Sunday, March 6, 2011

Obtaining a Vanity URL for Your Facebook Page

Since most Facebook page URLs are long and cumbersome, it's a good idea to obtain a username and, thereby, a shorter "vanity" URL for your page. Here's how:
  • To get a username for a business page, you first need 25 fans (This helps prevent people from "squatting" on usernames by just creating a page and naming it with very few fans.) Regular users can set a username for your profile page at any time.
  • Go to www.facebook.com/username
  • Select the name of your page from the dropdown menu
 
  • In the text box that appears, type in the username you want, then click "Check Availability"

  • If the username isn't available, you'll get a message below the text box saying so. If you think someone is infringing on your trademark by taking the username you want, contact Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_infringement. They are pretty good about responding to infringement inquiries.
  • If the username is available, the box below will pop up - read these guidelines carefully and then click "Confirm"

  • Once you click "Confirm" you'll get another popup telling you that you have been successful in naming your page, and you can now direct your fans to facebook.com/(your username). Congrats! 
  • If you have any questions about setting your username, visit https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=900 or send me an email.
And as you may have guessed, my Facebook page is up and you can now visit The Social Stage at www.facebook.com/thesocialstage!

You can also change your username and vanity URL for your personal Facebook page by visiting your "Account Settings" page. Business pages can't change their usernames, but personal profile usernames can be changed. Be careful though - you can only change your username once!

4 comments:

  1. Nice post, Lauren! Congrats on grabbing your vanity URL. Just a general reminder to other readers: your Page's vanity URL will be set in stone after you choose it. Make sure it's what you want before clicking that final "Confirm" button!

    Also, you can change the Name/Title of your Page up until you reach 100 Likes/Fans. After that point, you're stuck with what you've got.

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  2. I'm getting an error message when I input my mobile number of the text verification. This is driving me insane!

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  3. Hi Rafa - where are you trying to input your mobile number? If you give me a little of the context I can try to troubleshoot for you.

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