When you signed up for Twitter you may not have originally put a lot of thought into the handle or name you chose. Most people don’t realize the impact that Twitter can have on your personal and professional brand, that people that follow and engage with you in part based on your handle and that people will end up running into you in real life and know you by your handle better than your real name. You may want to change your handle to be closer to your real name, closer to a business name or switch nicknames to one more appropriate for the topics you chat about, whatever the case here are a few steps to help you get through a Twitter handle change with minimal negative impact to your followers or existing brand.
Avoid changing your avatar and handle at the same time
People are visual and will often recognize your avatar before recognizing your handle. If you change both at the same time you run the risk of confusing and perhaps losing followers who don’t know who you are or recognize you anymore. If you know you want to change your avatar and your handle, try to spread the changes out over at least two weeks, but ideally over a month. Spreading your changes out over a month allows users that don’t login very often see you mid transition and hopefully recognize you easier after the full switch.
Announce it
Give your followers a heads up to expect a change in the days leading up to your handle change, don’t necessarily tell them what you plan to change you name to as it is not guaranteed to be available when you go to claim it (and some meany might actually go and claim it on you!) Just let them know that a change is coming so they are ready for it when you switch. If you have a blog, prepare a post updating your followers on the change and explaining the reason for the change. Most likely there is some overlap between your blog readers and Twitter followers and if your Twitter bio links to your blog this makes it even more effective for explaining the change and keeping your followers in the loop. After the swap, post the link to your blog post a few times on Twitter for your followers to read.
Make the change
When you are ready to make the change Twitter makes it very easy, simply click on your user name on the top right of your profile, select Settings and it should open automatically to your Account tab, change your handle by updating the Username field and Twitter will let you know if your new name is available to claim. Remember when brainstorming for your new handle that it cannot have any spaces and the only special character that Twitter accepts is an underscore (_). Changing your handle will not affect any past tweets,@mentions, direct mentions or other data but going forward users will need to use your new name. Click Save at the bottom of the page when you find a name you like.
Reclaim your old name
As soon as you have changed and saved your new Twitter handle, log out of Twitter and set up a new account. Set the new account up with the old handle and fill out your bio explaining that you are now tweeting under the new handle. Set your profile link to your new Twitter profile and if you want up load an avatar of your old profile pic or an “I’ve moved” image. You may also want to set your notifications to email you if someone mentions or dms you at your old handle. Eventually you will want to turn these off since new notifications will end up being spam after awhile, so dont forget your password so you can change your settings later!
Notify specific followers
Once you have made all of your profile changes make an effort to connect with the followers that you interact with regularly to ensure they know of your changes. Take a look at the people you chat with often as well as influential followers that you have connected with in the past, you dont want to loose these valuable contacts and if they have large followings it might be easy to miss your update.
Stay active
Try to plan your name change for a time when you can be active and online regularly. Being active allows people to quickly get used to your new name. Try to strike up chatter and actively engage with your followers to help establish your new persona and check in regularly over the next few days to help everyone become familiar with your new name.
Search your handle
Search your old handle and notify anyone that has mentioned you in a blog, article or link. You may already know about all of the blogs that have quoted you, but just in case do a search for any you may not know about. Send anyone that mentions you a request to update their posts and if you can, add a comment to the article to notify other readers of your new handle. (It doesn’t hurt to make a nod to the author to thank them for mentioning you in the post, even if you have already done this in the past!)
Update your links
Go through all of your profiles and resources that link to your Twitter profile and update the links. Be sure to check your websites, blogs, other social profiles, your email signature, business cards, resume, directories and anywhere else you may have posted your Twitter handle.
If you follow all of these steps you should have a fairly seamless transition from Twitter handle to Twitter handle. If you have any suggestions that I have missed here please share them in the comments.
(Feel free to use the ‘I’ve Moved’ image for your old handle avatar if you wish!)
Originally published on ReSoMe.com