According to an article in The Verge yesterday, “Twitter will remove inactive accounts and free up usernames in December.” The article goes on to say that the account removal process will be gradual and take time, so not all previously inactive Twitter accounts will become available on the first possible date. I think this is something domain investors should keep an eye on with respect to their own domain names.
Having a matching Twitter account (for instance my DogWalker.com website has the @dogwalker Twitter account) is a nice thing but not necessarily critical. I have definitely been asked by a few prospective buyers if I happen to have the Twitter account that matches the keyword(s) in the domain name. Having the matching Twitter handle makes life a bit easier for the buyer as they begin to build their presence online. That said, in order to really cover all bases, matching Facebook and Instagram handles would also be ideal, but depending on the quality of the domain name, those may be long gone.
I will probably set a reminder to check on Twitter accounts for some of my higher value domain names to try and get the matching Twitter account if it becomes available. At the very least, I will be able to see if the matching Twitter accounts are actively being used because if they are, there is no reason to check to see if they become available since it only pertains to inactive accounts.
I do not regularly register Twitter accounts to match my domain names. The ones I would care most about, for instance @embrace to match Embrace.com, have been long gone and long used. Getting longer tail Twitter accounts to match .com domain names I acquire would end up taking too much time and probably end up being a nuisance to manage. If the matching domain names don’t sell in a relatively short period of time, I would probably end up in the position others are in right now and lose the inactive Twitter accounts.
If you are interested in getting the matching (currently taken but inactive) Twitter account for your domain investments, December 12th might be the first opportunity.
Good to know, thanks.
Thanks for sharing Elliot!
Not sure if this is still a thing or not but when I did some work for a couple different start ups who wanted their matching twitter handle…. I discovered how one should negotiate/arrange for it and two…. there are people who literally run software designed to snatch up premium handles the moment they are deleted due to inactivity or made available again. So in saying that, good luck but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Unless of course the inactive handle you had your eye on is undesirable generally speaking.