If, like 200 million other people on the planet, you’ve got a Facebook account then you’ll no doubt be aware that the social networking site rolled-out its personalized account Usernames last Saturday morning.
This move was announced on their blog earlier this month and seems to have generated quite a bit of controversy.
If you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, then here’s a quick summary:
Facebook Vanity URLs
If you have a Facebook account then you’ll have a URL (web address) that points to your public Facebook profile on the web.
For me this has historically been: www.facebook.com/people/ Jaimie - Dobson /696284742
This makes for a very long web address to recall, so if you want to share your Facebook profile address with others, then there’s a lot of characters and digits to remember.
So inline with Twitter and MySpace, Facebook has decided to give it’s Users the ability to register a shorter and more shareable Usernames for their accounts. These Usernames are being based on the name used in your Facebook account and may be set-up from the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/username The shorter URLs are often referred to as “Vanity URL“s because they are based upon the account holder’s own name.
I’ve already created mine, which is now set at: http://www.facebook.com/Jaimie.Dobson I’m sure you’ll agree that this is a lot easier to remember than the extended web address above.
Facebook Fan Pages
However, what if you’re a business, a band or club that has it’s own Fan Page? Historically these have had a convoluted URL such as http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe-Bonamassa/8403829658
Again, not the easiest URL to share with your clients and fans. However, with this launch of personalized Usernames, Facebook has given Fan Page owners the option to register a shortened version of their Page URL as well the personal vanity URLs I talk about above. BUT the page has to have over 1000 fans to qualify. If your Page falls into this camp, you’ll have to wait until the end of the month to register a custom URL.
I suspect most small organisations that have a Fan Page will have less than 1000 fans and as such will result in a little frustration but I can see the thinking behind it.
If you are a Facebook Page owner with less than 1000 fans and want to protect your registered trademark, visit this page to log it with Facebook.
Will They Be Popular?
The launch of these vanity URLs for both personal account names and Fan Pages was anticipated to be a bit of a land-grab in the same way that Twitter Usernames and Domains Names have become.
Initial reports on Saturday indicated this to be the case with over 200,000 Usernames being registered in the first 3 minutes.
Should You Grab Yours?
Admittedly, this Facebook username malarkey isn’t something I’m getting that excited about.
However if you’re protective about your online identity and branding then I would say go for it! Get your name whilst you can, and if you currently run a Fan Page with less than 1000 fans, don’t hang around too long after the 28th of June to grab yours in the second land-grab rush of the month.
This is great for people who want to preserve their online identity, and for many people who use sites such as Twitter they can have the same username, which is obviously easier for people to remember and helps preserve their identity. However, if you’re slow off the mark, how bad would you feel if someone else used your username? They could say anything, and other people may think they were you.
Hi Jaimie
Thanks for this. I got mine after reading this and will try and get the ‘Fan Page’ ones when they come out.
Social Networking seems to now be the norm for business networking also and to be able to quote your Twitter and FB page simply (mine are both the same /dannymatharu) makes sense.
Why didn’t FB do this in the first instance? Was it simply because they didn’t think it would be as big as it is and thus turn into such a big ‘business’ tool?