Choosing a great username is one of the first things you have to consider when signing up for Twitter. Should you use your real name? How about your business name? Should your Twitter username be funny or professional? These are all great questions and should be given some thought before you decide on your Twitter handle. And while it is possible to change your Twitter username, it is easier to get it right from the beginning.

What Does My Username Communicate?

Think for a minute about what your user name communicates to the people who are deciding to follow you on Twitter.

Consider what each of these real examples communicates:

• @ProBlogger – Communicates that this person is all about blogging. Not only that, he is a pro!
• @EverythingTwtr – This guy will concentrate his posts on things to related to Twitter.

How Long Should MyTwitter Username Be?

When choosing your name consider the length. EverythingTwtr is 14 characters. When a person retweets your @username becomes part of the message. Since your @username is part of the retweet, it can become difficult to include your whole tweet.

My preference is to capitalize the first letter of each word. This makes the name more readable. Compare @janedoe with @JaneDoe for example.

Should I Use My Real Name?

If you are tweeting personally, by all means use your name. People like to get to know you and communicate with a real person. Even if you are planning to Twitter under a different name, you should go ahead and sign up using your real name as well. Why? Because you will secure the name for your future use. Otherwise somebody else may get it first and the name will be unavailable for your use.

If your name is taken, you might try adding an underscore between your first and last names. The positive is that you get to use your name. Drawbacks Makes your name longer and difficult to type on a mobile phone.

Giving a little thought to your Twitter username at the beginning will pay big dividends as you gain experience with Twitter. I would love to hear your suggestions about selecting a username and the story of how you selected your Twitter name in the comment section below.

Photo by: Jack Dorsey