This post is going to be part rant and part advice.

Please people when choosing your @names for Instagram and twitter, it’s so important to have the same names because…

More and more people are using Instagram to populate their twitter feeds.

While twitter is good at building relationships one to one with people, it’s also really good at showing your daily routines, products and thought pieces.  You want to inspire, educate and entertain.

Instagram is a good way to do that inspiring, educating and entertaining.  And if you want to use Instagram you so can also tweet with pictures (check out ifttt for a little hack where you can make this happen), then you can populate both social media platforms with images in one fail swoop.  One action – 2 social media platforms updated – it’s a win win.

Now many people do say to me, ‘But Debbie I’ve been told I should view social media platforms as different and not post the same content’.

Here’s my reply:

'You should never cross post from Facebook and Twitter – that is a no, no – they look different. Twitter is short and sweet and Facebook a long conversation style.  When cross posting happens here it looks lazy (and strange) because people write in different styles.  Your potential customers won’t feel much love from you if they feel you can’t be bothered to spend time communicating with them.

But between Instagram and twitter the line is a lot more blurred.  Both love #hashtags, both love images and so in our fast-paced world where time is at a premium I’d say go for it.  Post great images on Instagram and share them on twitter too. I get great responses on both platforms for the same post.  It works'.

So back to our conversation about having the same names on Instagram and twitter…

If I want to create a post on Instagram and also share it on twitter and I want to include your @name, what happens when your @name (essentially your brand name) is different in 2 places?

One – I’m not always totally sure if it is you?  Why would you be @hellsbells on twitter and then @hellsbellsukart on Instagram?  Is this the same brand – do I ‘know, like and trust’ this brand who calls itself 2 different things?

Two – if I include your @hellsbellsukart on Instagram and share the post on twitter, I end up looking silly on twitter as @hellbellsukart doesn’t exist on twitter.

Three – you don’t get the benefit of me including you on 2 platforms. 

Four – it might be so difficult and such a pain that I end up not bothering to communicate with you – which is essentially the whole point of social media.

Now I know that it can be tiresome finding something that works on both platforms.  Or you may love your twitter @name and somebody irritating has gone and grabbed that name on Instagram (and probably isn’t even using the account ‘bites own knuckles in frustration’), but if you can and if it’s not too much bother it is really worth seeing these @names as a way to brand yourself and get some consistency and make it easy for people to communicate with you.

If you’re looking for a name that works across different platforms this website is helpful 'knowem' you’ll be able to check across 500 social networks and urls and find something that works for you in several places.

And if you’re right at the start with social media, it will be easier for you as you can start with a fresh clean slate with consistent branding across the board.

I hope that’s helped you understand why it’s important to have clear consistent branding that makes it easy for people to communicate with you. 

I’m helping people all the time with their branding and social media and love working one to one with people supporting them build their digital stories.  If you’re interested in finding out more take a look at how we can work together!