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Change Your Twitter Name Without Losing Followers

posted by Alicia in Twitter

I recently decided to change my Twitter username and wanted to do it in such a way that I wouldn’t lose my followers or access to my current profile. I’ve built up a great community on Twitter and want to preserve it. Besides, what if someone decided to use my current name once I’d changed it? One day I may decide to reinstate it! :)

This short video takes you through the simple process I used, and I’ve also explained the steps underneath the video. I retained all of my followers and other important profile settings – lists, favourites, tweets and people I follow. It’s a foolproof strategy and the smartest way to switch while retaining your profile. Watch this 5 minute video to see how I did it…

Why do it this way?

It’s very easy to change your Twitter name. You can do it through the settings area of your profile. BUT WAIT!

If you just switch your name to something new, what happens when someone makes contact with you using your old name? They may not realise you’ve changed your name. The problem is, you won’t receive the message – it will be lost because your old username account no longer exists and that person will never know. What if someone follows you using your old username? They may have received a recommendation to follow you but they won’t know you’ve moved your profile. You could lose countless opportunities to engage with others interested in your product or service!

For this to work you need 2 things in place first:

  • A new available profile name. This bit can be tricky. My chosen name was about 10th on my list of desired names!
  • An email address that is not currently associated with any of your other Twitter profiles. Each Twitter account needs a separate email address. You can’t have 1 email address associated with 2 or more accounts so you’ll want to make sure you have an email address in place before starting this process.

OK, here’s how you do it…

Step 1

  • Change your current username to your new one in the settings section of your account.
  • Once you’ve added your desired name, Twitter will check to see if it’s available. If your chosen name isn’t available it will say so and you’ll have to pick another.
  • Once you have your chosen name scroll down to the bottom of the page and SAVE CHANGES.

Step 2

Notify all of your followers that you’ve changed your Twitter name. Do this by sending an update message telling them your new username.

Step 3

  • Next up, create a new Twitter profile using your old Twitter name. This is when you will need another email address.
  • Enter all the account information required for your new account, including your previous username. It’s important to do this step straight away to prevent anyone else taking your profile!
  • Once the account is created, skip all of the ‘find people to follow’ stuff and go straight in to settings to recreate your account adding your profile picture, email, web address and old Twitter name.
  • In the bio, explain who you are, that your profile has moved and where people can find you. By adding your new username in the bio, it will show up as a link taking people directly to your updated profile. Remember to save changes!
  • If you’ve got a custom Twitter background you can add that in too in the Design area of settings.

Step 4

The next step is to send out a message on your new account with your old username. Don’t expect to get any followers here but just in case people come looking for you using your old Twitter name, you’ll want to make doubly sure that people know where they can find you. For the time being at least, this message will remain at the top of your profile ready to point people in the right direction.

I recommend that you come to check this account periodically, especially after the first few days of switching your name because you will get messages from people who don’t realise you’ve changed usernames, or they’ll forget, or people may follow you too. You can send them a message explaining that you’ve changed your name and where they can find you.

And that is it! That’s the whole process, really simple – it takes 5 minutes and it prevent you from losing any contacts you’ve made through your old username and will ensure a smooth transition from one to the other!

Thanks to and for their wise advice in pulling this strategy together.

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  • 20 May 2011 by Lucy Baker Make-up

    This is brilliant. Easy to listen to and really easy to follow. can we see you in the next video? Perhaps a little intro so we can see you before the demo?

    • 21 May 2011 by Alicia

      Thanks Lucy, maybe I will if you do my make up ;)

  • 20 May 2011 by Karen Haller

    I’m sure this happens to lots of people where they pick a name and then realise they could be using a more business savvy twitter name.

    This is a great step by step guide.

  • 20 May 2011 by Tamsin Fox-Davies

    This is a great description of how to swap over a twitter name. It took me quite a while to figure it out, so having a step by step explanation like this is perfect!

    • 21 May 2011 by Alicia

      Thanks Tam and Karen. I also considered it for a long time so I hope this guide is useful to others :)

  • 21 May 2011 by Felicity Lerouge

    This is really useful as I have two accounts – one personal and one for Phenomenal Women but it was proving too much of a bind to tweet twice, so I was considering how to amalgamate the two. Now I can use the tips here to tell my fans I’m using one address. Thank you.

    • 27 May 2011 by Alicia

      Hi Felicity

      That’s great to hear. If you need some extra help just let me know :)

  • 24 February 2012 by Karen James Cody

    Brilliant! You’ve saved me hours with this simple, easy-to-follow video and explanation.

    • 27 February 2012 by Alicia

      Great stuff, Karen – glad to help

  • 12 October 2012 by Todd Thomas

    I’m guessing that this strategy isn’t against twitter’s TOS in any way?

    • 14 October 2012 by Alicia

      Hi Todd

      No, you can have as many Twitter profiles as you want. Unlike Facebook :)

  • 30 December 2012 by Joseph Janulewicz

    Great video! Thanks for the help and good luck with everything :)

  • 24 April 2013 by Andrea Duncan

    Thank you Alicia. Very helpful indeed and so clearly presented. I can only agree with the other people- it would have been nice to see your face :-)

    • 1 May 2013 by Alicia

      Thanks Andrea. Next time :)

  • 17 June 2013 by Emmie

    Thanks so much for this – it was really helpful!

  • 12 July 2013 by Drew Manderfeld

    I would swap steps 2 and 3 in case anyone tries to take your old name before you create the 2nd account.

    • 15 July 2013 by Alicia

      Thanks Drew! :)

  • 17 July 2013 by David Rough

    This was really helpful. The process seemed daunting but you simplified the whole thing and sounds so much better than my own name! Many thanks, David.

  • 17 October 2013 by Bob Grupp

    Thanks for posting. This was very efficient and helpful.

  • 4 January 2014 by Andre Veloux

    Thanks Alicia Cowan!!!

  • 15 January 2014 by Catherine McCurdy

    Great video! Simple steps… thanks :)

    • 20 January 2014 by Alicia

      You’re welcome, Catherine – thanks for your comment.

  • 16 February 2014 by Stephanie the Powers

    I have a name on my personal account that I’ve been wanting to use as my blog’s Twitter handle for a while since it matches all my other blog social media like pinterest, Instagram, etc. I wanted to try switching them, but I was so scared that I would just end up losing the name. Thanks for confirming that the name is released immediately! I’m also going to use your tips about registering my current blog Twitter at a new account so I don’t lose followers.

    • 18 February 2014 by Alicia

      Awesome! So glad to hear this helped you streamline your social profiles. :)

  • 14 March 2014 by Jen Tilly

    Really helpful and easy to follow video – worked perfectly first time. Thank you.

  • 17 March 2014 by Arelthia

    I have wanted to change my Twitter Name for a while but did not want to use the followers I have. Now it is done. Thanks for such a great post.

  • 28 June 2014 by Tegan

    I just used these instructions to change my twitter account name, and they worked beautifully. I changed the email address on the keeper first, to the one I mostly use, and that freed up the old email address to use on the re-initiated old twitter name account. Nice! I’m very grateful to you for giving me the confidence to forge ahead with this.

  • 19 July 2014 by Paul K

    Thank you! Really useful. Just in the process of moving from one company to another. I have two twitter profiles, a professional one and a personal one, and I was wondering how I could avoid having to close the professional one down – which is clearly linked to the present company – and losing c. 300 followers. You’ve shown me the way! :-)

  • 23 September 2014 by Luci - MumsMakeLists.com

    Hi there, thanks so much for this, I hadn’t realised you could change the actual @… bit before now. Finding your post came at the perfect time for updating my twitter name.

  • 9 December 2014 by Kevan Blackadder

    Another happy customer. Both the blog and video were so useful when I wanted to change Twitter name

  • 7 January 2015 by Aligning my online personas | Pending Title

    […] Twitter handle without losing your followers was easy thanks to Alicia Cowan’s post Change Your Twitter Name Without Losing Followers. Keeping my followers was important so her instructions were really helpful. Thanks, […]

  • 9 February 2015 by Saira Hamilton

    Thanks so much for this Alicia – really useful and simple to follow. It’s all done: I am now officially in the Twittersphere!!

    • 28 February 2015 by Alicia

      Awesome!

  • 9 March 2015 by Debrah Woods AKA Tess

    My twitter name is my personal name, but all the information is linked to my business. Like email and web address, however I had a website audit done and it doesn’t show that I have a twitter account. For SEO purposes, how do I make the twitter account show for my business? I tried several new names and there is nothing I can use that would make sense. Also does changing your name even fix with this issue.

  • 29 April 2015 by Uvah'Lavarah Apovea

    Thanks for the insight. I have a personal blog which I want to link to my twitter account and I didn’t like the idea of creating a separate account. But going through your website has given me the idea to just change my name which matches my personal blog.

  • 2 May 2015 by maggie

    Hei Alicia, thanks so much for the tutorial. It’s really useful.
    I can’t help but wonder though, what would happen to my tweets that people RTed or favorited? I mean, would it still be RTed and facorited by those people? And what about the mentions?
    Thabks again for your tutorial.

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    […] Even if your existing name is lack lustre, you can still change it and keep your followers. […]

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    […] Even if your existing name is lack lustre, you can still change it and keep your followers. […]

  • 20 May 2015 by 25 Twitter handle hacks for when your perfect name is already taken | Social Media Trending Tides

    […] Even if your existing name is lack lustre, you can still change it and keep your followers. […]

  • 16 June 2015 by 25 Twitter handle hacks for when your perfect name is already taken | Digital Review

    […] Even if your existing name is lack lustre, you can still change it and keep your followers. […]

  • 23 June 2015 by Vanessa Park

    Thank you so VERY much.

  • 25 August 2015 by Sandy Lashin-Curewitz

    Thank you for “Changing your Twitter name without losing followers”! I had been reluctant to do this for some time. Your video was quick and easy. Now I’ll be a loyal a follower!

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