The importance of securing a Facebook Username
24 hours ago Facebook opened the gates to having a username and vanity URL. What that means is that you can more easily have someone find you on Facebook. Is this a big deal? Who cares about this other than people trying to sell something? Why do I want this for me?
These are questions my family had when I told them how important it really can be and would be a good idea to make sure they secure their names. I made sure at 12:01 when the gate opened that I secured http://facebook.com/anthony.russo and I told my family to do the same, and here’s why:
Over 500 Anthony Russo on Facebook
If I tell someone to look me up on Facebook, it’s like sending them to find a needle in a haystack. There are over 500 Anthony Russo on Facebook! A good chunk of them from my area in Ohio. Hope they can find me? You mean I’m not worth searching through page after page of people to be connected with?
The alternative until yesterday was to give people the direct URL to my profile page so they can add me as a friend. That URL was http://www.facebook.com/people/anthonyrusso/635371316 which is obviously not something easy to just tell someone with all those numbers in it. Also not easy to put on anything printed for people to enter in themselves. Enter your friendly new Facebook URL of http://facebook.com/anthony.russo and I can now just tell someone “Go to Facebook.com slash anthony dot russo” Much easier.
Now again, is this important? For some people no, but for others yes. I don’t think it’s essential my mother gets her Facebook URL. It couldn’t hurt but she is retired and honestly not in a situation much where she is going to be giving out her Facebook page to people. She is pretty connected technologically for a great-grandma, (She has her own PC and laptop, Nintendo DS and her Facebook page, way to go mom!) but she isn’t going to be using her Facebook page much in her career or social circles as she is retired and not all her friends are as connected as she is.
My daughters I told better get their name right away. One is a Medical Asisstant who will be going back to the workforce right after she gives birth to my grandson next week (Yay!) and settles all that. The other is going off to start college in the fall. They are going to use their Facebook pages in their careers and social circles whether they realize it or not. Having a URL that is speakable and simple is going to be a benefit. Also being the first person to come up on search for your name is a benefit on its own. You don’t want someone else representing you.
How do I know they are going to be using Facebook? There are 200 million people on Facebook! It would be the 5th largest country in the world with that population. It isn’t loaded with crazy kids and blinky things like MySpace and is not going to go away anytime soon. Being properly represented here is important. As a side note, LinkedIn (the largest business social network) and Google Profile (hey, it’s Google!) are also very important and I will urge my kids to be represented well on those platforms as well.
So if you do not yet have your Facebook username, click here and get it. It can’t hurt, and it might someday help. Feel free to connect with me on Facebook if you like. You know how to find me.
Anthony