It’s been a busy day for me on the blog today. I have over 140 unfinished blog posts that I’ve been trying to complete, plus loads more ideas and I’ve also been tinkering with the design a bit (again).

But I just wanted to let you know, in case you follow me on Twitter, that my handle has changed from @Pose to @JoDtw. If you are already a follower, this won’t affect you as the account is still the same, but if you tweet me you just need to make sure you get the right name. So if you’re thinking about changing your @[name] on Twitter, which you can do in your account settings, you will retain all your followers and people you are following.

Why did I change my Twitter handle?

I changed my Twitter handle for a few reasons:

1. I wanted people to be able to find my name easily when tweeting me. If you use Hootsuite, there is an auto-complete function whereby you start typing the first few letters of a handle and it shows you the potential usernames. As my name is Jo, it seemed more natural to me that people might start typing ‘Jo’ when starting to tweet me, rather than having to remember ‘Pose83.’
2. I thought it was more professional. I actually don’t think Pose83 is unprofessional as such, but to most people it really doesn’t mean anything. I’ve been to a lot of conferences lately and done a lot of tweeting, so I wanted people to be able to associate my Twitter name with me.
3. It’s shorter. This wasn’t actually intentional and I was amazed I managed to get a 5 letter handle as I thought 6 letters was pretty good going. I’m always surprised when I see Social Media professionals with long Twitter names. The fewer characters, the more content people can add when messaging or retweeting you.

What happens to @Pose83?

Well, before anyone tries to snap up my Twitter name, I actually still have registered to another email account. I didn’t want anyone attempting to try and become me on Twitter, in case anyone has such as desire, unlikely as that may be.

I would advise anyone switching their handle after a prolonged period of time to do the same thing. There is no period of time between relinquishing a Twitter name and someone else taking it, so if you’re going to switch, make sure you grab your old one on another email address/account ASAP.

How you changed your Twitter name and if so, why?