Problems With A Great Instagram Name

Problems with a great Instagram name?  Having a cool Instagram handle can cause more issues than you might think!  My username is @blogging so as you can imagine every blogger in the world wants it!  Here’s a few issues I have and how I solve them…

Companies and their agents do try to claim Instagram names because it’s the same as their company.  Or sometimes just similar to.  However, even if you have a username which is also coincidentally also the name of a company or entity that has a trademark; the logo and symbol may be trademarked but not a social media handle.  I mean, how can you trademark the social media handle ‘Blogging’?  You might as well try to trademark ‘Wednesday’, or ‘Christmas’.  It’s a word used all the time.  Yet still it doesn’t stop people messaging with threats of Trademark Infringement cases unless I hand over the name.   

I know that laws do change from country to country, and I can only speak for the UK.  But as far as I know this is the case more often than not.  Don’t be bullied – Instagram has a habit of not upholding trademark complaints and for good reason. 

Fix – I have sent a message to Instagram from the app:  Settings – Help – General Feedback – this then gives you a free text box to write in your concerns.  (I found that the usual FAQ’s and Help did have what I wanted).  I don’t know if this has ever been read or noted by someone at Instagram but I have never had a Trademark Infringement alert since.  After that, ignore any threats made by would be scammers. 

The latest trend in 2020 to grow an account is to be involved in ‘follow loops‘. E.g. You get a DM along with 10 other people who get the exact same message asking to like and follow someones post or page.  In exchange, everyone else on the list of 10 pages will do the same, so you get 10 likes/followers.  You then remove the persons name from the top of that list and insert your own.  You then forward it on to another 10 people and the loop continues.  I’ve no idea if this works or not because I’ve never taken part.

Anyway, your inbox will be flooded with these things.  It’s really annoying and people aren’t happy when you don’t respond because having likes or comments from a cool username makes then look good, apparently.  

Fix – Use a ‘Creator Account’.  Settings – Account – Switch To Creator Account.  This allows you to see and remove en-mass the messages in your ‘requested’ folder or allocate them in to the General messages folder.  It’s far easier to manage all this rubbish when it comes in. 

Buying usernames is against Instagrams T&C’s yet I get offers fairly often to buy the username @blogging.  Anywhere from £20 or £20,000.  Of course these offers are mostly scams which involve various ways to relieve you of your username.  There are groups of well heeled people on Instagram who have desired usernames and who stick together for growth or status reasons.  I get most of my offers from groups like these.  When you ignore them or politely decline they sometimes follow up with trademark threats.   

Fix – Ignore them.  

Not a month goes by without me getting an email or text alert from Instagram saying that there has been a ‘forgot your password’ attempt on my Instagram page.  Often these are in English but in the early days when I allowed by contact details to be seen (email and phone number could be clicked on my page) I would get them in Arabic too.  Don’t think that unscrupulous people won’t try and steal your Instagram handle! 

Fix – My password is extremely complicated, I have two factor authentication on from my phone and via an Authentication App.  Go to Settings – Security – Two Factor Authentication.  I need both codes to login,  firstly from the text message from Instagram and secondly the temporary authentication app code.  Same goes for the email address attached to my Instagram account.

Therefore everyone wants to be popular on Instagram, and a good Instagram name certainly helps with this.  One of the problems with a great Instagram name is that people expect you to have a certain type of content.  Something that appeals to the masses.  Similarly they expect you to be an expert photographer, or be doing sponsored posts or something.  When in reality, many old school Instagrammers who have good handles just want to post what they post, nothing more than that. 

Fix – Stay true to you!

It seems like every blogger on Instagram at some point has tagged @blogging on one of their photos, which I can kind of understand.  But guess what, I get a notification for every single one!  This is one of my biggest pet peeves and problems with a great name on Instagram.

Fix – Turn notifications off, have a cup of tea, remember it’s only Instagram.

Well there you have it, some of the issues you might have if you have a cool username on Instagram.  If you’ve had some similar issues pop a comment in the box below so I know I’m not the only one.

I think “Problems with a great Instagram name” was a cool name for a blog.  Let’s see if this gets me more followers who then invite me to a follower loop. 

Realiser was born from a dream to be in a realised state, a state of awaken.  To be able to see the most obvious things having missed them for so many years.  Subsequently I wanted to create something to serve as an example of how it could be.  If only we might spend the time loving that we spend hating.  Above all spending the time to be kind to others for no reason.  You get the idea.  I hope you enjoyed Problems With A Great Instagram Name !  I will travel around doing what I can and would love for you to join me.  Follow my path here…