I believe the account is separate from your Steem account. So people have to actually create an account on Steemit.chat to be visible there. I really don’t use that one a whole lot, so I cannot say for sure how it works.
I prefer my email which is linked at the bottom of all of my posts on the “Contact” banner. I thought some people may think I should have had Steemit.chat on this list, so I included it.