Vanity URLs, like the ones available in Google Profile, offer two main advantages:
1. These web addresses are short, easy-to-remember and often look good on your business cards.
2. They are great for reputation management. All other factors remaining the same, a vanity URL like facebook.com/david-pogue is likely to rank higher in Google for the query "David Pogue" than say facebook.com?p=234.
Pick a Username for your Facebook Profile
Currently, most public profiles on Facebook are of the form facebook.com/profile.php?id=<some_number> but starting Saturday* (or Friday night depending upon your Time zone), Facebook will let you pick a username for your profile so that the new Facebook URL will become something like facebook.com/<your_name>.
*Check the world map above to know the exact time when Facebook Vanity URLs will become available in your country /time-zone.
This sounds exciting but the problem is that there are as many as 200 million active users on Facebook and they all will get an opportunity to pick a user name for their Facebook profiles at the same time so chances are high that the username you want is taken even before you type one.
So here are some tips to help you get the vanity URL that you want.
1: Microsoft Outlook and Apple iCal users can click here to add an event reminder to their calendars. If you use using Google Calendar, click here to import this event into your calendar. The idea is that the data and time should not slip out of your mind.
2: A Facebook username is permanent so if you misspell it or pick a wrong name, it will stay like that forever. Also, usernames can only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (".") so carefully think of some alternatives beforehand.
3: Facebook has already assigned vanity URLs to some businesses, celebrities, artists and other public figures so these usernames will obviously remain unavailable to the public on Saturday.
You can use the Facebook Vanity Search Engine to determine usernames that have already been taken on Facebook. If the name you are looking for has already been reserved, start researching other variations.
Step 4: There are more than 500 hundred users on Facebook who share the same name as me – Amit Agarwal. Now if just 10 of them decide to claim facebook.com/amit.agarwal at the same time, it’s pure luck that will decide the "winner."
So here’s a tip for people who have such a "common name" – take the help of your spouse.
For instance, if your name is John Public, other permutations like john.public, johnpublic, public.john or j.public or john.p will also make sense. Assign half of these usernames to your wife and she can then check availability in parallel by logging into your own Facebook account but on a different computer.
This alone will double your chances of grabbing a good username on Facebook.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/username-for-facebook-profile/9025/
Tags: Archives, facebook, Most Popular, reputation management, Internet
Reader Comments
what is the minimum length of the username that one can choose?
Written by anshul on 06.11.09
You are of course assuming that your spouse doesn’t want a vanity url… :)
Written by Sruthijith on 06.11.09
Thanks Amit.
Pointing out the benefit is what made the difference for me. hadn’t thought of the difference it would make to Google ranking and/or rep mght.
Ivan
Shanghai, China
Written by Ivan Walsh on 06.11.09
Amit,
Doesn’t your wife want a Vanity URL too? :)
peter
Written by Zz on 06.11.09
Peter – In my case, she would be more happy without one :)
Written by Amit on 06.11.09
You can’t log into the same Facebook account from two different locations :( Not even from two different browsers on the same computer.
Can’t wait for this!
Written by adamson on 06.11.09
Not liking the look of that 5am wake up on a Saturday morning!
Written by Rob Murray on 06.11.09
Hi Amit,
thanks for the info. It was funny to read that you are interested in amit.aggarwal and not facebook.com/amit
:)
Written by sam on 06.11.09
So where do i go in FaceBook to iniate the change, when the time comes??????
Written by mR cOMPUTER on 06.11.09
Pick a unique username for our Facebook profile is important for branding purposes. It’s not only can attract SEO and also human traffic.
Written by Bryan Hee on 06.11.09
You left Australia off the map. Wanker.
Written by Australia on 06.12.09
otherwebsite.com/heresmyvanityname
Written by who_gives_a_fawk on 06.12.09
Remember, this evening there will a rush to this site to claim vanity urls, so it’s best to have a contingency plan in place if your preferred name is not available.
1. Bandwidth – close all web applications you don’t needs, such as Limewire and Mininova. This is not the time to be fighting for bandwidth.
2. Login to Facebook – Don’t waste time logging into Facebook when it goes live. Do it now.
3. Facebook Registration page – open a tab in your browser for registering Facebook Vanity.
link
4. Open Notepad – type in the 5 Facebook usernames you want to register. Again, we are assuming that the first will not be available, so you have your backups ready. Don’t use Word as cutting and pasting into Facebook may cause unseen characters (like white spaces) to enter the registrations forms and ruin things for you.
5. Example of Facebook vanity username variations
I’ll try to get Ivan Walsh but if that’s not available here are the variations I will try to get.
1st option – IvanJWalsh – James is my third middle name
2nd option – IvanWalshMD – as I want people to know that I’m a qualified doctor
You could change this to any industry qualification, such as CBA or MS.
3rd option – IvanWalshBlogger – if I want people to know that I’m a professional blogger.
You could change this to any career or business role.
4th option – IvanWalshDirector – if I want people to know that I’m the director of an organization. You could change this to any other job title.
5th option – IvanWalshPHD – if I want people to know that I’m a qualified PHD or other academic qualification.
6. Mistake – IvanAWalsh – this would be a mistake as Ivana is a female name. Anthony is my middle name for this would just lead to confusion.
7. Test it – log out of Facebook and see if the Facebook vanity url you registered actually works!
If not, try again.
I think Facebook will crash tonight, maybe a few times, so be patient and keep trying.
Best of luck
Ivan
Written by Ivan Walsh on 06.12.09
Amit – It looks like you missed the 12:01 deadline and must have missed amit.agarwal username :(
Written by DemoGeek on 06.12.09
I got my name as the username.
You don’t need 1,000 Fans to get your own username.
Your Facebook account must be registered before June 9 as the only criteria.
Mike
Written by Mike on 06.12.09
I was having 3 Facebook accounts,SO I used3 browser to register.IT worked :D
Written by chetan on 06.12.09
I just noticed there’s a message pop up on my facebook page today, that we can set a username for our facebook profile now..
Check out my page facebook.com/seiful :D
Written by Circle Solution on 06.12.09
why u not choosen the name LABNOL . the ‘agrawal.amit’is not looks so nice.any way thankx for this post
Written by anoop singh on 06.12.09
I don’t have a prompt at the top of my screen like everyone else does.
How do I get my vanity URL??
=(
Written by Laura on 06.13.09
I have actually register my username and it works but facebook does not yet have the facility to enable users to use username to login in or has any one have been able to do that
Written by apache on 06.13.09