Changing Twitter UserName: What Happens?

I have changed my Twitter @username and I had a mix set of experience which I would like to share with you all. I have put all those experience in the form of Advantages and Disadvantages.

Changing twitter @username can be a decision based on many reason some of which could be getting a more relevant user name.

Advantages of Changing twitter @username:

1. Followers are not lost:
All the people who follow you still follow you. There is no modification in the list of your followers and it still remains as it was before you changed your twitter username.

2. People you follow are not Lost:
Also the people who you follow back are also unchaged and you do not need to worry about that.

3. Twitter API's work fine:
API's such as Twitter to Facebook or TwitterFeed all work fine even after you change your twitter @username

Disadvantages of Changing Twitter @username:

1. Replies are lost: 
At least my experience is that my replies got lost or shall I say they continued with the same @username. So That's a big risk you might not want to take if you have tons of twitter replies which you might be using for displaying on your blog.

2. Search Engine Impact: 
Google had indexed all my twitter posts which were having updates from my blog. Now that the URL changes with the new @username the search results also disappear and might impact your inflow of traffic to your website or blog if they are in huge numbers.

3. New Twitter URL needs Updating:
I had to update my new Twitter URL in many places like facebook, Blog and wherever I had hard coded it. Or else people would have visited wrong URLs and got an impression that the profile itself is fake.

4. Increased Confusion:
If your new twitter @username is totally different than previous then people would be certainly confused that suddenly who is this person who has started twitting and they might end up actually un following you. I did not have such a problem but I guess there is a strong possibility of that happening.

So based on the above set of pros and cons you can basically decide if you really want to change your twitter @username or not. Just make sure the new @username should not be very drastically different in case you do not want to loose your followers. Anyways to change your twitter @username is your call and nobody can stop you from doing it. As long as Twitter supports it you can surely change it. Its your call finally what say?


Related Articles:
How to Post your twits on Face book automatically.
How to post your Blogger Posts on Twitter and Facebook.