or what I post. It’s simply a change in name/online handles.

Most importantly, for those of you that don’t want the reasons and just want to know how to find me online…

Twitter – @SharePointBen is now @BenStegink. I just changed my handle it twitter, so no need to re-follow me or change anything on your end. Just note that any messages and replies in twitter with be to @BenStegink now.

Web Site/Blog – www.sharepointben.com will now be www.benstegink.com. Currently both URLs will land you at the same place. However, comments will only be showing up (or will be soon) if you use www.benstegink.com due to using Disqus for blog comments. Also, my feedburner URL will remain the same for those of you subscribed to my RSS Feed.

LinkedIn and Facebook – Won’t change, these are still www.linkedin.com/in/benstegink/and https://www.facebook.com/benstegink respectively.

 

There may be other networks that I’m in where I’m still known as SharePointBen. However, those will begin changing slowly as I encounter them.

 

Now, on to the reasons why I’m making the change (ranked from my primary reason to the lesser reason).

  1. Easier Instant Connection when I introduce myself – I initially switch from BenStegink to SharePointBen back in 2011, a lot of people were doing it. However, I’ve found that over the last few years, when I introduce myself to people at conference or chat with people at conference, I always introduce myself as Ben Stegink. If they’ve found me online or follow me on twitter, there is no connection to SharePointBen and Ben Stegink unless they’ve done their research on me. By making everything BenStegink it make it easier for people I meet in person to instantly connect my online identity with my physical identity.
  2. If you look at big Names Online they tend to use their first/last names rather than some clever handle – This ties directly into point one. Some examples of this point are: in the SharePoint Space: Andrew Connell (www.andrewconnell.com), Todd Klindt (www.toddklindt.com), Joel Oleson (ok, he’s the exception), Michael Gannotti (www.michaelgannotti.com). Other’s I follow in other spaces are: Michael Hyatt (www.michaelhyatt.com), Dave Ramsey (www.daveramsey.com), Andy Stanely (www. http://andystanley.com/). In my opinion, you tend to be able better build your name around your First Name, Last Name rather than some other handle. I understand there are some exceptions, but this is just what I’ve tended to notice over the last year or two.
  3. The ability to expand into new spaces – Again, as I said above, while the name change isn’t going to change my focus or anything I do. It does give me the ability to expand into other spaces without feeling like my online presence is tied to SharePoint. Office 365 and Azure continue to grow as Microsoft pushed the cloud and SharePoint in the cloud. As I look to the future of SharePoint (or even just the SharePoint name) and it’s use at Microsoft, rebranding gives me flexibility to move with the technology without rebranding.
  4. Redesign (Visual Aesthetics Only) of my Blog – One of my goals for the first part of this year as to overall the design of my blog (again, not the content). With the redesign of my blog, I figure it was a good time to change as it allow the design to revolve around BenStegink rather than designing it around SharePointBen and wanting to then redesign it later.
  5. The SharePoint Trademark – If you have been following this story – http://blog.furuknap.net/goodbye-sharepoint-community-nice-knowing (don’t panic at the name of the blog post, take the time to read it) and a good follow up post about the issue from Joel Oleson: http://www.collabshow.com/2013/12/23/sharepoint-community-cease-and-desist-using-sharepoint/ – apparently in some special cases Microsoft is working a little harder to protect their trademark. While I haven’t received any notice from Microsoft regarding SharePointBen, I don’t want to receive one in the future and have to scramble to change everything or have anything taken down unexpectedly. I want to make the change on my own time.

 

So, there you have it. Again, nothing is change about the content I blog, what I’m doing, where I’m working, etc. It’s just a change in name only. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the change and the points made for the change.