Twitter users: Help people find you
One of the shortcomings of Twitter is that it can be find to hard to find people — even people that you’re following — when you don’t have their Twitter ID right smack in front of your nose. Sure, you can go hunting and pecking in TweetDeck, or do a Google or Twitter people search, but that’s a pain.
Sometimes it can make for a guessing game. What’s Doc Searls’ Twitter handle again? Not www.twitter.com/docsearls (if you go there you’ll get Twitter’s “That page doesn’t exist” message, shown at top. Doc is actually at @dsearls. It may not be a large number, but I’d guess that at least a few people type twitter.com/docsearls into their Web browser and leave, assuming that Doc doesn’t Twitter, when his tweets are well worth following.
Similarly, you won’t find Amy Gahran at @amygahran, but at @agahran. Rebecca MacKinnon and Huntley Tarrant, smartly, have shortened their Twitter handles to @rmack and @huntleymt, respectively, though have no pointers there.
Now, I’m no scold, but I don’t like wasting time, and it takes only a few seconds for anyone to claim their real name on Twitter (assuming no one else has grabbed it), and then point people to the Twitter ID that you prefer. And more important, by claiming your real name on Twitter, you’ll be heading off some possible mischief down the road, as some squatter may swoop in, steal your identity and use it for untoward purposes.
A lot of people already do this, like Tara Hunt, who prefers the handle @missrogue. Or Beth Kanter, who tweets at @kanter and uses @bethkanter for stream feeds.
I brought this up last month during a conference call with David Mathison to promote his new book, Be the Media. He had registered his book’s title on Twitter — but not his own name. “David,” I suggested, “you should register @davidmathison and point people to your book’s Twitter ID.” He found the suggestion useful and grabbed the ID a few hours later.
Web identity is coming to increasingly to define who we are in life, and we may decide to use an Internet handle or our real name for our Twitter IDs (mine is just @jdlasica). We’re now not just users but brands.
So help people find your brand.
JD Lasica works with major companies and nonprofits on social media strategies. See his business profile, contact JD or leave a comment.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.
Tweet-roll
That’s why I use FamDing.com. It’s very private and has lots of cool features…plus it’s geared towards families. I know Twitter helps you stay connected with lots of non-family around the world, but FamDing makes it so you don’t have to worry about the identity stuff.
Comment by Brian
—
March 31, 2009 @
1:42 am