Your Twitter Username & How to Change It

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Your Twitter username is a big deal. Social Media has established itself with great importance and as a great branding resource.

Your username holds the same importance as your name when you’re networking offline. You want people to remember it, remember you, talk about you, recognize you when they see you somewhere else and refer other people to you.

So choosing your username shouldn’t be done just ‘nilly willy’. It’s important that your username be as simple as possible so that people can easily remember it; stay away from numbers and underscores. It’s best to use your real name, particuarly if you are establishing yourself as a brand.

When I first got on Twitter it wasn’t as big of a deal as it is now and I really didn’t think I’d use it much. I originally signed up on it as part of something I was doing for a client, and that was before it was as big of a deal as it is now.

My standard username at places is “areaK” because my real name was usually gone but I also wanted some sort of continuity for myself (for 1, so that I didn’t have to remember a ton of UNs) and this was all before I really got into social media - so I chose “areaK” because I thought of myself as my own “area 51″ where you never knew what mysterious stuff was brewing and I was always into a number of things. Soooo, my Twitter UN is @areak (yes, follow me!)

As my Social Media use evolved and as my long-term goals changed, I wondered if I should change my Twitter name but wondered if it was even possible without losing all of my followers; it is.

I found an article that Rick Butts wrote that explains exactly how to change your Twitter username and still keep all of your followers. It’s pretty simple and of great value to anyone who didn’t realize how huge Twitter would be when they first jumped on board.

If you want your real name and it’s gone, try adding something else to it or playing around with it in another way but remember to try to avoid underscores and numbers. You might consider adding your middle initial or using your first name and middle & last initial or what-have-you.

Don’t forget to:

update your Twitter name across your social networks
restart any of your Twitter clients after the name change to help them update
post an update and link to the old account letting people know where to find you

~K @areaK

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