Why Are Social Media Handles Important?
Updated: Jan 25, 2021
You might be wondering how important social media handles are.
Well, more important than you think!
Choosing the right handle plays an important part of building brand identity in social media marketing.
It also makes it easier for people to find you if you have matching handles.
So, what exactly are social media handles and how should you use them?
What are Social Media Handles?
Social media handles are the usernames or identities which a business uses on one or many social media platforms.
Handles are often referred to in assorted ways, most often using the @user format to indicate a social handle.
These are basically your public username.
Social media handles shouldn't be overlooked in your social media strategy.
Is Consistency Important?
It is very important to be consistent with your social media handles.
You want them to be easy to remember.
However, this isn't always the case so don't panic if you aren't able to get the same handle across all social media platforms.
Getting a handle that's somewhat similar is the next best thing.
Another option is to actually reach out to the person or business who has your preferred handle.
You can offer to purchase it from them.
Always try to do this as early on as possible before your business grows.
The more popular your business, the higher the price is likely to be.
It's always important to remember to claim your preferred handle for your business on new social media platforms as they launch.
You may not use it but you've secured it in case it does become relevant.
Why are Social Media Handles Important?
The majority of customers will interact with your brand online at some time.
It is integral that you make it as easy as possible for customers to interact with you.
Failing to offer the public an opportunity to easily access you or your project prevents the opportunities social media can offer from ever being available to your endeavour.
Social media handles are how much of the modern world initiates relationships of all kinds - professional and personal.
Tips for Choosing Social Media Handles
Make sure your social media handle makes sense and is easy to remember.
Sometimes abbreviation or leetspeak is appropriate for an official handle.
But you really want to do everything you can to catch as many opportunities as you can.
You want to get a handle which represents every logical permutation of your business name into that format.
For example, you can use auxiliary handles as a means to direct that traffic to the main handle.
Social media represents a better opportunity to reach an audience than search engine optimisation or advertising.
In many cases, it offers prospective customers a convenient way to directly interact with your brand.
What If Your Handle Isn’t Available on Every Platform?
If your handle is not available on every platform, don't panic!
Ideally you want all handles across all social media platforms to be the same for ease.
But if you can't, try and get the other handles to be as close to the other handle as possible.
For example, if your business is called "Market Place Cafe" but it's not available on Instagram as @MarketPlaceCafe, you could try "@MarketPlaceCafeWells".
What is a Facebook Handle?
All Facebook page accounts have handles that are known as usernames.
This is the name that will appear in your unique Facebook URL.
Your Facebook page will also have a name, and this is the main title of your page.
The difference is that your handle (or username) helps you be able to uniquely identify yourself on Facebook.
Most handles are meant to be a simple identifier of a business.
When creating a Facebook username, you want to be sure to keep it short and sweet, and be clear and easily identifiable.
There can be potentially multiple Facebook entities that have the same name displayed on their profile - the same name for relevant searches.
However, your username helps differentiate your Facebook page.
Sometimes, a new Facebook page needs to be more established before it has the option to have a username.
There's no need to worry - just keep posting and growing your page.
It will happen fairly quickly.
What is a Twitter Handle?
A Twitter handle is your Twitter username.
Every handle is unique, and, unlike Facebook, is more frequently directly interacted with.
With Twitter, replies and tweets to other users are identified by including @ followed by the username you intend to tweet to or about.
Again, your name is different from your handle and shows as the main name on your profile.
This can be changed to whatever you like, but there is never any duplicated usernames.
This is why it becomes pretty important to grab the handles that best reflect your business name and stands the test of time.
In fact, even when considering a business name, you should be looking into the cost of claiming the best social media handles.
Names with a lot of competition can require more investment in order to access lucrative handles.
And it is never too soon to claim a handle that is potentially useful to you.
What is an Instagram Handle?
An Instagram handle is much like a Twitter handle.
It is a unique username on Instagram which identifies a profile and the associated content.
It's usually expressed following the “@” symbol and can be used in that way to message the user or post content mentioning them.
Or as a means of marketing the username.
At this juncture, most people would understand “@username” to mean a Twitter and/or Instagram handle.
Most entities will claim both simultaneously, which is wise to do.
This creates consistency, which is very important in regards to social media handles.
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