The Facebook Brand Grab Begins Saturday

What to Know About Reserving Your Vanity URL

Posted by David Berkowitz on 06.10.09 @ 11:31 AM

David Berkowitz

As of 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on June 13, Facebook is letting page owners create the vanity URLs that many have been clamoring for. That means pages will be able to shed their lengthy addresses in favor of one that becomes facebook.com/yournamehere. Marketers can go to http://www.facebook.com/username to make the switch.

Which Marketers Are Eligible
The Facebook Page must have been live on Facebook with at least 1,000 fans as of May 31. Trying to create a Page now or racking up fans won't help.

Why Marketers Should Care
The most important reason is brand protection. If your company is Acme Widgets, you can claim facebook.com/acme or facebook.com/acmewidgets. The other key reason is for brand promotion. The Facebook username can be promoted through other marketing channels online and offline.

Why It's Not Necessarily Urgent
Facebook is increasingly vigilant about protecting marketers' brands. On its FAQ, Facebook offers a number of measures for trademark owners to report infringement. Marketers should check on Monday that their brand terms are not being used as usernames by others. Marketers that have a page with at least 1,000 fans should select usernames as quickly as possible, but other marketers will still have resources available.

Plan of Action
If you have a page with 1,000 fans as of the end of May:

Read the Facebook FAQ. There are important rules regulating usernames; for instance, generic terms such as "pizza" aren't allowed.
Determine the username -- one that adheres to Facebook's terms and best represents the brand. If you run traditional media, think about what would look good on a billboard or TV spot, or sound good on the radio.
Decide which of your page administrators is reliable, really understands Facebook and will be available at 12:01 a.m. ET June 13 or very soon after.
Make the change. And be very careful -- a typo could be irreversible.
Check Monday and periodically thereafter to see if any of your trademarks were registered by others.

If you don't have a page, or it didn't hit 1,000 fans by the deadline:

Consider whether it makes sense to have a page, or if you do have one, consider ways to grow the fans. Some strategies are discussed in 360i's Social Marketing Playbook. Facebook will undoubtedly create new windows for claiming vanity URLs, so it's not too late.
Scan Facebook for any trademark infringement violations in the meantime.

Whichever camp you're in, get ready to see brands' Facebook Pages promoted more often, now that marketers will have a URL they can flaunt -- and one Facebook users can remember.

~ ~ ~
David Berkowitz is director of emerging media for 360i. He blogs regularly at Inside the Marketer's Studio and 360i's Digital Connections. He also contributed to the just-released Social Marketing Playbook.

9 Comments

By nickkinports | Chicago, IL June 10, 2009 12:04:31 pm:

A smart move. I wonder how long Facebook will wait to start selling vanity URLs to regular users...

Another issue at play is the perception of content and reliability on Facebook. Vanity URLs are highly valuable to brands, and undoubtedly more will find their way into the outlet. We already circulated an internal memo to watch our client's brands and reserve the URLs at 12:01AM, and then begin monitoring for infringement issues.

Nicholas E. Kinports
Digital Integration Manager
Blog: http://admaven.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/admaven

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By amberlynkuhl | Jackson Twp, PA June 10, 2009 01:11:22 pm:

Facebook is not selling vanity URLs to regular users. They can also pick them on June 13, no cost.

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By shapiroalan74 | Chicago, IL June 10, 2009 04:01:38 pm:

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By scottlackey | New York, NY June 11, 2009 01:04:25 pm:

This is critical. Stay up for your clients and for yourself. Search engines, especially Google, are increasingly pushing social media sites, especially Facebook and Twitter, higher in page rank. A Facebook url with your business or personal name will likely get you on the first page. There will be competition, legit and illegitimate. It's easier to secure the name upfront than fight for it later.

Scott Lackey
Co-Founder & Strategic DIrector
Jugular Advertising
http://www.jugularnyc.com

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By danmalachowski | Chicago, IL June 11, 2009 04:59:21 pm:

With the upcoming change, marketers who choose to implement a vanity URL with their brand name could expect to see greater lift for their Facebook page in the SERPs; adding one more listing to help dominate the first results page.

More info: http://blog.performics.com/search/2009/06/claim-your-facebook-page-vanity-url-tips-for-customizing-your-url.html

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By craigcooper | craigcooper.com, NY June 12, 2009 10:11:21 am:

For over 100 years we have been able to talk live to one another over the telephone.

Then texting came along and people decided they would rather indulge in the tedious exercise of typing tiny messages on tiny keypads rather than enjoy the ease and convenince of direct real-time conversation.

Now we've all decided that an address such as facebook.com/yourname is much better then the simpler yourname.com.

I can't wait until we all decide that ocean liners are a better means of transatlantic conveyance than jet aircraft and that death is better than medicine.

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By jkrawl | Chicago, IL August 1, 2009 02:26:36 pm:

I also agree with some of the earlier comments about its usefulness with search engine ranking. I believe vanity urls are not only good for branding purposes, but it will also greatly help in positioning yourself in the search engines, since Facebook.com is considered by Google to be a site with high authority or page rank. If you know what you're doing, you can solidify a good listing in the SERPs.

Frank
http://www.absrocketpro.com

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By gmiddleton | Indiana, PA August 22, 2009 09:11:39 am:

I agree too. By letting users implement vanity URLs, it will greatly benefit those online marketers looking to take advantage of it and boost their rankings. A definite boost in page rank for sure!

Best,

Gaston
http://www.Ultimate-Resell-Rights.com

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By twittertrends | cgn, NR September 6, 2009 09:16:08 am:

Vanity URLs are an good option for people as well as for (social media) brands.

Best Regards
http://www.twitter-trends.de/trend/facebook.html

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