6 steps to secure your Twitter username if it's already taken

As a personal branding consultant, I recommend everyone who cares about their personal brand to at least secure your @FirstLast username on Twitter right away while you can.

So what can you do if you want a username that’s already taken? You can do what I did and try to secure it anyway. Here are the exact steps I followed to successfully secure my desired Twitter username @JosephPLiu, which had already been taken by someone else.

This process has no guarantees. In fact, my attempts did NOT work for me the first two times I tried, but with persistence, it eventually worked for me. I hope it can work for you too.

1. Secure the corresponding .COM

I secured josephpliu.com, which I now use it as my primary domain. This is something I did not have during my first couple failed attempts to secure my username.

If you’re looking for a good domain registrar, I recommend Namecheap to my clients because it offers some of the most competitive purchase & renewal fees. I used to use GoDaddy, but I’ve found their renewal fees are a bit higher.

If you need hosting, I highly recommend A2 Hosting, which has lightning fast servers. I switched from GoDaddy to A2 last month, and I’ll never go back.

2. List that .COM as the primary site in your account

Edit your profile, and add this URL in as the main website.

3. Ensure the target username's profile is inactive

Every time I checked the old @JosephPLiu Twitter account, it seemed completely dead and inactive. You ideally want your target username's profile page to look something like this:

If there's an egg in the profile, the person hasn't Tweeted in years, and/or their followers of following numbers have been static for a long time, you may be in luck. Proceed to the next step. If the username you want is taken by someone who's very active on Twitter, you're probably out of luck. No need to ready further. Sorry :(

When I realised the old @JosephPLiu account had been inactive for years, I didn't feel as bad about attempting to snatch it away. As a courtesy, I actually Tweeted to the user (this now shows my current username, but I tweeted from my old one):

I'm torn about whether you should flag your intentions to the person from whom you want the username. On the one hand, it's a courteous thing to do. But on the other, it could just make that user bunker in. I'll let you make your own judgement call on that.

4. File an impersonation claim with Twitter

You can report an account for impersonation with Twitter using this form.

Select: "An account is pretending to be me or someone I know" then, "I am being impersonated"

For "Username of the account you are reporting," enter the username you want. "Your Username" is auto-filled in. In my case, I entered @JosephPLiu.

Enter your email. Now, in my case, my email had "josephpliu" in it, matching the same syntax as the username I wanted. I'm not sure if this makes any difference, but it can't hurt.

In the "Anything else you’d like to tell us?" section, explain why you think you should get this username. I'd ensure you at least cover off:

1. Why you should be the rightful owner

1. The evidence suggesting the target username's account is inactive

I included both my passport and driver's license clearly showing my full name as supporting documents.

That's it. Submit your info, and keep your fingers crossed. You'll receive an immediate email from Twitter acknowledging your request.

5. Wait for an email from Twitter

If you're lucky, and Twitter accepts your request, you will receive an email from Twitter. I heard back only 3 working days later with this email:

This makes me think you could be successful in doing this even if you don't have an active Twitter account, but I'm not really sure.

6. Email Twitter back with your desired option

I immediately emailed them back, requesting option 1 above. In 10 minutes, I received one final email from them stating the transfer had been completed:

HOORAY!!!!! No more underscore!!

BONUS TIP: Re-secure your old username & set up a forwarding message.

Your old username will be immediately released, so I'd recommend you be ready to grab it back up, at least temporarily, so that when people click on old Tweets or references that refer to your old profile username, people don't end up landing on a dead page.

I would recommend you NOT user your full name on the old profile page to avoid confusing Google rankings, which you'll want to favor your active account. I just put J Liu.

Just include a brief description indicating your new username in your profile description and a pinned Tweet if you want. You can see what I've done here at twitter.com/JosephLiu_. I may eventually cancel this account, but it's a good for the temporary transition period.

Securing your desired profile URL allows you to have a more professional-looking handle, and also allow you to have a consistent personal branding across all your social media profile (I use @JosephPLiu across most my social media platforms).

Hope you found this useful. If it works for you, I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Good luck!

A version of this article was originally published on my blog.