A twitter handle is like a business card . It signifies who you are and it is your identity on twitter . There are a few lucky ones who get the handle they want when they sign up . Others make do with what is available . There might come a point when you decide to change your handle . That is a major milestone in your twitter life . There are good and bad sides to it and there are a few things that you need to keep in your mind . Let us have a discussion about this today
The Impact of the change : A handle change has a few side effects .The first is the type of impact it has on your influence . If you are using Twitter Grader as a measure of your influence and standing , you need not worry , grader is a twitter app and hence the change is seamless and nothing is affected . But third party apps like Klout will definitely be impacted and I have seen folks who lost 30% of their influence with a handle change . So , look at the facts and measure them and weigh the impact on your influence before you do it . Next is the fact that the brand perception on twitter is very handle driven and a change in that is definitely going to affect some people’s identification with you as a brand on twitter . If you are a serious and technical tweep , you need to weigh that in and then decide .I have seen @replies mentioning tweeps by their old handle go around for months after the handle change . Twitter will automatically send @ tweets to your old handle to your new one after the change , till the old one is taken . But the search engines retain cached tweets that refer to your old handle , when someone clicks on that , they will be told that the profile does not exist or redirected to someone else’s page if they have taken that handle . Basically a confusion in cached tweets will ensue .The final point is that when you release your old handle , and you happen to be a well followed tweep , your future follows may land up in the lap of an id squatter . Not a Nice idea if they think that he / she is you . So how do we go about changing a handle the right way ?
The Recommended way to change your handle :
- Before changing your handle , create a new twitter id with just one character more than your current handle , try adding a simple number before of after your handle . Set it up fully
- After creating the new one , log on to your old handle and change it to the new one , twitter will validate your password for this , then the new handle is effective
- Now log on to the handle you created in step 1 and change it to your old handle .Twitter handles become available as soon as they are released and so you will have no issues changing it .
- Leave one tweet in your old handle telling folks that you are tweeting from the new handle
- So now you have changed your handle , retained you followers and also prevented ID theft .
- Go and have a drink , you are done !
Ahh… This article pin-points people like me I suppose! I completely agree with the disadvantages caused due to the change in the twitter handle in a disorganized manner. The idea of creating anew account & experimenting in it is a real good idea. Will follow the recommended ways when I want to change my twitter handle!