It's important to brand yourself on Facebook and Twitter. I noticed several people just don't understand "branding" and I had to write something.
The first example I want to make is Ron Artest's original Twitter name @96TruwarierQB. LOL are you kidding me???? What kind of name is @96TruwarierQB for a professional basketball player?!?!
How on earth are fans suppose to really find you and remember that bizarre user name, especially when it's written all funky?! Looks like he finally got the point and changed his name to @basketball_ron.
Changing your name on Twitter is completely idiotic in my opinion. First off, once you establish your Twitter account, your tweets and user name start getting in search engines. When you change your name, how are new potential fans/followers suppose to know this change?
Perfect example of doing a search on
Ron Artest's Twitter user name & a site has his old user name. #fail
Chris Brown disconnected from Twitter and made a come back, he also changed his name from @MechanicalDummy to @ChrisBrown. He should have been @ChrisBrown in the first place!
Denver Nuggets player JR Smith changed his user name from @jr_smith1 to @jr_swish…notice how this site has his old user name and hasn't changed. #fail
I noticed a local Twitter problem happen, that makes a good example of reasons not to change your name. @Denver_Broncos is the official Twitter account for the Denver Broncos. Well, before Twitter started really blowing up and sports started taking advantage of using Twitter, Denver's local newspaper company the Denver Post started the account @denverbroncos. They tweeted updates about the Denver Broncos for awhile to all the fans, which was nice to follow. But then the NFL wanted to get involved in the Twitterverse more and when they wanted to make @denverbroncos they saw it was taken, so they created @denver_broncos. That is NFL's first mistake.
You are the NFL! Don't you think if the NFL reached out to Twitter, they would surrender @denverbroncos to them? Of course…..but it's obvious they didn't. Sometime (I don't remember exactly when) NFL went after @denverbroncos but instead of changing their well established account @denver_broncos, they told the Denver Post to shut that account down and delete it. The Denver Post agreed and changed their name to @postbroncos.
Am I the only one that finds all that funny? Now to make matters even more ridiculous, after the Denver Post changed their name to @postbroncos, some random person saw the opportunity of no one using @denverbroncos and registered it. The user has 0 tweets but it's so ridiculous to me that Professional Basketball players to the NFL don't understand all this digital stuff, especially branding.
Everyone with a brand, should have a digital person (like me) on payroll to spot things like this and make sure they are engaging in social media the RIGHT way. It might be another expense but having a digital staff member is crucial these days. You will not succeed with your brand if it's not all over social media.
If you are looking for some digital help, reach out to me!
#fail if you have "real" in your name, that shows someone else got your user name and you didn't take the time to reach out to Twitter. It's evident you don't understand the social media/digital world either. It's very easy to reach out to Twitter/Myspace/Facebook and get the account that matches your brand name. In fact, I did this for Chamillionaire on Twitter!
List of #fail Twitter user names I just noticed:
@THE_REAL_SHAQ – Come on Shaq you should be @Shaq. Now when you tell people in person your Twitter name you got to say "follow me at ….the underscore real underscore Shaq" #fail
@96TruwarierQB – Enough said above about how ridiculous this is.
@ludajuice -Should definitely be Ludacris in my opinion.
@reallamarodom – Drop the "real"
@the_real_nash – Ok Shaq…
@D_Will_8_4real -Almost as hideous as Artest's name. Deron Williams shut down his Twitter account.
I remember 'The Game' changing his name more than once, that's more than ridiculous. I couldn't remember or find his previous names.
I strongly suggest AVOID using underscores in Twitter user names because it's very time consuming to add one while Tweeting from a phone (especially an iphone).
