I thought I would link up with the ladies for Coffee Talk this week because I have something on my mind.
I mentioned at one point in the past that I was thinking about changing my username on IG. When you have a blog, and are pretty active on social, this isn't something you take lightly. (I mean it's no first world problem, but it is something that requires thought), and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
This whole thought process started well over a year ago. I felt I've outgrown @Fairytalesnfit and wanted a name I could use personally, professionally and with the blog ( because I did not want to create multiple accounts). I wanted to create a name that was part my own name yet still kept the integrity of our blog name. An ideal name would have been @Merandasfairytale or @FairytaleMeranda. However, the experts (whoever they are), suggest keeping all social media handles the same and since Twitter does not allow for more that 15 characters in their handle, both of those names were out. I then resorted to just using my initials @MSfairytales (or a variation of @ms.fairytale or @msfairytale but if one of those names was available on Insta, it was not available on Twitter and vice versa. This process became overwhelming so I just decided to forget about it for a little while longer.
Over this time I've realized that the thing that was making it so hard, was coming up with a name that would still be recognizable with my blog, and that meant keeping either the word "Fairytale" or the word "Fit". Since the word Fairytale is already 9 letters, I decided there was not any part of my name that I could add to it that would make sense ( and I would feel comfortable using). I've eliminated the word "Fit" because I did not want that to be the main focus of my accounts. ( there is actually more to this story why I did not want to keep the word fit and it involves me getting multiple DM's each week about joining groups and I'll just leave it at that).
It took me a while to realize this, but I can still "Be myself" and still have a social media presence with my blog, lots of people do it. The blog is something I do, not who I am. I am more than a blogger and I think my social media accounts reflect that. I struggled with the fact that my new user name may not be "exciting" or "intriguing" or "interesting enough to make people want to click and check it out, but that is the risk I am willing to take.
So I've decided (if I can actually pull the trigger) to retire @Fairytalesnfit at the end of the month and just use a variation of my own name. I'm not going to state exactly what it will be at this moment because that will depend on what is available on both Twitter and IG at the exact moment I make the change. I already know that I can not use my first and last name because it is already taken, so it more than likely will be a variation of my first name.
So now I think, What will happen to @fairytalesnfit? Will anything linked to that automatically be linked to my new name? Can I (or anyone else) use @fairytalesnfit again or is that name now blocked?
What do you think? Am I making a mistake? Have you ever thought of changing one of your names that have already been established? Do you think it matters that your social media names are all the same? What suggestions do you have for me? -M
