How to swap Twitter Usernames without losing Followers

How to swap Twitter Usernames without losing Followers

Posted on 07. Feb, 2010 by Kyle in Social Media

Earlier last week, I made the move from using my Twitter username “chownage” to “kylechowning.” As to why, my main motivation is because people will know me before they’ll know chownage. Moreover, there are SEO (search engine optimization) benefits and overall, it just makes it easier for people to recall and reference.

After making the change, I got a few questions asking me how I did it and if there were any negative ramifications from doing so. The short answer is, it was easy and there weren’t any problems. However, the challenge that I encountered was that I had already registered the “kylechowning” username a year or so ago and there were pre-existing friends on that account. Because I didn’t want to start from scratch on either accounts, I had to get creative on making the swap.

By the way, if your new username of choice is not already taken, here are simple instructions on how to change your username. These instructions focus on swapping usernames of two currently existing accounts.

The following steps use the example of changing my main account chownage to kylechowning.

  1. Log in to Twitter
  2. In the upper right hand navigation bar, click Settings
  3. Change Username from chownage to chownage2 – This will temporarily free up your current username
  4. Log out of Twitter
  5. Log in to your other Twitter account; in this case, kylechowning
  6. Click Settings
  7. Change Username from kylechowning to chownage – Now the username kylechowning is available
  8. Log out of Twitter
  9. Log in to Twitter using your chownage2 settings
  10. Click Settings
  11. Change Username from chownage2 to kylechowning

And your done! Due to the way that Twitter has setup the usernames, you don’t have to change anything within Twitter. All references to your name will change in non-cached Twitter feeds.

If you’ve integrated your Twitter account with any social networks or blogs, you’ll need to change your username so your updates are posted. Finally, don’t forget to change your settings on your favorite Twitter app(s).

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10 Responses to “How to swap Twitter Usernames without losing Followers”

  1. Daniel

    07. Feb, 2010

    Interesting…

    What are the SEO benefits? From what I can tell, Twitter adds "Name" to the title bar of each page as well as your username, so your name will be there every time anyways.

    Also, in a twitter environment, wouldn't a shorter username be better than having your full name? (Because you only get a certain amount of characters for followers to respond with.)

    Reply to this comment

  2. Chownage

    07. Feb, 2010

    Honestly, the main goal was to make it easier for people to remember my username. I know that I have a handful of friends that I can never remember their username because it's not their name and it's some funky spelling of a word or phrase that they made up. That is the equivalent to being in the same room, but always forgetting their name because you can't remember how to pronounce it…so you don't include them in the conversation.

    Regarding character count, Twitter limits usernames to 15 characters. My full name is 12, so I don't think it's an issue.

    Reply to this comment

  3. download activation

    07. Feb, 2010

    truly loved the article added to my favourites

    Reply to this comment

  4. Lindsey_Nobles

    08. Feb, 2010

    I am so struggling with this one…to be @lnobles or @lindseynobles…i am most concerned about adding precious characters

    Reply to this comment

    • Chownage

      08. Feb, 2010

      If this helps, there are 160 available characters in a text message. In Twitter, you can never do more than 140. Twitter doesn't allow your username to be more than 15 characters. So somewhere, they're absorbing 5 characters for Twitter use. I think you're safe to make the change. I would. I did.

      Reply to this comment

    • Jason Yarborough

      28. Feb, 2010

      Yeah I'm in the same boat. Thinking of switching from yarby to jasonyarborough; which is the max 15 characters. Big jump going from a 5 character name to 15.

      Reply to this comment

      • Kyle

        02. Mar, 2010

        that is a lot of characters. I think I would stick with Yarby. Way easier to remember.

        Reply to this comment

  5. Karen

    18. May, 2010

    Thanks. That was helpful.

    Reply to this comment

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Tweets that mention How to swap Twitter Usernames without losing Followers | Kyle Chowning -- Topsy.com - 07. Feb, 2010

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jilly, Kyle Chowning. Kyle Chowning said: Incase you missed it earlier today, How to swap Twitter usernames without losing followers: http://ow.ly/14TOI [...]
  2. How to swap Twitter Usernames without loosing Followers - 08. Mar, 2010

    [...] a social media platform intended to make your activities more transparent is counterintuitive.  In this informative tutorial, Kyle Chowning provides instructions on how to change your Twitter Username without negative side [...]

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