A personally branded username is the first place to start when you establish your Facebook Fan Page. For example, when you first set up your fan page, your link for that fan page will be a series of numbers; http://www.facebook.com/pages/nameoffanpage/113918452015025 rather than http://www.facebook.com/fanpagename. Your default Facebook URL is a randomly generated number that identifies your page to Facebook. Who is going to remember that, right? And most of all, it is not very personal or searchable! Choosing a branded custom username is very important to your personal branding process. Facebook has a rule that you have to have 25 friends “LIKE” your fan page before you can choose a custom branded name for your fan page.
How to Get Those 25 Fans to your Facebook Fan Page Instantly
Located below your Facebook fan page profile picture is a button labeled “suggest to friends.” Click this button to invite all your friends on your personal profile page to join your new fan page. This should quickly create 25 fans and will allow you to choose your custom branded Facebook username. Once you have your new branded custom URL, you can use that link to market your fan page, share with customers or prospects via email or social media and even submit it to the search engines.
How to Set Up Your Branded Facebook Username
Visit this link to choose your own branded username: http://facebook.com/username. This is the same page whereby you can choose a custom name for a personal profile, fan page or a group that you have started. If you do not own your own name for your personal profile, now is the time to take care of this as well! Click on the drop-down menu to select either your personal profile, fan page or group that you wish to choose a custom branded name. After making a selection, a text box will pop up asking you to enter your custom branded username.
Choosing Your Branded Facebook Username
Choosing wisely when it comes to the branded name of your fan page is important. You need to realize that this single decision is an important factor in getting your Facebook fan page, profile or group ranked within Google and the Facebook search as well. Your branded name choice should be short and identify your business. Including keywords that users might be searching for is also a very smart move.
Questions about your Facebook URL?
If you have any questions about how to create your custom branded Facebook username please comment below and I will respond as quickly as I can.
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Grab your branded username today before someone else does!
About Kim
Good article, Kim! Maybe you can answer a question for me that I can't seem to find the answer to anywhere on FB. I've created a user name a few weeks back for my biz page but the URL takes you to my personal page. WHY? I'm sure it is user error on my part (I'm so tech challenged…LOL) and that I probably did something wrong when I set it all up but don't know what, why or how to correct it. Any ideas or solutions?
hmmm…is your username the same for both your fan page and your personal profile?
Great post for guiding people through the basic, but very important, elements of getting a FB vanity URL.
Ginger, when you choose a vanity URL, you have to select which page you want it tagged to, if you have more than one page (i.e., personal page and business page). Sounds to me that you may have tagged it to your personal profile page rather than your business page.
If you REALLY want that URL tagged to your business page, you'll need to delete your personal page account. It will take about 2 weeks before you can then sign back into FB (at all) and create the vanity URL for your business page.
If you do this, you'll want to send a note to your friends that you're having to delete your account, but will be back in a few weeks and will be asking them to "refriend you. Also, you'll want to record your friends before you delete your account so you'll have a list to work from when you do this.
I also suggest you add another person as an admin for your business page so you have someone else who can monitor it while you're off FB for the 2 week interim.
Hope this helps!
Becky, sorry I’m just now seeing this reply. I’m not sure I understand what you are saying I must do. Are you saying to delete my personal account and then reopen it later? I was told that FB rules require a personal account in order to have and keep a biz page. Won’t that (deleting account) put in me in violation of FB rules? I honestly do not recall being given the choice to tag the vanity URL to either my personal account or biz page. Are there any other options so I don’t lose any on my friends list and not have to start from scratch with my biz page. I would gladly create a new biz page if I knew how to do that and still keep the fans I currently have or move them over to that new page. I’ve done the new page thing earlier this year after a business name change and I lost most of my fans who never returned even after being sent invites. It’s taken me months to get even remotely built back up on the fans to where I was before.
thanks for the advice.
Ginger
Sorry. Just saw the reply when I clicked on the article link on Twitter. My user name is NeosCreations and supposed to be for my fan page/biz page and is the name of my biz page only, Neos Creations. Whenever anyone puts in the facebook URL with my user name( http://www.facebook.com/NeosCreations ) , it goes to my personal profile. No one eles I know seems to be having this problem. I set it up through my fan/biz page. My biz page was set up while I was logged into my personal account (I just happened to find a linkone day to set up a business page after inquiring for a few days on how to set up a biz page with no answers) so maybe that makes a difference somehow.
Thanks so much for this, Kim! I received my 25 likes today and set up my custom username easily following your instructions. Your social media tips are incredibly valuable!
Great post Kim! I’ve got 25+ likes but am still struggling to name my page! Debating weather I name it the same as my soon to be website url (www.NextGenCounsel.com) which isn’t as perfect as I’d like because it leaves out coaching but didn’t want a long url or if I should name it after my business name Next Gen Counseling and Coaching so people will know that I coach too (which might become primary in my business).
Hi Kim,
Great post but wanted to ask a couple of things as I have had a lot of confusion over this recently. Facebook's terms for pages say: "If you were not able to get a username, your page may not be eligible to have a username at this time. Pages with more than 25 fans can get a username." Although when I'm on a new page with only 6 likes I get this appearing on the right hand side under page tips:
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l536/ElliotSheenWSI/CustomerURLpagetip.jpg
Do you have any experience with this as I believe it is a recent change?
Elliot
Yes, FB has recently changed this policy and ‘supposedly’ you no longer need 25 likes to register your vanity name. I have had mixed reviews on this. Some are able to register their new vanity name immediately and others are still having to wait until they reach 25 likes. I think FB simply hasn’t got this change fully implemented yet across the board.
Hello again Kim,
Just read your article on branding your facebook page. Well mine is presently "weightloss". I sell V 3 by voyager health also known as "happy skinny pill". Would love your input on a name for my page. I have now reached 25 likes. I know that you are very busy and I truly appreciate your help with this issue.
thanks,
sherry copley
Sherry, my best advice is to not brand your page to the product/company name. What happens if the company goes under or you decide you no longer want to rep this product line for whatever the reason? I would pick a name that is branded to YOU. See my fan page http://www.fb.com/socialmediabrandinggal as there has been some discussion around just this topci today.
Hello Ms Garst,
I have a Cosmetics company Thast has 29 likes so far, I was wondering How can I get more traffic to my page, What is the best way for me to brand my company. I will be greatful for any help you can give thanks
Try my 30 Fun and Creative Ways to Get More Likes to Your Fan Page http://www.kimgarst.com. This would be a great start.
Thanks for tweeting this out Kim! Helped me remember to grab user names for my newer pages.
Glad it was helpful, Michael!