How to Select a Twitter Handle
20 Dec 2009
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?
