How-to Twitter Name Change

April 8, 2009 in News & Events with 17 Comments

twitterThis is a follow up from my last post, “What’s in a 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

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 Two

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.

Photos used in post:

twitter icon (for Fluid) by seyDoggy

About Brad: Brad is the Geek in charge here at PoweredProduction.com / A Father of Four / A Home Chef / And yes - that's a real mustache!

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17 Responses to “How-to Twitter Name Change”

  1. Phillip Gibb April 9, 2009 at 5:22 am #

    wow, thanks man. I have been wondering about this

    • big_b_rad April 10, 2009 at 6:45 pm #

      The dust if finally setteling down, but I didn't end up with the name I really wanted @bradparler (still in limbo ~ glad I picked up my old account though!)

    • Jim April 18, 2009 at 3:50 am #

      don't make stuff up phil!

      • Phillip Gibb April 18, 2009 at 6:18 am #

        ha ha ha
        no seriously I was wondering about using synapticlight

        • Jim April 19, 2009 at 2:43 am #

          you could do that…

  2. Ron_Tuffin April 9, 2009 at 6:09 am #

    I probably would have started out the same route that you did. Not that I need to change my twitter name, but if I did I probably would have got it all messed up (thankfully I have only about 60 followers :) )

    • big_b_rad April 10, 2009 at 6:47 pm #

      I glad that my pain and frustrations will help a few avoid it… I think that what I was doing (at first was logical as I ddin't know that there was a better way – nothing like trial by fire!)

      • Krystle January 12, 2011 at 5:09 pm #

        HEY ALL!!!! HOW DO YOU CHANGE JUST YOUR PROFILE NAME and NOT YOUR USERNAME?? I have changed it in profile settings but its not changing on the actual page. CAN ANYONE HELP??

  3. Jim April 18, 2009 at 3:49 am #

    that was dumb, man, i'm not sure i can be associated with you if you do dumb stuff like this. gee wiz, brad, get some help, go to rehab…i am lol

    • big_b_rad April 18, 2009 at 1:01 pm #

      LOL! Yeah, It was dumb… But I learned from the mistake – so that has to be worth something, right?
      Perhaps we need to start a dumb twitter support group…

      • Jim April 19, 2009 at 2:42 am #

        i like the fact that you blogged about it. awesome.

  4. Peter May 31, 2009 at 6:12 pm #

    Is there actually a way to "point" your twitter page to another page os do you just mean you put a status update and sent them there?

  5. alexluft June 6, 2009 at 1:48 am #

    Great stuff, Brad! I've successfully changed my Twitter name just now, going to the settings tab. My name was sashok, now it's thealexluft (someone took alexluft and squatted it – glad I'm that popular :)

  6. bedding sheets December 7, 2009 at 4:10 am #

    This site is very nice and great article. thanks…

  7. potenzmittel frau November 10, 2010 at 2:42 pm #

    Ernest Hemingway~ Theres nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility is being superior to your former self.

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