I have changed my user name. I was originally crinkster54 but as I got more comfortable on the site, I switched to laurie54. It might confuse your followers for a while. I would keep the same profile pic so they'd recognize you from that. You could also put a note about the name change on your profile page about the switch. Another option is to reach out to them individually to inform them of the change. A simple copy and paste wouldn't take much time to get everyone.
Comment actions