You Can Change Your Twitter Name And Not Lose Followers

Change Twitter Name Without Losing Followers

Brad Parler of Powered Production wrote:

This is a follow up from my last post, “What’s in a name…” – Change your twitter name-Quick re-cap, EVERYTHING!  I’ve been using twitter.com using the name @big_b_rad for a while now, but I’ve grown tired of trying to explain how to spell it, where to put the underscores etc. so I set out to change my name, and did so in the exact way that no one should ever attempt to do such.  I pray that my pain in learning will equip you in what NOT to ever attempt!

Step One To Change Your Twitter Name

If you are going to change your name, don’t register the new account using a different email address.  This was my first main mistake thinking that I’d have my 3800 followers happly jump ship with me!  There’s a handy dandy little tool in your settings panel of twitter that allows you to check to see if a name is available – if it is, then you can change it and leave ALL of your followers in tact, along with all of your @reply’s, DM’s and Favorites…  What I did was the first stupid step in 48 hours of true pain.

Step 2-Change Your Twitter Name

Never tell your followers that they should follow your new account, and then un-follow your old one…  Man, What the Heck was I thinking on that one!

Step Three

Beg forgiveness – and move on…

After some long hard thinking and frustration of hitting the Twitter limit and being dark on twitter for nearly 48 hours… (which sucked BTW) I decided to delete the @bradparler account on twitter – and change the old (@big_b_rad) account to @brad_parler until I can grab up @bradparler. If you are going to change your account – do so in the settings panel of twitter – and then go back and grab up the old one to point to the new one… I discovered that someone could have registered @big_b_rad only hours after my change… So “I” got it and pointed it to the new account.

From:Spazcer-

Here is how I changed my Twitter name without losing any followers.

First, make the name change. You can change your Twitter name at any time on the ’settings’ page at Twitter.com.

Second, create a new account with your old Twitter name. You don’t have to do much with this account. Maybe add a URL to your new twitter account and post a single tweet notifying people that your name has changed.

You won’t lose any of your followers and they’ll all see the name change as their Twitter clients refresh.

Notes

I seem to have missed a few @replys right after the switch. Most Twitter apps won’t update your existing tweets with your new name until they are restarted. As a result you are at risk of getting some @replys sent to your old account. This could also happen with people you talk to regularly. Be sure to continue to monitor your old account so you can catch missed replies and update your follower of the name change.

I also made it a point to run across all of the social networks that list my Twitter handle and update them. This included sites like MyBlogLog, FriendFeed assorted ning sites, etc. It may be awhile before my new Twitter account shows up on Google for Jon Bishop.

Don’t forget to update your Twitter link on your blog if you have one.

My TwitterGrade went down .9 points … oh well. I also had duplicate listings for awhile but this was solved by retrieving an updated grade for the old account. Other Twitter stats sites are showing decreased numbers but I’m sure this will even out over time.

Change Your Twitter Name Resources:

How to change your Twitter name and keep your followers | Matt Hopkins – In a world where personal branding is increasingly more important, the user name you select for your Twitter account is more essential than ever. What happens.

5 Simple Steps to Getting Your Business on Twitter | Social Media … – Any tips would be hugely welcome! Also can you change your twitter name once it’s already setup? Adrian Swinscoe. Hi Cindy, Great straight forward steps for getting onto Twitter and making the most out of your profile. …

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