When I started my personal Twitter account I didn’t know what I was doing. Honestly, I started it to find out what Twitter was all about. Deciding a Twitter handle was important and at the time I didn’t think about creating a handle that was easy for others to remember or to create one that didn’t use a ton of characteristics. Instead I decided to use my first initial and my last name (how original). It wasn’t until a week or two ago that I thought to myself “half the people I meet have no idea how to say or spell my last name.” So much for making my handle memorable or easy to spell.
Then I started to think about how people are pronouncing my name when they see it on their computer or cell phone. I’ll be the first to admit, that when people don’t have a unique Twitter name I come up with my own way to remember them or say their Twitter handle. I don’t even want to take a stab at how people try to remember my Twitter handle.
Now that I know I have made a slight mistake on picking a Twitter handle I have thought about changing it, but just can’t come up with a name that fits. An idea I had was to change my handle so my last name is spelled wrong, but people would know how to pronounce it: e hill_pipe_er (But that just looks funny).
Even though I have learned my lesson I think I’m going to keep my Twitter handle the way it is because it’s unique. So here are a few suggestions when picking a Twitter handle, so new Twitter users don’t find themselves moving down the social media mountain.
- Choose a handle that is easy to spell
- Choose a handle that fits or describes you
- Choose a handle that is memorable to others
- Choose a handle that is easy for people to retweet and doesn’t take up a ton of characteristics. (Remember you only have 140)
For those who already have a Twitter account I hope you don’t find yourself pondering the same dilemma, and for those who haven’t started your Twitter mountain climb best of luck in choosing a handle!
Happy Climbing,
Elizabeth
The Wandering Duck Climbs a Mountain 