A warning about your Twitter name

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of Twitter names that appear to be a random combination of letters and numbers. And no, these aren’t the accounts of spammers! They’re the names of real men and women who participate fully on Twitter, posting real thoughts, sharing legitimate links, replying, retweeting and chatting.

I realize that each month, there are fewer and fewer names available for use on Twitter, and if people want to keep their handles reasonably short — which is very important to do — they have to get creative. But here are two important considerations:

How hard is your handle to remember?

How hard is your handle to accurately type?

I’m not a fan of numbers on Twitter handles, because unless that number is also a year, it’s impossible to really identify the number with the person; the number never seems to be part of the name, and you feel like you’re trying to remember someone’s official identification code. However, since a lot of people are using numbers, here are some quick tips:

A string of numbers is hard to remember, but easy to type:

 

A string of numbers that’s a year is easier to remember:

 

Random letters are difficult to remember and type. They may be meaningful to you, but trust me, no one else will “get it.”

 

But the worst are seemingly random letters AND numbers:

 

Considering an underscore? Underscores are hard to type, so only use them if they make your handle easier to remember:

 

So what should you do if you decide your Twitter name is confusing? Just change it! You can change your Twitter username at any time.

Have questions? Want to run a Twitter name by me? Use the comment section below!

 

         

 

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