5 steps to finding the "right" Instagram username
Every wondered how people came up with their Instagram username or if there is a series of rules or best practices when selecting their business social media name?
Choosing a social media handle can be really tricky, especially when you’re trying to find your place on a platform like Instagram with 1 billion users (That’s a crazy amount of people). To help out anyone that's struggling to find the right handle for yourself or your business, we’ve got the 5 steps to make sure you’re seen, paid attention to and remembered….because lists are better with round numbers 😉
1 . Make sure it relates back to your business
If you’re already running an established business, you should use your business name as not only your Instagram handle, but as all of your social media handles.
If you’re looking to become an influencer or share your creations, make sure you use something that is relevant to what you’d like to post. It doesn’t make a whole bunch of sense to be a food blogger and have a username like “@travel_life”. It might help to brainstorm a list of words relating to your brand or theme.
2. Make it memorable
Making your username catchy is really important if you’re wanting people to find you easily and actually remember you! This is especially important if you're relying on word of mouth, which is probably where you'll start on your journey to growing a community.
Try using alliteration or a play on words. Alliteration is using the same letter or sound at the beginning of every word in a sentence. If you’re not sure what alliteration is, “She sells seashells by the sea-shore” is an example. If you happen to be lucky and have a name like Frank N. Stein you could try using wordplay and use the name Frankenstein.
3. Across the board
If you’re creating your username for a brand it's always good to take a few of your possible names and check if any of them are available on all social media platforms that you intend to use, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
It’s confusing for you and people following you when you have different usernames for all your channels.
If there is a specific platform you’d like to use in the future, it’s a good idea to make an account while you’re deciding on how to use it. This ensures that no sneaky competitors or young whippersnappers nab your business name before you decide to make the move onto that platform...which leads us nicely onto our next point 👇
4. What do I do if the name is already taken?
It’ll be really annoying if you go through this entire process and not be able to use your chosen name because it was already taken. Unfortunately while this does happen, there is an easy fix.
Adding some punctuation like an underscore or a full stop means you can still use the name without it coming across that it was already taken. Be careful not to use too much punctuation though as it may come across spammy and untrustworthy.
You can also add words like ‘official’, ‘real’ or ‘the’. Some examples of celebrities using these are ‘@thebillyporter’, ‘@therealcalebmclaughlin’ and, ‘@katesiegelofficial’.
5. Proof Reading Counts
Once you choose your username you won't be able to change it right away so make sure you proofread so there are no typos or spelling errors….because that would be embarrassing 😐
Using programs like Grammarly or even copy and pasting into Word will make your life easier if spelling just ain’t your thang.
If you’re OK with grammar but need to double check spelling turn on the Spell Check in Chrome using the steps below. Just make sure you double check that you selected the Australian English dictionary and not the US English 😉
In Google Chrome select the menu button (three dots top right hand corner) and then select ‘Settings’
On the left hand side select “Privacy & Security”
Hit ‘Advanced’ at the bottom of the page and then turn on ‘Basic Spell Check’
So there you go, this is everything you’ll need to create an Instagram username that’s easy to remember and won’t leave people scratching their heads.
