From The Crow’s Nest

This is the first post in a new series designed to help you set up and fine tune your Twitter account. It’s geared for business people who use Twitter either for a company or as a professional networking tool. However, most of the information applies to the person using Twitter just for fun.

Your Twitter user name is an important account setup decision.

Your Twitter user name is one of the most important decisions you make when setting up your Twitter account. In this blog post, I’m going to share with you some tips for selecting a great Twitter handle and how to change your Twitter handle if necessary.

Define Your Twitter Goal

Before you take one more step, stop to figure out your Twitter goal. The reason you use Twitter plays a major role in the rest of the decisions you make about your Twitter account. To figure out your Twitter goal, ask yourself the following questions.

• Why am I considering using Twitter? (Or, why did I start using Twitter?)
• Will I be talking to friends and family on Twitter?
• Am I looking to find my customers on Twitter?
• Am I hoping to connect with peers and create a professional network?
• Am I going to use Twitter mostly to receive information, or do I plan to send out information on Twitter?
• What do I plan to talk about on Twitter?

The answers to these questions help you to define your Twitter goal. You can have more than one Twitter goal as long as your goals are compatible. For example, if you want to talk with your bowling buddies and plan parties with them, you might not want to share that information with your potential customers. At the same time, if you want to educate your customers about your products and industry, you might not expect your bowling buddies to listen to that. If you goals are incompatible, you may need more than one Twitter account.

Twitter User Name Importance

Twitter allows you to provide your real name and define a user name. Twitter makes both names available to people, but your Twitter user name has additional visibility.

• Twitter web address. Your Twitter user name appears in the customized web address for your Twitter archive. This impacts search engine results. If you have questions, ask your search engine optimization (SEO) guru or a website/blog developer.
• Message label. On Twitter, you are your user name. People see your user name in their tweet stream as the message sender. People send messages to your user name.

One of the most important decisions you make about your Twitter user name is whether to use your real name or your company/brand.

• Company/Brand Name. If you have a company or tweet on behalf of a business, you may want to identify the business or brand with your Twitter user name.
• Your Name. If you are self-employed, provide freelance services, or operate as a solopreneur, you may use your business name or your real name for your Twitter user name. It’s a brand decision that you must make.

Defining You Twitter User Name

There are several other factors to consider when picking your Twitter user name.

• Keep it short. Pick the shortest name that communicates your user name. Many people will be pecking out your user name on a cell phone, and a shorter name is easier to type.
• Avoid punctuation. People typing your Twitter user name on a keyboard have access to all punctuation. However, many cell phones don’t have all punctuation marks available, or require the person to navigate through several menus to reach punctuation marks.

With the large number of people already on Twitter, your first choice for a user name may already be taken. You may have to be creative to define the user name you want.

Changing Your User Name

Twitter allows you to change your real name and user name at any time. This means that you can change your mind about your name setup, and that you can keep your Twitter account current as changes happen with your business or in your life.

When you change these account settings, Twitter updates everything automatically.

• All existing messages are converted to your new user name.
• Your archive web address changes to the new user name.

You don’t need to give your friends and followers a new user name to use. However, you may want to notify them before you make the change so they understand what is about to happen. They may see the new user name and think that Twitter has suddenly made them follow a stranger. You also must update every place where you have posted your Twitter archive web address (such as your blog or website).

Twitter provides instructions for changing your user name in its help forum.

Related Posts:

• Twitter New User Checklist
  
• Twitter For Beginners
• Multiple (Twitter) Personalities