Custom Facebook Usernames – Why?

The hype is out there.  The buzz is building.  My alarm clock is set.

Very soon you’ll be able to change your existing Facebook profile URL from something that looks like this:

To something that looks like this:

Is this really important?  Yes and no.  It depends on what you do with Facebook.  If you are a simple Facebook user, maybe reconnecting with your College Sorority Sisters from 20 years ago it’s probably not a pressing issue.  You did know the fastest growing demographic on Facebook was Women over the age of 50 – right?

However if you use the immense power of Facebook for marketing in any way this is a very important change.  Personal branding is everything.  You don’t have an email that looks like 7fhsg4@gmail.com do you?  Your twitter address is recognizable as well.  You probably have a personalized plate.  Why shouldn’t your Facebook profile say something about you?

To secure your own Custom Facebook Profile, all you have to do is go to this page: http://www.facebook.com/username/ on or after Friday, June 12th, at 9:01pm (Pacific)

From Facebook :

Facebook usernames will be available in basic text forms, and you can only choose a single username for your profile and for each of the Pages that you administer. Your username must be at least five characters in length and only include alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9), or a period or full stop (“.”). While usernames are currently available only for Romanized text, we’re looking at how we might support non-Romanized characters in the future.

One word of caution.  Choose wisely.  The name you pick will be yours forever!  While it may be possible to register http://facebook.com/DanceDanceRevolutionNinja Do you really want to?  Forever?

BTW: If you want a Custom Facebook Business (Fan) Page Name you’ll need to already have 1,000 fans or have to wait a bit.

From Facebook :

Your Facebook 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.

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