Quick! Grab Your Brand’s Facebook Custom Username URL!
by Kerry Dean on 07/01/2009 at 1:12 pm in SEO, Social Media, Social Media Optimization
You’ve heard of Facebook, right? With over 200 million Facebook accounts, the odds are you already have a Facebook profile. I have a profile. It’s downright awesome. Facebook is a trusted social network, unlike that MySpace site. Something about MySpace makes me feel dirty. There are so many predators, crappy spam comments and blatant ads on that site, it’s like one gigantic and obvious advertisement and commercial. Facebook, on the other hand, has thus far avoided that fate. I just needed to make sure we are all on board with the idea that Facebook is a great social network for friends and families. For now.
On Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 12:01am EST, Facebook launched custom usernames and vanity URLs. That means that you could log into Facebook, head over here and grab a username, which would in turn give your account a custom URL. For example, maybe your account URL is http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Smith/1795806534. That URL is a little tough to remember. And if you are a person who likes to give out or market your profile URL, that URL is downright inconvenient. That is why Facebook launched its custom username program. If Bob Smith goes to facebook.com/username, he can choose a much more concise URL, such as facebook.com/bobsmith or facebook.com/bsmith.
On June 13th, social mediaphiles worldwide waited patiently for the exact moment the Facebook username program launched. Mashable reported that Facebook users created 200,000 custom usernames in the first 3 minutes of the program. It’s on a first come, first serve basis, so you’ve got to act fast. Most common names are already gone. Much like the land rush for dot com domains, this was very much a land rush for usernames. But there is also another side to this story, and it’s all about branding.
You may not know this, but Facebook Profiles and Facebook Pages are very different. People tend to have Profiles. Brands tend to have Pages. Profiles have friends. Pages have fans. If your brand (Brand X) has a Facebook Page, it makes perfect sense to claim the URL facebook.com/brandx. That URL is very easy to market. It’s great for branding, paid search ads, SEO, etc… It sounds glorious, doesn’t it? But do not get too excited yet.
It turns out that Facebook set up eligibility requirements for custom usernames for Facebook Pages. Initially, the requirements were:
- Page must have been active as of June 9, 2009 at 3:00pm EST
- Page must have had 1,000 fans as of May 31, 2009
These requirements were set up to deter would-be username squatters. And it worked pretty well, too. However, I did see a ton of brands scrambling to reach the 1,000 fans mark. On a side note, I saw a couple of posts on Craiglist, asking if any savvy social marketer out there could drive 1,000 targeted fans for a Facebook Page. Gotta love Craigslist, right? Furthermore, if you met those 2 requirements, your username had to be at least 5 characters, and you could not sign up for generic keywords such as pizza, flowers or magazines. Again, this was a way to deter username squatters.
Here’s the part where you can get excited. On June 28th, Facebook reduced the requirements for custom usernames for Facebook Pages. As of last Sunday, the new requirements are:
- Page could have been created anytime
- Page must have at least 100 fans
100 fans? That’s very doable. Even if you are a small brand, you can manage this. Simply go to the Facebook sign up page and choose the type of Page you want to create. Then invite your employees, colleagues, friends and family members to be fans of your brand’s Facebook Page. Once you get to 100 fans, go here and choose your custom username.Facebook just made it very easy to promote your brand. Now go do it!
