Over a year ago my personal branding went through a bit of a change. You see, when I first started using Twitter, I created an account under a variation of my nickname. Later, wanting to change my twitter name  but not really knowing what I was doing, I inadvertently stole the name that I wanted to use from myself.  You can read all about this huge mistake that has taken a year to un-do here.   Digging deep into the posts that I had published over a year ago led me to attempt to get the name that I had wanted to change to, but this time I did it the right way!  Yes-  I had to wait a full year to get the name!!!  So, please learn from my fail and follow these seven simple steps to correctly change your name on twitter.

How to Change

Your Name On Twitter

1. ) Start a new email address - You’ll need this to claim your old name in later steps.

2.) Log-in to your existing twitter.com account.

3.) Click On Settings.

4.) Change you Username to the New Name (it will check the availability)–

In the Username field, change the public profile name to the new account name.  Twitter will tell you whether or not it is available and if it is, you’re in business!

5.) Save the changes — you’ve got your new name, but beware!

Now that you’ve changed your name anyone can claim your old name once you’ve changed away from it.  This is why I had you create a new email address (I just use a new nick name under my google apps user – so that I will get any DMs that come to the old account).  What I recommend that you do now is to claim the old name so that you can point it to the new name.

6.) Log-off of  your newly created Twitter account and  then start a new account as the old name. –You have to use a unique email address, which is why we started a new email account in step one.

7.) Post a new tweet with the  account that uses the old name– This lets everyone know that they can find you at your new name.
I’d also suggest that you update the photo and background to make it look uniform to the main account.

I hope that this as been both educational and… well, at least not too boring.  Changing your twitter name is easy if you do it right the first time. And if you do not, you will have a long wait in which to ponder the error of your ways!

Photo used on post: twitter_Good_Bad by Rosaura Ochoa