Did you get the Facebook Fan Page vanity URL you wanted? Or, is your Fan Page one of the many that doesn’t meet the minimum requirement of 100 fans? There are other ways to get a shorter, customized URL for your Fan Page. I posted 3 alternatives to a Facebook Fan Page Vanity URL in this blog post (http://marketingthatseasy.com/blog/2009/06/how-to-shorten-facebook-urls/) but it didn’t get the number of visitors that it should’ve. I know based on the visitors to my other blogs about Fan Page URL’s that there are a lot of people interested in this topic. I think the reason my original blog post didn’t reach those people is because of the title of the blog. So, in an effort to reach those people who I know want this information, I’ve posted this blog with a link to my original blog post where you can find the “3 Alternatives to Facebook Fan Page Vanity URL’s”.
If you have any questions about the alternatives, let me know.
Kimberly Yow
Marketing Thats Easy.com
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The original Facebook URL’s for a personal profile or a fan page are quite long making it hard to verbally tell someone how to get to your Facebook profile/page. These Facebook URL’s are also too long to put on a business card or in online profiles where you want to provide a link.
Facebook just started allowing people to “claim” a custom username or vanity URL for both their Personal Profiles and their Fan Pages. If you didn’t get the vanity URL you wanted, there is nothing else you can do!
Hold on, wait a minute…there are several ways to get around this:
1. Use the Facebook application “Memorable Web Addresses” to create a shorter, easier to remember URL. I created one a while back but then noticed that the link did not always work. Not surprising since many applications are very finicky.
2. Use a service like www.tinyurl.com to shorten your Facebook URL. This will work, but option #3 is even better.
3. Purchase a descriptive domain name and forward it to the URL for your Facebook Personal Profile or your Facebook Fan Page. You can purchase a domain through GoDaddy for about $10 per year so this is an inexpensive solution.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy
OMG, I can’t believe this. Facebook once again increased the minimum number of fans required to claim a Fan Page Vanity URL. They keep bouncing around. Originally there was a 1,000 fan minimum. Facebook said that minimum would be lifted on June 28th.
On June 27th, I noticed that Facebook had added a minimum requirement of 25 Fans. And now, on June 28th, the exact same help page on Facebook says the following:
All Pages created after May 31, 2009 or that had less than 1,000 fans on that day will be eligible to claim usernames on Sunday, June 28, 2009 if they have more than 100 fans.
A hundred Fans! What will they change it to in the next 9 minutes?
Looks like this is going to be a roller coaster ride…hang on Facebook fan page administrators, perhaps we’ll get a vanity URL one of these days!
Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy
I’ve been regularly checking the Facebook website for additional information on when users can claim a vanity URL for their Fan Page. Their website still says “June 28, 2009″ but does NOT indicate a time of day. When Facebook started allowing users to create a vanity URL for their personal profile, it started at 12:01 a.m. EDT (or 9:01 p.m. PST). I’m thinking this might be what’s going to happen again. In any event, I’m going to be on my computer checking it out Saturday night PST.
I did just notice a change to what Facebook had posted on their site. It now says, “All Pages created after May 31, 2009 or that had less than 1,000 fans on that day will be eligible to claim usernames on Sunday, June 28, 2009 if they have more than 25 fans“. Notice the part I highlighted in red! I don’t believe that part of the sentence was on the Facebook website yesterday!
So, unfortunately if your Fan Page is relatively new and has fewer than 25 Fans…it looks like you will still have to wait to obtain a Facebook vanity URL. There are other alternatives however for creating a shorter URL. I will post additional information on this next week.
Stay tuned for more info!
Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy
UPDATE: As of September 2009, there is a 25 Fan minimum to claim your Facebook Fan Page Vanity URL. Read more & find out how to claim yours at www.HowToUseFacebookForBusiness.com.
June 13, 2009: Facebook has announced that the current 1,000 Fan minimum requirement for obtaining a Facebook Fan Page vanity URL will be lifted as of June 28, 2009. Here is information directly from the Facebook website:
Q: I tried to secure a name for my [Fan] Page but Facebook said the Page was not eligible. What are the requirements?
A: Your Facebook [Fan] Page must meet two requirements: it must have been live on Facebook prior to the May 31, 2009 cut-off date and have had a minimum 1,000 fans at that time.This limitation is temporary. All Pages created after May 31, 2009 or that had less than 1,000 fans on that day will be eligible to claim usernames on Sunday, June 28, 2009.
This is great news for those of you that are promoting your business using a Facebook Fan Page. Mark your calendars for June 28th.
Better yet, subscribe to receive new blog posts from us via email or RSS so you’ll receive our “reminder” to logon and claim your Facebook Fan Page vanity URL (username).
Subscribe to stay informed!
Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy.com
Today Facebook officially announced that they are going to make usernames available as of 12:01 am EDT Saturday, June 13th. Usernames will be available for Personal Profiles and for Fan Pages that had a minimum of 1000 fans as of 5/31/09.
What this means is that you will be able to have a URL for your Personal Profile that reads www.facebook.com/username instead of www.facebook.com/people/yourname/10 digit number that identifies you.
This will make it a lot easier to tell people how to find your Facebook profile. For those of you that have Fan Pages with a minimum of 1000 Fans, you will also be able to choose a much shorter URL for your Fan Page.
To learn more, visit these two Facebook links:
This link talks mainly about Fan Pages: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=91106469821.
This link is primarily about Personal Profiles: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130.
If you have a Facebook Fan Page with less than 1000 Fans, you can always buy a domain (for about $10/year) and have it forwarded to your long Fan Page URL. I actually did this a while ago. I purchased www.socialnetworkingforbusiness.info and forwarded it to my Fan Page…check it out.
Good luck claiming your Facebook Vanity URL or Username!
Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy.com
