Imagine you come up with a great idea for a blog, or business idea. Or maybe
you just are helping a good friend out with getting them their website up finally. You’ve got the domain name, the business or organization is registered, and you’re just about good to go.
Then you go to obtain your social media usernames. You know going into it that there’s a good chance it’s probably already taken, but worth a shot anyway. You go to Twitter, enter your desired username, and RATS…it’s taken. But that’s not really what’s frustrating. What’s frustrating it although it’s taken, it’s a dead account. Either never used, or hasn’t been used in months…years even. You know what’s even more frustrating? Twitter won’t do anything about it.
Well, that’s not ENTIRELY true. Twitter will help you if you own the trademark or copyright, but let’s be honest, most of us aren’t shelling out those kinds of dollars either for a blog or small business. At least not anytime soon. So what are we small fish to do? There’s nothing we can do. Here’s Twitter’s standard response that many have gotten when inquiring about obtaining an inactive username:
If you’re looking to acquire an inactive username for personal use, please check back in a few months. We’re currently unable to accommodate individual requests for inactive usernames. We may release all inactive usernames in the future, but have not yet set a date for doing so.
This has been the response for a few years, so this is obviously not a big enough deal for Twitter to address. What’s so frustrating is because it’s so incredibly easy for anyone to sign up for Twitter, every stinking name under the sun gets taken regardless of whether it’s ever intended on being used. Yes, the domain industry is very much the same, but in the domain industry, you at least have the potential to purchase the domain after the fact. Not the case with Twitter usernames as it goes against their terms of use.
It can’t be that difficult to create a solution here can it? I understand that Twitter probably cares more about numbers reflecting # of users vs. actual engagement, but it’s not like they would be relinquishing their subscriber numbers here. They would just be replacing dead users with potential active ones.
Here’s a few ideas in hopes that Twitter may actually listen:
- Update your terms that require users to actually USE their accounts or risk losing them. 6 months of no activity, account automatically goes back into circulation. Case closed.
- Hell, make a few bucks if you want. Create a marketplace where users can sell the names and take a cut. Something, anything to give those that are actually willing to spend a few dollars for the name they want, an option to do so. Better yet, keep all the money and just charge for official requests for these names.
- Simply allow users to officially make requests for unused names and give them up if they meet certain criteria. What’s the harm?
Get on it already Twitter. You’ve created a valuable social channel, and you have real users that want to use the platform in place of dead accounts. It’s a win win.
Some active conversations on the issue:
http://www.quora.com/If-a-Twitter-user-has-been-inactive-for-over-6-months-can-I-get-their-username
https://dev.twitter.com/discussions/262
A great free tool to help track when (and if) those Twitter usernames ever get released:
oh man….has this been a bane of my existence or has this been a bane of my existence? Lemme tell ya, it’s has been a bane of my existence 🙂
@ diyblogger is taken and inactive….I’d love to get my hands on that account, which has been inactive for almost a year and sporadic at best before then….
I tried contacting the dude…no response. So I would love it if Twitter took heed to your advice.
You’re not alone! It’s ridiculous really. Plenty of worthwhile potential active users wanting to take over dead accounts. Why in the world won’t they do SOMETHING!?
This threw a wrench in my Social Media branding project for my wife. Her name is taken by a dead account. It is a private one too so I have no way to contacting except through mentions, but it is dead so I get no response. Sad face.
Thanks for putting a solution out there for Twitter to get on it !! Its really creating a win/win
Interesting question here Jason. You have found a few neat solutions to an issue which affects many online entrepreneurs. If nobody is using these accounts, let somebody who would value the accounts – and bring value to the market – use the accounts.
Thanks for sharing!
RB
I’ve currently got a support ticket in for a trademark violation on an account that hasn’t been active since 2008. I received a confirmation reply from Twitter on 10/29 and am just sitting on my hands until then. It’s quite frustrating.
Hi Marissa. Please keep me posted on how it turns out. I’m considering a trademark registration JUST so I can obtain the Twitter username, but even their Trademark Policy wording is very vague and doesn’t seem to guarantee you’ll get the name. Not sure I want to drop $300-400 just to have Twitter decide not to give it up.
I sure will. I ended up filing the trademark registration for a site, but probably wouldn’t have right away if I were just able to snag the Twitter username I wanted in the first place. The name I’m going for is a stretch, too, so we’ll see what happens. (Trademark is “ridiculously efficient,” I’m going for the username “efficient.”)
Just wanted to follow up here… This afternoon, I received a reply from Twitter Support that gave me two options: I could indicate a username I wished to transfer to @efficient:twitter , or I could create a new Twitter account as a placeholder and give them that username. I replied back with the former, and within 20 or so minutes I had my shiny new username.
So I filed my trademark registration on 10/29, filed my support ticket with Twitter immediately afterward, heard back on 11/4 and got my desired username immediately afterward.
Thanks Marissa for following up with this. Glad to see you at least got them to respond to a Trademark request.
Totally agree, and your solutions all sound reasonable. I’d think they’d want to encourage more usage and better (more memorable) usernames.
Hope they get around to updating their policies, or at least cleaning out their unused inventory. That’d be a crazy day though!
“They would just be replacing dead users with potential active ones.” – and that should be a really strong selling point for Twitter to consider this. I think the same situation applies to WordPress.com blog names as well?
Hi,
I’m one of the few that was able to get a Twitter name that was sitting doing nothing. The name @4814 was taking a few years ago by some who only had 3 tweets. I asked Twitter maybe 2 years ago and they said they’re were not focused on releasing old names. Then I came across a blog that mentioned how to get the name. I’m actually searching for the original blog (yes I should have bookmarked it) and came across this one, so I’m going to share as much as I remember.
Contact Twitter’s support and select the option of impersonation. Trademarks are harder to deal with but if you can show proof that someone else is impersonating you and your brand, and especially if the account hasn’t been used in years and most likely has an egg image, you stand a good chance. It will ask which account is impersonating you and which account of yours you would like to be renamed of the other account.
It took about a month for the whole process and all that happens is your account is renamed, so everything else stays exactly the same. You might have to take sometime and backtrack places you posted your Twitter name and change it to the new one.
Thanks for the great tip. Not sure if this would work for everyone or if you just have to get lucky, but certainly worth a try.
Hi Jason,
Just went through this process myself recently.
I never got a response back and the account we were looking at hasn’t tweeted a single thing since starting over a year ago.
It’s frustrating, and you think it would be a win/win for Twitter to at least give it to someone willing to do something with it.
Bryce
They don’t appear to be doing anything in the near future on this. Kind of a shame really.
hey 🙁 i would love to have the username @muma i already have @gfxmuma for my business http://graphicsmuma.wordpress.com/ but, I would love @muma for my own personal twitter. The username has been inactive for a long time #years. Its like my trade mark. cause im called Muma by everyone thats why I named my buisness GFX MUMA. I would love to have both urls. dont know what to do. frustrated!
Hi@gfxmuma,
I was going to say I didn’t remember the address…then I thought why not just google it. http://support.twitter.com/articles/18366-impersonation-policy
Trying to get the name through the trademark option is too much trouble, go with impersonation. The process does take a few weeks.
Good Luck
At @ReleaseAcc We want to create some attention to put pressure on @Twitter to release those inactive accounts. We are using the Hash Tag #ReleaseInactiveTwitterHandles Let’s hope if enough people retweet the following:
@twitter There are millions of accounts inactive and you are inundated with requests to release. #ReleaseInactiveTwitterHandles
We can get enough attention and put pressure on twitter to act.
Hi guys, I know how to get an inactive account. I’ve been looking for 3 years and finally got the account I wanted. You have to contact employees on twitter I found one employee who has helped many people. @isaach is the guy!!! Contact @isaach you can send him a DM without him following you. He ignored me at first but I wouldn’t give up lol After sending a bunch of messages he said he would help and I got the name within an hour!!!! Finally after three years! Tweet and DM @isaach DON’T GIVE UP he will help you