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How to Select a Twitter Handle

20 Dec 2009

20 Dec, 2009  social media, Twitter

Selecting your handle is an important step when starting out on Twitter. It’s not that you can’t change it whenever you want, it’s just that as people start to recognize you as your Twitter handle, your brand and your reputation, it becomes harder and harder to move away from that.  There are a few handle options you have, so I thought I’d go over the pros and cons of each:

Your Real Name (first, last, initials, business name or some combination of the those)

Examples – @lizstrauss, @loic, @chrisbrogan, @DaivRawks, @jbruin, @pistachio

  • Pro – You’re branding your own name, so people will recognize you
  • Con – It’s harder for people offhand to know what you do or what interests you


A Description (who you are, what you do, what you’re interested in)

Examples – @BostonMarketer (that’s me!), @SEOSEM, @BostonTweet, @thebrandbuilder,  @skydiver

  • Pro – People automatically know what you do, or what interests you.
    • I can speak from personal experience on this one… I get quite a few referrals through Twitter for Marketing and Social Media Consulting work.  I attribute that to a lot of factors, but one of them is that my name makes it clear what I do.  So, if someone is trying to think of a referral for Marketing in Boston, I come to mind.  The same thing happened to me on the other side last week, when someone asked me for a recommendation of someone who is good at SEO. The first person I thought of was @SEOSEM because of his name.  I follow close to 4,000 people, so remembering specific people is difficult.  Having an obvious name, makes remembering you easier when it comes to referrals, or just finding someone in a particular area of interest.
  • Con – You’re missing out on an opportunity to brand your own personal name.  I joke sometimes that people don’t actually know my name — I’m @BostonMarketer to them.  But, I do think it’s somewhat true.
  • Con – If you’re not focused in what you’re interested in, it can pigeon hole you into one area

A Random Name (probably not obvious to everyone why that’s your name)

Examples – @lmzadi1, @NoOneYouKnow

  • Pro – CAN be memorable
  • Con – You’re not branding your name, or what you do, so it’s a missed opportunity
  • Con – Oftentimes difficult to remember

(of course, there are also combinations of the types above, i.e. @pamelawella, @JessicaKnows, @LauraLovesArt)

Overall, my personal recommendation is to choose a name that describes your interests, as long as you are focused in the reason you are on Twitter.  If not, then go with your real name!

Other miscellaneous tips:

  • Names I find difficult are ones where it’s A name, but not the person’s real name.  For example, @BstnMelody — I find her name VERY difficult… because her name is NOT Melody, but rather, Robin.  So, when I see her, I keep wanting to call her Melody.  Another one is @Admore, whose last name is not Admore, but rather Damore. (Sorry Robin and David, I needed to use you as examples to make the point.)
  • Regardless of what your Twitter handle is (unless you share an account with multiple people), you definitely should have your real name onyour bio as well (see image — you see Rachel Levy, although my Twitter handle is @BostonMarketer).  It puts a real name to your handle, and makes you more personable.
  • The use of underscores makes typing the person’s name more difficult.  On a laptop keyboard, it’s just pushing the shift key.  But, on the iPhone it’s an additional two strokes to get the underscore.  I would recommend staying away from underscores if you possibly can.
  • Having a long Twitter name makes it difficult to get retweeted — the longer your name is, the more characters your name takes up to RT you.  My name (@BostonMarketer) is 14 characters, and I think it’s a bit too long… my recommendation is to keep your name under 10 characters.
  • Don’t use a lot of random numbers or strange spellings of words in your name, as it’s difficult to remember.

(Photo credit: Follow Me, Twitter Handle list)

What do you think?  What are the best naming conventions?  Any other pros/cons I’m missing?

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  • http://textaurant.com Josh Bob

    In the first bullet point of “Misc Tips,” I think you meant, “I keep wanting to call her 'Melody'.” Right?

  • http://www.rachel-levy.com Rachel Levy

    Ha ha, yes… exactly my point — it's confusing :-) Thx for pointing it
    out. Fixed now.

  • http://ariherzog.com Ari Herzog

    The problem I have with your name, as I've shared with you in the past, is you don't walk up to random people, extend your hand, and say, “Hi, I'm Boston Marketer. What's your name?” They give you the third eye.

    I have no problem with corporate brands using such enigmatic names, but you're a person and you tweet about a person — and the majority of your tweets are not about marketing in Boston, are they?

  • http://www.rachel-levy.com Rachel Levy

    That's true, I don't introduce myself as BostonMarketer, that's why I added
    that to the Con list (missing name branding). But, the referrals I've
    gotten over the past 14 months, I believe are due, in part, to the
    descriptive nature of my name.

    Are the majority of my tweets about Marketing? No, but the one area I tweet
    the most about is Marketing/Social Media.

    But, as I said above, both methods have merits.

  • http://twittermaven.blogspot.com warrenss

    Excellent points, all around. I think your strategy has a lot of merit in that it instantaneously lets people know where you are from and what you do. Certainly memorable and effective.

  • http://www.rachel-levy.com Rachel Levy

    Exactly. Well said!

  • martinpiraino

    Rachel,

    Some very good points on the pros and cons of using different types of user names on Twitter.

    However, I disagree to a certain point on the con you have using your own name. What I mean is that while someone won't know immediately what you do based on your name, if they've got some common sense, they will look at your twitter page/bio and see what you're about, if you've done the job of branding yourself that way, there is less of a question what you do or what you're about.

    I know a lot of people probably have the default twitter background, and nothing on their bio, but if someone has a purpose to utilize twitter for a business or marketing strategy, that's one of the first things that should be updated.

    As far as using a 'brand name' like yours being BostonMarketer, I've actually said “BostonMarketer” to someone I was speaking with and then followed up with “Her name is Rachel Levy, and she's on twitter.”

    I consider my name a brand, and as such, most of my public profiles on various social networking sites are “martinpirano” as it is on Twitter. I've taken that spot, and in the last year, pushed most any other results not referencing me from the top 3+ pages on Google because of my involvement in various social media platforms and blogging.

  • http://www.rachel-levy.com Rachel Levy

    If they take the time to go look at your profile yes. But we both know
    that not everyone has time for that. Also, what I'm talking about is
    top-of-mind… maybe they looked at your profile when they first started
    following, but it's been a while, so they forget what you do.

  • annabarcelos

    Great take on this Rachel. I used my name (@abarcelos) and am facing a couple of those challenges, especially now that I'm with a company (@mercuryco) and am tweeting under both. The plus is that I'm leverging my personal brand for my company and am finding that it has been more helpful than not. I feel using your real name initially may be a good way to go because in the end, whether you're with a company or on your own, it's always people talking to people. Companies need to board the cluetrain when it comes to that and be more responsive to their community. I've unfollowed some of my favorite brands on Twitter because I felt it was just an echo chamber.

  • http://www.rachel-levy.com Rachel Levy

    Good points all around. I was thinking actually, that my next post will be
    about Twitter handles and avatars for companies. I agree with the echo
    chamber — it's not an engaging account — and I think using a company logo
    contributes to that feeling.

  • http://twitter.com/MarcFrechette Marc Frechette

    The practice of a descriptive name has its advantage for those who initiate contact by following others. Take into account the ‘default journey’ of a Twitterer (Tweep?) acting without the aid of a deck or app such as TweetDeck: The user receives an email alerting them that @MarcFrechette is following them. So what? Many of us (sadly) do not take the time to inspect every profile of every follower. A descriptive name can solve the problem of such an enigmatic first contact.
    If you’re truly up for the challenge you may consider having dual Tweet-pens. Common with popular bloggers, this allows for a ‘personal’ feed as well as a more directed ‘professional’ feed. Occasionally you’ll catch them referring back and forth between pen names to remind followers which pen has what content available in its stream.