Get your own vanity facebook URL before it’s too late!

For the same reason computer generated email adddresses never worked that great (think of the old 733511.10@compuserve.com address format in the early nineties), facebook is finally allowing users to register their own vanity name starting June 13th.

I was too late to secure my own name, but I managed to secure facebook.com/phryl – which is at least consistent with my other social media URLs and my own personal branding.

Brands looking to get their own vanity URL (so that they can finally promote how to find them in other media channels) need to have at least 1000 fans first on their public profile page (formely known as fan pages).  Don’t worry if you don’t have 1,000 yet – your trademarked name will be protected if you want it later when you finally reach facebook relevance

There are a few issues / questions that arise from this move:

1. Wasn’t the whole point of facebook was that it was a closed community of people you already knew? If so, why do care if your facebook profile is now guessable / findable? I’m not sure everybody will want their profile to be fully indexed by Google now
2. What URL do you stick on your business card or on your email signature? It’s getting crowded with my linkedin profile (linkedin.com/in/phryl), twitter account (twitter.com/phryl) and this blog. It may be time to look at a URL aggregation strategy to keep control of my personal brand. The same could be said for brands you are managing.

If you haven’t secured your own vanity URL yet, you can do it by clicking here.

What’s your vanity URL?