UPDATE: The second part about retaining your old user name is not a long term solution. It appears that Twitter hangs on to your old username for a certain amount of time and then releases it. I’m not sure what that time is so if anyone knows I’d love to hear it in the comments. Thanks to Mandi and Ramesh for pointing this out.

This post will show you how easy it is to change your Twitter username and handle. It will also explain how you can reserve handles for future use.

It may be obvious for most but I managed to screw up changing usernames big time which resulted in a lot of confusion and being banished to the naughty corner for some time out by Twitter admins. I’ve had a number of people ask how you change usernames so I’ll explain.

1. Unlike Facebook, you do not get one chance at a username. You can continually change your username which will in turn change your handle and URL while keeping all your old followers and history. So unless you want to, do not create a new account.
2. Log in to your existing Twitter account.
3. Go to ‘Settings’.
4. Go to ‘Username’ and enter your desired username.
5. If username is available, you will be prompted to enter your password.
6. Press save.
7. You will now login under ‘newusername’, your handle will be @newusername and your Twitter URL will be www.twitter.com/newusername.

Here’s the cool part…

If someone tweets to @oldusername it will show up in @newusername’s mentions. Additionally, if someone is directed to www.twitter.com/oldusername they will be redirected to www.twitter.com/newusername. If you are really smart, you should be changing your handles to reserve a few handles for future use.

In the end, it is a really simple process and will not disrupt your tweeting at all.

Thanks to Kate Kendall and Brett Nicholson for bringing me up to speed on this!

Related posts:

1. Is Your Brand A Twitter Friend or Twitter Fail?
2. Hey Hey New Twitter Users
3. 5 Ways Foursquare Will Change Business