Twitter account holders, both individuals and businesses,?often make the mistake of getting on Twitter without thinking their choice of Twitter handle through.

How poor choices of Twitter handle happen and how they can hurt you

Rushed and poorly thought out Twitter handle choices are common with businesses. Often, they have one group of marketing employees pick one name for their Facebook presence and another pick their Twitter handle. These two groups may neglect to talk with one another and simply go about picking different names. A fashion retail business, for instance, may end up calling itself Flirty Fashions (its full name) on Facebook, and using the shortened @FF on Twitter. Down the line, the Chief Marketing Officer might notice that different social media handles confuse the buying public and decide to have the Twitter handle changed to the same name as on Facebook.

Individuals can make poor Twitter handle choices, too. College students, for instance, often create accounts on Twitter with fun names. They realize when they get on the job market, though, that a non-serious Twitter handle like?@Pizza Fanatic?can be a liability. ?The modern job market rewards jobseekers with great Twitter followings. Not only do you need many Twitter followers, you need them under your own, real name so that potential employers know that it’s you behind a Twitter handle stated on a resume. You can’t very well create a new Twitter account – you would lose all your current followers.

Here’s how you change your Twitter handle

To change your Twitter handle, you simply need to access the settings control on your account. Under your Twitter username tab and under?Settings, you need to go to the?Account?tab and simply type in whatever new handle you like in the Username field. This changes your Twitter handle and helps you bring all your old followers under your new name.

You still need to clean up a couple of problems

When you move to a new Twitter handle, your old Twitter handle is freed up for use by other people. This opens it up for potential abuse. Whether you’re a business or individual, you need to close off this avenue.

If you are a business, you can have people try to follow your old Twitter handle because the name still appears on old webpages, old emails and print advertising. A clever competitor might notice that you have vacated your old Twitter handle, quickly pick it up and claim every new customer signing up to your old Twitter handle for himself. If you are an individual, you might have someone play a prank on you with your old Twitter handle.

To make sure no Twitter hijacking occurs with your old handle, you need to reclaim ownership of it. You simply need to open a new email account, create another Twitter account with it and then sign up with your old Twitter handle. Now that you have control of it, you can send a message to all your followers, asking them to join you at your new Twitter handle.

A good deal of your social standing comes from your reputation on Twitter and Facebook. It’s important to take your presence on these social networking services seriously. As with many other things, it only takes a little effort to secure yourself if you act in good time.