Your product name is taken on social media. Now what?

You want to set up social profiles for your product. You check the obvious username. It's available on most platforms. One has it taken. Now what?

Two options. Keep the clean name where you can and use something different on that one platform. Or pick a new name that works everywhere. The first option sounds practical until you realize what it costs. Someone finds you on Twitter, then searches Instagram and sees a different username. Looks inconsistent. Looks like you didn't plan this. Looks amateur.

Consistency matters more than having the perfect name on some platforms. Better to have the same handle everywhere than your ideal name in four places and a compromise in one.

Suffix or prefix

Once you decide to add something, the question is what and where. Suffix or prefix.

Suffixes don't work. I don't know many examples beyond _app or _official, and both feel technical. Corporate. They work for enterprise tools maybe, but not for products built for people. Not for love brands. Adding _app feels like an apology. Like you're saying "sorry, someone got here first."

Prefixes are different. hey, the, get, try, use. They change the vibe, not just solve the availability problem. They feel intentional. A prefix sets a tone.

Match the prefix to your product type

• the feels authoritative. Established. Like you've been around. Think theverge or theguardian. Use this when your product really stands out.

• hey feels approachable. Community-oriented. Friendly. Good for consumer products and services built for people.

• try or get feel action-oriented. Developer tools. Try this or Get started. Very SaaS. Skip these if you're not building for developers.

• use has a hook quality. use[product] tells you what to do. Also dev-tool territory.

Write it down and look at it

Repeating letters kill otherwise good names. theedicek has two e's touching. gethey would have th and he overlapping. You won't see it in your head. Write it on a document. Imagine it on a billboard or a business card. If it looks weird, move to the next option.

Ask someone who'll tell you the truth

I wanted theedicek. Sent it to my wife along with heyedicek and edicekapp. She picked theedicek last. The double e bothered her. I hadn't seen it, but once she pointed it out, I couldn't unsee it.

You need someone outside your head. They'll spot the thing you missed. The visual weirdness. The odd connotation. The option that just looks wrong.

Pick one and use it everywhere. Register it on every platform you might use, even the ones you're not active on yet. Someone will take it if you don't. Consistency beats perfection.

-Petr