How to Get the Twitter Username You've Always Wanted (even if it's taken)
Don’t forget to secure your Twitter name! I signed up for twitter a year an half ago but that wasn’t soon enough to get my hands on my company’s Twitter name of choice of @intouch.
So if you were late to the party (like me) I’m happy to say there still might be hope. I found this blog post How to Snap Up that Twitter Username You’ve Always Wanted posted by @zee
I followed Zee’s process and I’m pleased to say it worked for us! Maybe it will work for you too.
Here’s what we did
- Emailed username@twitter.com with the following information:
• The username you want
• Your existing username, if you have one
• Whether you want to change your username, or start a new account with the username you’re requesting - I received confirmation the email had been received a few minutes later, then another email asking me to reply with the above information (if I hadn’t already provided it).
- Literally, 3 weeks later, I had my account switched from @intouch5 (BTW intouch1-4 were already taken!) to @intouch.
Why did it work?
The person who took my company’s name was inactive. Twitter has a policy that if a profile has been “inactive” for a period of time they release the name. In my case @intouch was never updated by the previous user so we were lucky. I hope this helps and I wish you success!
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Just so everyone is aware, I received this message when I tried to change my username.
“Twitter is not currently releasing inactive user names. We’re working on a better long term solution for this, and we should have more news soon.”
Mark, thanks for sharing. If others have this experience please share. This process worked for me but it took about 3 weeks while they processed my request.
Also http://thenextweb.com/2009/01/08/how-to-snap-up-that-twitter-username-youve-always-wanted/ has some tips and comments.
I received the same message as Mark just now. If anything else comes of my request, I’ll let you know.
I had the same experience as Mark. First/immediately received an auto-reply that my request was logged, but then the follow-up –
“Hi,
You can change your user name at any time here:
http://twitter.com/account/settings
Your messages, replies and content will not be affected, but we do recommend that that you let your followers know about the name change with a tweet. Twitter is not currently releasing inactive user names. We’re working on a better long term solution for this, and we should have more news soon.”
Received the same message as Mark:
“Twitter is not currently releasing inactive user names.”
Really unfortunate as the username that I would like has been inactive since day 1 yet is my TLD.
i got this email reply :
* If your user name request concerns impersonation, trademark infringement, brand squatting, copyright, or another Terms of Service violation, please submit a request to the Terms of Service group via the web form:
http://twitter.zendesk.com/tickets/new
If you own a trademark for your twitter name that’s being used you can report a violation.
To report a violation:
What information do I need to include when reporting trademark violations?
In order to investigate trademark violations, we need the following information:
Username of the violating account (or the URL to their profile page):
Company name:
Company Twitter account (if there is one):
Your First and Last Name:
Title:
Address:
Phone:
Fax:
Company domain address:
Your company domain email address:
Registration Trademark number:
Here’s a link to the Twitter trademark policy.
http://help.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/18367
Here’s an article on how to handle name squatting that has more ideas…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124269417597532869.html
Thanks for the tip. Didn’t know this could be done.
thanks! very helpful.
Great post! I really like your blog!!
Common Cents
ps. Link Exchange?
Awesome info. I didn’t know you could snag an inactive one. I need to grab mine.
your blog is perfect
Does it work again? Last time I looked, they didn’t release inactive usernames.
————-
Andy Michaels
http://www.andy-michaels.com/
I do believe that Twitter needs to do something about this soon as a lot of brands (well known or otherwise) are really -beep- because someone else is hogging a name (brand) they have no right to.
Thankfully they are unable to capitilise on this.
I sent a message to Twitter and I got the same reply
“Twitter is not currently releasing inactive user names.”
So it looks like I won’t be getting the name I want.