Twitter Name Change Checklist
I recently did a Twitter name change double whammy: I deleted one Twitter handle entirely and renamed my older handle to a new name. The Twitter handle @momcommblog is now defunct and @adventuroo got renamed to @MelACulbertson.
Doing a Twitter name change sounds simple enough but once you start realizing how many places your Twitter handle is actually listed, a bit of panic sets in!
That’s why I create a Twitter Name Change Checklist to help you out shall you ever decide to do the same.
Before I get to that though, let me share with you the WHY behind the WHAT WHAT.
Why I Switched to Just One Twitter Name
If you’re a reader of my blog Adventuroo, you’ll know that my one word for 2012 is Simplify. And if there’s one thing I noticed, it’s that having two Twitter accounts takes up a boat load of time.
Honestly, it wasn’t the actual act of tweeting from HootSuite that took up the time. It was having to follow people on two Twitter handles. It was switching back and forth while trying to tweet from my iPhone. It was hitting Retweet on a post I wanted to tweet from @adventuroo and being logged into @momcommblog. To remedy that, I tried having two different browsers opened and logged in with each handle but then I’d click a link from an email, it would go to my default browser and then I’d have to copy the URL into the OTHER browser to retweet from the right account.
See? Pain. In. The. Ass.
Now there are plenty of legitimate reasons you may want two Twitter handles so I’m not knocking anyone for that. For me, it was just too much for no obviously compelling benefit.
Why I Renamed @adventuroo to @MelACulbertson
So, I’ve had the Twitter handle @adventuroo since 2009. It had the most followers so that’s the one I decided to keep. While I loved my Twitter name, I changed it to my name for a few reasons:
- With just one Twitter handle, I needed a Twitter name that wasn’t centered around a blog name.
- I want to build my name as a marketing and social media consultant.
- I want my Twitter link to come up in search engines when someone searches for Melissa Culbertson
All that to say, I wish my handle was a little, um, shorter. But Twitter has a penchant for not deleting inactive Twitter accounts, even if they say “we are planning to release names.”
The Twitter Name Change Checklist
Before I attempted my delete and rename mission, I brainstormed all the places my Twitter names were scattered. It goes far and wide, I tell ya!
So, if you ever decide to change your Twitter name, grab my Twitter Name Change Checklist, print that puppy out and you won’t skip a beat!
