A Tweetable Profile
Your Twitter profile should be every bit as compelling and descriptive as your profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook. Unlike those sites, though, you have to say a lot in a little space.
Twitter will help you master brevity like no other medium.
Your Twitter User Name
Making your name easily findable when searched for online is always your best strategy for profile names.
If people know that your Twitter user name is simply your name, they only have to enter the URL to start following your tweets.
My Twitter user name is my name:
http://www.twitter.com/geofftucker
If you choose a user name at random, you are forfeiting valuable real estate in establishing your online footprint. The exception to this is if you are known by a particular designation. For example, Brian Clark blogs about writing copy (content) in a variety of mediums. His blog is titled Copyblogger, and @copyblogger is his user name, too.
If you are well known for a particular expertise, with an established reputation for that subject matter, this strategy makes sense.
If you are new to Twitter, I recommend using your own name.
Does another user already have your name? Experiment with alternatives by using your full first name, your middle initial, your profession, or other keyword to set you apart. The other advantage of using your own name is that it is easy to remember.
If you decide that you dislike your Twitter user name, remember that you will give up your list of followers when you migrate to a new one. Making sure everyone follows you over to that new user name can be a herculean task that risks losing people along the way. Building that list of followers is not an effort to regard lightly.
Optimize Your Profile
After you register your user name, pick a password and confirm you are not a robot in the reCAPTCHA box. This is Twitter’s effort to thwart spammers.
Twitter provides a tool scans your online email accounts for Yahoo, Gmail and AOL. It scans your address book to determine if anyone you know is using Twitter, and it will suggest them as people to follow.
This tool will also present a list of all your contacts not on Twitter so you can invite them to join.