Your personal branding efforts may be paying off, but there is always room for improvement, especially in the ever-changing landscape provided by the Internet.
Facebook differs from many of the other social networking sites out there due to the focus on creating a community of your ‘real’ friends and connections, rather than online characters with obscure usernames and identities.
This focus on authenticity helped Facebook become the success it is today, but one feature was always lacking from the service: Unique and memorable URLs.
Facebook is one of modern personal branding specialist’s most valuable tools, but the generated URLs are neither easy to remember or distribute. On MySpace or Twitter users can choose their own username and URL, many people opted to use these tools as a result.
But now, the social networking giant invites users to create their own URLs, which makes finding your page much easier.
Setting Up Your Facebook Vanity URL
The optional vanity URL feature was made available on June 13, 2009. Now it’s up to you to make your profile or fan page easier to find and more memorable than a string of random characters.
Set up your Facebook username now to make your profile, fan page or group more user-friendly.
Facebook Vanity URL Guidelines:
• Username must be unique.
• Must be a minimum of five characters.
• URLs can only contain alpha-numeric (Romanised) characters and full-stops.
• Can’t be changed once set.
The Facebook Vanity URL is just one of the many ways you can assist your personal branding efforts.