How to Pick the Best Instagram Username

If you don’t, it’ll forever work against you

If you already have an Instagram account that creates consistent, highly-differentiated, and engaging content, or even if you’re just starting out, having an intuitive and easily searchable Instagram username can be the difference between growing your account quickly or rarely being discovered at all.

I know it sounds extreme but it’s true. In a highly-competitive and saturated Instagram environment, like the one we live in now, every single detail of your account counts. Unfortunately, optimizing our Instagram username is an aspect many of us completely ignore.

Why Your Instagram Username Matters

Your username is the Instagram equivalent of your brand name (it’s also actual your brand name if Instagram is the channel through which most people interact with you). The more intuitive and easy it is to remember and search for, the more likely it is that people will discover you and share it with others — which will result in your Instagram growing at a faster pace (you can learn about how to grow a business from that growth through my Instagram Small Business Class).

On the other hand, having an Instagram username that is long, unintuitive, and hard to remember or spell, will result in fewer people finding you or sharing it with others, which in the long run will mean that fewer people will discover, engage with, and follow your potentially-great Instagram content.

How to Choose the Right Instagram Username

So, how do you choose an Instagram username that can help you grow faster? These are the two essential guidelines to follow when selecting the most effective username for your account:

Make it the word that people are most likely to use when they first search for you: Unless you’re a brand that was born on and exists only on Instagram, most people that try to find you on the app will likely have heard your name outside of it. This is the name they’ll type in first when they search for you on the app. If you make your username different, “cooler”, or more interesting than what people know you as outside of the app, you likely won’t show up in that first search, they won’t follow you, and they’ll be significantly less likely to be able to find you or even try to find you in the future. Therefore, make the process of finding your account simple and intuitive for the people that know you and want to find you by making your username the word that they are most likely to type in when they first search for you on Instagram. In the case that your ideal username is already taken, try to make the most simple and short variation of it, without using special characters, such as periods or underscores (more on why later). If the name people might know you as outside of Instagram is very long, use whatever nickname people have for you (the more short, simple, and fun it is, the more effective it’s likely to be). If people don’t have a nickname for you, then just keep the long username. If you’re starting a completely new brand or account that no one knows outside of Instagram, then using the shortest, most simple, and fun username also applies. What you want here is to make your username as memorable and easy to share as possible. When it comes to maximizing the exposure of your content by making you more searchable, that’s what works.

For example, if I were picking the username for my personal account, I would ideally use @eduardomorales because my name is Eduardo Morales. If @eduardomorales is already taken, which it’s likely to be because it’s a common name, I’d try using @theeduardomorales, @eduardomoralesofficial, @eduardomoralesnyc or any other variation along those lines. If I were picking the username for my brand, Pottery For All, I would ideally use @potteryforall. If @potteryforall is taken, I’d try @potteryforallshop, @potteryforallofficial, or a variation along those lines. The shorter and simpler, the better.

Don’t use special characters like “.” and/or “_”: Using a special character like a period or an underscore in a username is one of the most common and easily avoidable mistakes people make. Although most people think special characters can help separate the words of a multi-word username and make it look “cleaner,” what actually happens is that they make a username unnecessarily complicated to say, remember, and search for. In the case that you’re using or planning to use a period or an underscore because the period or the underscore-free version of your username is taken, try to make the most simple and short variation on it instead, without using any special characters.

For example, let’s say I‘m selecting the username of my ceramics brand, Pottery For All, and decided to use periods or underscores to separate the words of the username. Whenever I tell someone how to find me on Instagram, I’d have to say “pottery, period, for, period, all” or “pottery, underscore, for, underscore, all” versus saying the version without special characters as a simple “potteryforall”. Avoiding characters also helps the username read cleaner. Not only that, but it’s also more intuitive to search for even when a potential follower doesn’t know your username but knows your brand. Let’s say someone knows about my Pottery For All business but has no idea what my Instagram username is. Most people would intuitively start spelling the name of my brand “pottery for all” in the search bar. No one would intuitively know or be able to guess if I use special characters. In a highly competitive Instagram environment where many people and competitors have similar names, the ones who don’t use special characters and are the most easily searchable will grow faster.

That’s it! If you want an Instagram username that will help you grow, what you have to do is make it the word that most people are likely to use when they first search for you and avoid using special characters like periods or underscores. Simple as that!

Now get out there and pick a great username or change the one you already have to something that will work for you, not against you!

Oh, and if you’re interested in more articles about how your Instagram growth, read my others pieces on what Instagram really is and how works, Is Instagram dying?, how the Instagram algorithm works, Instagram niches and why they are the key to growth, how to grow your Instagram, how to know if your Instagram is worth growing, how to pick the right Instagram username, the best Instagram bot that’s keep your account safe, everything you need to know about Instagram hashtags, the best Instagram content scheduling tools, how I make money on Instagram, how the Instagram algorithm works, how to check if you’re shadowbanned, how to create a repost account, the best Instagram bots, TikTok Bots, how to write an Instagram bio, how to increase your Instagram engagement, why you’re losing Instagram followers and how to fix it, how to create a visually appealing grid layout, as well as how to find the most valuable influencers on Instagram, how to measure what an influencer is worth, how to reach out to influencers, and how to measure your influencer marketing ROI.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my article! If you enjoyed it, you can support me by sharing this article and giving it a bunch of claps. If you want to learn more about my other project, @pinlord, check out my articles about how to make enamel pins and the best enamel pin factories to work with. You can also follow me on Instagram to get updates whenever I publish a new piece ❤