March 8th, 2010
Choosing the right Twitter username can and will make the difference between a successful political social networking strategy and one that, well, sucks. The name of your campaign, organization or candidate IS your brand and you simply can not afford to get this wrong.
Some tips for securing the best Twitter username:
1) Try to get your name.
This may seem like common sense, but try to get your candidate or organization’s name first. If it’s available, snag it. You’ve already spent plenty of time and money building up your name recognition, why not make your social networking identity a seamless part of your brand. In other words, duh.
2) What if someone else already has my username?
Not gonna make that mistake again, are you? Now some Dorito-stained loser has the username most readily associated with your brand and is using it to share their fanatical rants about ‘Twilight: New Moon’ one painful 140-character tweet at a time.
This sucks, but it isn’t the end of the world. Try thinking of the next most logical thing one of your supporters will look for and secure that instead. If you can’t get @MavisSmith, try getting @SmithForGovernor, @SmithForGov or @Smith2012. Your brand will still be clearly represented and in most cases the username you pick will be just as good as having secured your real name.
3) Don’t look like a spammer.
The quickest way to look like a spammer is to have an underscore in your username. Rather than going with @MavisSmith you go with @Mavis_Smith. Yup, you look like a spammer now. You should also avoid random strings of numbers, confusing abbreviations or anything that might look at home on AOL circa 1998. And definitely don’t try to be cute or clever. If you end up picking @SendJK_BK2TXS your social networking strategy is as good as dead.
Choosing the wrong username can have some pretty severe consequences to your campaign’s social networking strategy. And remember, these tips are universal to all current and future social networking platforms. You need to own your brand and to do that you need to own your name.
I would advise against putting the year in your username. It has a maximum shelf life of 365 days and then just looks bad.
A question I have: What if your opponent takes your name and sits on that Twitter account? Or a domain name? Do you have any legal rights to that handle?
Good advice on the year specific names.
I’m actually working on a post right now about what happens when your name gets hijacked. I went through that situation recently and the worst case scenarios are most unpleasant. I’ve also been looking into the legal rights question after finding 2 major cases involving Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Hope to get these posts up soon. Thanks for the questions.