13.7 Choosing the Best Instagram Handle for Your Business (Part 1)

In this lesson, we’ll choose the best Instagram handle and name for your Instagram business account. But before that, I’ll explain the difference between the handle and the name.

Is your Instagram username the unique username you have on the platform? Yes. Only one handle, only one user per account, is allowed. Nobody can have the same username, whereas, with Instagram names, anybody can choose any name for their account. You also have complete control over these two aspects of your account and can make changes at any time.

You should aim to use the same handle for all of your social media accounts, or at least a couple of them if you already have a presence on other social media, such as Facebook or YouTube. Why? Because your customers will recognize who you are. Now, take a look at these brands.

1. Starbucks

 “@starbucks” is the handle and "Starbucks Coffee" appears in bold at the top of the Starbucks Instagram profile. Starbucks might have it easy because they’re a big corporation. They probably purchased their handle, and it’s a perfect example because they use the same name for both their handle and their Instagram name.

2. Miami International Airport

You can see that their handle is @iflymia.  MIA is the code of the airport. So they came up with a decent handle because “iflymia” means I fly into and from Miami International Airport, and the name they’ve assigned to their account is “Miami International Airport.” 

3. LeBron James

This basketball player has “@kingjames” as his handle, and the account's name is "crown emoji". The name @lebronjames was probably already taken, so he added the word "king" to the beginning of his name and used @kingjames.

4. Manchester United

They have “@manchesterunited” as the handle and “Manchester United."

So, how do you select the best handle for your business? Since Instagram has millions of users and hence millions of handles, it's sometimes difficult to find the ones you're looking for. To help you determine if your handle is available, we’ll show you how to do so.