Bureau of Meteorology releases updated style guide, social media hijacks its proposed Twitter handles

The Twitter saga has further raised eyebrows after dragging in a federal minister, who was forced to admit she didn't understand the reasoning behind the rebranding.

The Bureau of Meteorology on Tuesday issued its edict to media outlets, calling on reporters to stop referring to the agency as "BOM" or the "Weather Bureau" in line with the Meteorology Act 1955.

Instead, its full name should be used in the first instance followed by "the Bureau" in other instances.

It said it would be updating its Twitter usernames to reflect the change.

But in a social media own-goal, the bureau failed to make the changes before it publicly announced its style guide update.

A number of Twitter users took the opportunity to hijack the proposed handles the weather bureau intended to use for its federal and state and territory accounts.

A bureau spokesperson said the handles had been unfortunately "claimed" before the visual identity refresh but it was working to snatch them back.

"We are working closely with Twitter to rectify this, in the meantime, all existing BOM Twitter handles remain active," the spokesperson said.

One of the cyber squatters, "Australia's Little Bureau" who held @TheBureau_Au handle before it was forced by Twitter to change it, told The Canberra Times it was to "safeguard" the handle from a social media storm.

"I changed my handle to @TheBureau_Au today, to safeguard it for The Bureau of Meteorology and show them the value of forecasting the sort of storm for which Twitter is infamous," the user said.

"If they reach out by DM [direct message] and say 'please', I will discretely hand over the Twitter handle without sharing their DM publicly.

"I love the bureau and respect their work. I forecast frostiness and thunder in their marketing and branding team today."

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek on Tuesday said she did not understand why the former Coalition government had approved the weather bureau's branding changes.

"During this time of severe weather and flood disaster, I'm not focused on the name of the agency. I am focused on making sure the Bureau of Meteorology is providing the most accurate and timely information to communities affected by floods," she said in a statement.

"The rebrand commenced under the previous government for reasons I don't quite understand."

But the opposition's environment spokesperson Jonathan Duniam said the Labor minister needed to stop "lazily blame-shifting".

"After nearly six months in her job, Ms Plibersek is ridiculously still trying to blame her predecessors for problems that are entirely her responsibility," he said.

"Regardless of who made the decision and when they made it, she is now the minister in charge of this agency.

"Instead of lazily blame-shifting, she needs to immediately put a stop to this embarrassment on a day when all resources should be focused on the severe flooding occurring across many parts of Australia."

It's understood the "branding project" has been underway for the past 18 months and inquiries are underway to investigate the cost of the changes.

According to documents on the government's tender site, a Melbourne communications firm was issued a contract by the bureau for "branding of product naming services".

The firm was given nearly $70,000 for its work on the branding project between September 2021 and January earlier this year.

It's not clear whether the contract is related to Tuesday's style guide announcement.

Beyond the handle furore, social media users took the style guide refresh in jest.

A key lesson was hopefully learned by the federal agency today - never pre-announce a social media change to an audience full of chronically online people.