“What’s a good Twitter name?” is a question I get asked quite often. I joined Twitter 16 months ago so I’m somewhat of an “old timer” in the Twitterverse. To some that makes me an expert, even though I don’t profess to be one.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about Twitter names

1. If you have a “brand” it’s best to use your brand name for business tweets.
2. Without a brand, your name is a good place to start. You could also try a combination of your name & service or industry or location.
3. Shorter is definitely better. When others “retweet” your posts, a shorter name takes less precious real estate on Twitter’s 140 character count.
4. You can change your Twitter name, unlike many services that don’t allow changes to your user name, you can change anytime on Twitter.
5. Case doesn’t matter when people search for you, but the way you type your name into Twitter is how it will appear. It’s the difference DIYDivorceFL and diydivorcefl.
6. It helps to say it out loud. Sounds corny but it works. Be sure you can easily tell people what your Twitter name is. 4unow, fouryounow, foreunow – all quick and easy but imagine telling someone how to find you.
7. Avoid numbers and underscores. They are much more difficult to type on mobile devices – often requiring a different screen. I didn’t understand the importance of this until I started tweeting from my phone.
8. Be sure to carefully look at your user name to make sure there are no unintended words when you combine words. For the life of me I can’t think f an example right now, but you’ve seen this happen.

Don’t wait around trying to find the perfect Twitter name. Go there now and just start. Remember #4 – you can always change your Twitter name later.

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