#TwitterTips Change Your Twitter Name. Catch All Your Tweets

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Blogging like a pro. Easy with these two tweaks.

Friend and editor Alison Williams shared some twitter tips which I’m re-posting for the benefit of our new readers.

The mistake I made when I set up my Twitter account was my choice of twitter username/handle. I wanted to use my actual name. I have a really common name, so Alison Williams wasn’t available, and neither were any variations using numbers that weren’t far too complicated to use. So I decided to use a capital ‘i’ in place of one of the ‘L’s in Williams. Sorted.

Problem, Technical, Issues, Technology, Error, Delay

Problems arose when I was tagged in a tweet. People assumed that my twitter username was @AlisonWilliams (with two lls). It wasn’t. So I didn’t see a tweet and therefore couldn’t retweet it. This meant I lost out on sharing that tweet with people. An editing client tweeted how pleased she was with the work I did for her – she asked me a few days later why I hadn’t retweeted. I lost out on some free advertising there.

Mistake, Error, Question Mark, Fail, Wrong, Trouble

I realised that I needed to change my username to something that, first of all, people could spell correctly, and secondly that would lead people to me on Twitter. So I decided to change my username to @AlisonW_Editor

My name is now spelt correctly. It also means that anyone looking for an editor on Twitter is more likely to find me.

Changing your username is really simple to do. Just go to your Twitter profile, use the drop down menu to select ‘settings’, and change the username listed in the username field. Click ‘save changes’ and you’re done. It doesn’t affect anything on your account; you keep all your followers, and all your past tweets, favourites and lists are still there. Or click on your picture icon, select ‘profile’, then edit ‘profile’ and you should see a box to change below the option to change your picture.

If you use WordPress. Make sure Twitter is correctly connected to your WordPress account. This way, when followers use the Twitter share button on your post, you will get notified on Twitter.

Here’s what you need to do:

  • Go to WP Admin
  • On the left hand side under ‘Settings’ you’ll see ‘sharing’ – click this
  • Scroll down until you see: ‘Twitter username to include in tweets when people share using the Twitter button’
  • In the box alongside this enter your new Twitter username. (No need to add the @)
  • Save changes

And you’re ready to go.

Kids, Drawing, Scribble, Lines, Girl, Boy, Child

Extra Tip: Make your Twitter Handle is as close to your “Author” name (or Business Name) as possible so fans can easily follow you.

For more blogging and Twitter tips see here 

30 thoughts on “#TwitterTips Change Your Twitter Name. Catch All Your Tweets”

    • Thanks Robbie, some of it will depend on where you want to grow your social media. I like to hang out on Twitter, so good user names which are easy to find are important to me.

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  2. When I joined Twitter (all those years ago!) I opted for my name and year of birth ShelleyWilson72 – it’s easy to remember but certainly doesn’t tell followers what I do. I wonder if I should drop the number and add ‘author’? Interesting post, ladies. I didn’t realise this was even a possibility. Thank you for sharing.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I fortunately was able to use my blogsite name for my Twitter handle. The problem I have is how to use more than one twitter handle because I have a completely different interest (genealogy) and it would be confusing to use the same one for both topics. Any suggestions?

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    • Just found this for you…Twitter does not restrict you to a single account. If you need multiple accounts, such as accounts for each product type your company offers, you can create a new account exactly as you did your first. However, each account must use a different email address.

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  6. I have two accounts.
    One is my original, linked to my blog etc. @PhantomGiggler.
    Then my teacher one, so I can follow all things education based, and not flood it with writeeky/blog based things.
    As mine has been that for a long time, and is used on other social media platforms, I’m not sure whether to change it, or set a third one as my name and author…

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Good tip, although if you’be published a lot of books and shared your Twitter handle all around, changing it everywhere might take a while, but worth thinking about. Thanks, Rosie and Alison.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Yes,not worth it if you already have a large reader fan base for your books. I think I would look at the data, does the current twitter following buy your books? Or do they follow for another reason?

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  9. This is one I really need to think about, Rosie – I’ve been contemplating changing my Twitter ID to my blog name for a while, because my activity’s almost entirely book related…

    Liked by 1 person

  12. For some strange reason, I don’t have settings on my “edit profile”. April kindly directed me to your blog post in the hope I could use your clear instructions.

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