Choosing your name depends on why you are using Twitter, but choosing wisely is very important (kind of like choosing a domain name) so use these guidelines:
- If you just want to lurk and never want anyone to know who you are, then pick whatever you want.
- If you plan on using Twitter to promote yourself then, if you can, use your name or some variation of it.
- If you are a company planning to use Twitter for marketing, reputation management, customer service, etc then by all means use the name of your company.
Avoid using underscores (_) or anything that will make your name longer. Remember that it is part of the 140 character limit and people will be typing it in, sometimes on their cell phone so the easier the better.
If you have enough of a following it’s also likely that it will show up in Google search results when people query your name. If your name is already taken, then you will have to try an alternate name. If someone brand jacked your company name try emailing support (at) twitter (dot) com. Most people that I know of have had good results, but I think that you have to be a big brand or the user hasn’t really used the account very much at all.
If you already have a name with a big following then you can change your name. Check out – Changing Your Twitter Name.