Fancy your own Facebook vanity URL?

June 16, 2009 · Posted in social media  · Posted by IIA

UPDATE: From today (29 June 2009) Facebook pages with 100 fans or more can get their own vanity URL. We need a lot of help so please fan us up on Facebook today :)

Eoin Kennedy, IIA Vice-chair and Social Media Working Group (SMWG) worker has a great post on his blog about the key activities a company should focus on when setting themselves up on Facebook. This is a checklist that was developed by Matt Matheson of Thinkhouse (and fellow SMWG member) for the SMWG’s recent breakout session at IIA Congress 09. It is well worth checking it out, if only to satisfy yourself that you are doing a few things right.

A new addition to this list could of course be a Facebook vanity URL. A vanity URL is best explained as follows: www.facebook.com/yournameorcompanynamehere. These went live on Saturday and there was a land grab with no small amount of controversy in Ireland anyway. I managed to get my second choice for my personal Facebook page although my name does not seem to be associated with anyone else. I don’t care too much about my own personal brand but I do care about the IIA. The IIA are a real latecomer to the Facebook party and recent changes to how a company can represent themselves and use Facebook have tempted us to get involved. (Oh yes and of course a small matter of  a keynote speaker but we didn’t want to seem TOO reactionary!) We also haven’t promoted our Facebook page much yet.

11 fan-citement
Photo right owned by jasonlam (cc) However I was a little ticked off that we couldn’t secure a vanity url for our Facebook page because we don’t have a 1000 fans! A quick gander at some of our members who have Facebook pages for a LOT longer allows me to feel that my irritation is justified. The Institute of Designers in Ireland, a member organisation too, has a very healthy 260 members at time of writing. Blacknight have 189 fans, the Flowers Made Easy Group has 184 members: I could go on. My point being that not many of these Irish companies groups or pages have 500 fans or members never mind 1000! (Okay so Barry’s Tea have over 3,000 but who doesn’t love a nice cuppa?) How are we going to ensure that we get our vanity URLs, people? The IIA is up against the Iraqi Interim Authority and the Indian Internet Alliance here and some others besides!

So in the vain hope that the powers that be in Facebook might read my humble wee blog post please reconsider and drop the required number of fans to a more realistic 250 fans, even just for Irish online businesses. Otherwise who’s going to pay for all those social ads…?

If you are an Irish company with a Facebook page join the IIA on Facebook and tell us all about what you are doing on Facebook. We LOVE social media case studies :)

Of course I’ve just realised what I have to do next: set up a protest group on Facebook – Give Irish businesses vanity urls too or some such.

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Comments

17 Responses to “Fancy your own Facebook vanity URL?”

  1. Aedan on June 16th, 2009 3:46 pm

    Hi Roseanne, I agree the 1000 fan rule is very annoying. I am sure that Facebook could have prevented cyber squatting in another way such as making sure thet the pages have existed for a period of time. Anyway I read that the rule is to be relaxed and from June 28th, small brands (and associations!) can get their customer FB name even if they have less than 1000 fans. I read about it on Mashable here:
    http://mashable.com/2009/06/11/facebook-page-usernames-2/

    Another thing to do is to make sure that we are all fans of each others pages so we can build up the number of fans. Our page is here if anyone feels like joining:
    http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/PuddleDucks/22282839694

  2. Paula Thomas on June 17th, 2009 9:49 am

    Hi Eoin – I shared your frustration but was appeased when I (finally) found the relevant information on Facebook and found that is only a two week delay rather than a permanent ban…
    Full FAQ’s on URL below – but it would have been much more helpful if Facebook put these on the relevant pages last Saturday so save us all the grief! Is website usability still so difficult? http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=900

  3. Roseanne Smith on June 18th, 2009 9:31 am

    Hi Aedan and Paula,

    Thanks for your updates on this issue and links to the info. I was particularly worried as I was trying to do all this on my iPhone on Saturday morning on my way to Wicklow! Now I’m off to protect our brand….!

    Thanks!
    Roseanne

  4. Sian Maloney on June 29th, 2009 10:41 am

    Hi Aedan and Paula,

    Thanks a million for your updates on this. Aedan thanks to your post I realised this morning that they had relaxed the 1000 limit on this 100 fans. I am still I think about 8 shy. But I thought 1000 was ridiculous for small businesses and they had to make a move to keep us using it and not isolate us.

    If anybody fancies helping me out I am http://www.facebook.com/pages/wwwgiftsandvouchersie/32918458211

    Off to keep helping out the rest of our smaller brands !! Sian xx

  5. Roseanne Smith on June 29th, 2009 11:21 am

    Thanks for your comment Sian and ditto it was Aedan’s post on this topic that drew my attention to the relaxation of the rules. Hope you get your 100!

    Roseanne

  6. Paula Thomas on June 29th, 2009 11:45 am

    Hi Roseanne

    Well done – I see you got over 100. My clients are a very young company, so I had a very frustrating weekend when FIRST Facebook set a minimum of 25 fans, THEN increased it to 100 yesterday. Throughout, they didn’t have one tweet on the subject, their FAQ’s was out of date, and just didn’t bother to tell us what was going on! Am not happy with how they treated everyone – particularly as we are (potential) advertisers! Dreadful experience all weekend :(

  7. Alex Kirwan on June 29th, 2009 12:34 pm

    We have about 18 more fans needed to reach the magic 100.

    Would really appreciate it if anyone fancies becoming a fan of our page and help us out. (I realised late last night that they up the anty from 25 fans needed to 100)

    Our page features all the latest news and deals for New York

    http://short.ie/xtbcbm

    Thanks,
    Alex

  8. Roseanne Smith on June 29th, 2009 1:05 pm

    Hi Alex,

    You’re getting there!

    Paula – that’s sounds like a total mare. I missed the announcement re 25 so for me it went from 1000 to 100 so I didn’t get too upset. And no the IIA is nowhere near 25 never mind 100! I’m thinking more longterm tbh. Well that’s what I’m saying anyway :)

    Roseanne

  9. Julian on June 29th, 2009 4:12 pm

    Well, I think we’re (I’m) a case study all right. I don’t really know what I’m doing: Facebook is way beyond me. Nonetheless, there we are, flailing about at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bubble-Brothers/58569016429 and also at http://www.facebook.com/bubblebrothers. I do my best to return online kindnesses as and when possible, though it’s much easier when people just call in and see us in person. Lots to do in Cork, if you’re not here already!

  10. Roseanne Smith on June 30th, 2009 8:56 am

    Hi Julian,

    Thanks for adding your fan page. I’m the same when it comes to Facebook so I’m heading to the Facebook Garage event on Thursday in Dublin in the hope that it might clear up some of the murkier patches!

    Planning to be in Cork in September so I might see you then!
    Roseanne

  11. Martina on June 30th, 2009 10:03 am

    I will be happy to return the favour and become a fan of anyone who ‘fans’ Irish Farmhouse Holidays page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Irish-Farmhouse-Holidays/98300908331

    Hard to get small Irish companies over the 100 fans mark!

  12. Paul on June 30th, 2009 10:21 am

    Hi Roseanne,

    we secured http://www.facebook.com/IrishCancerSociety on the morning that usernames went live as we have more than the 1,000 fans needed. By the way, we’re pretty proud of having more than 1,700 facebook fans, does anyone know of any Irish charity that has more?

  13. Roseanne Smith on June 30th, 2009 3:18 pm

    Hi Paul,

    Fair play – I must check it out and see what you are doing right :) If you would like to share your experience with the readers I would be happy to include in our Social Media Case Studies? Let me know!

    Martina – consider it done! I’m always on the lookout for a nice holiday spot – don’t tell the boss though :)

    Thanks!
    Roseanne

  14. Sian Maloney on June 30th, 2009 3:54 pm

    I have done it for you Martina. Are you on Twitter? The support there is great.
    Sian x

  15. Alex Kirwan on June 30th, 2009 4:07 pm

    Hi Martina.

    I’m now a fan on your page – best of luck with it, keep going!!

    Oh and I agree with Sian, Twitter helped me loads.

    Alex

  16. Martina on June 30th, 2009 4:17 pm

    Thanks Sian, I have returned the favour and thanks Roseanne, I had already become a fan of IIA! On twitter at http://www.twitter.com/activateireland and yes, I agree the support on there is great.

  17. Modern Technology on July 30th, 2009 7:10 pm

    Vanity URL or subdomain idea for users is very nice but condition for 1000 fans seems tough to me. I think facebook did that since they have lots of user and doing for all maybe something complex technically.

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