The Importance Of Custom URLs

“Secure your brand on Facebook with a Custom (Vanity) URL”

About a year ago Facebook launched Custom URLs. People stayed in and up on a Friday night until 12:01 am to have the chance at obtaining their own Facebook Profile Custom URL. There was madness, back stabbing, name squatting (seriously, us Geeks can get mean I guess) and even bribing.

I was one of the fools that stayed up that night and was able to secure the link http://facebook.com/KimRandall instead of it possibly looking something like http://facebook.com/025485214546/user/454995ala5612/profile/732581ds

Get the point?

No way was I able to remember something that long (I never tried either).

There are many reasons why these Custom URLs are important.

There isn’t enough room on your business card for a long URL and as of right now hyperlinking a piece of paper is un-heard of. At least to me.
It is so much easier to say: “Yeah I’m on Facebook. You can find me at facebook.com/KimRandall
Makes more sense when you see facebook.com/KimRandall rather than a bit.ly shortened URL. Too many people are scared for the safety of their PCs with shortened URLs.
No one else can have that URL, it is now YOURS! No one else can have the exact http://facebook.com/KimRandall URL. I “own” it.

OK so we just pretty much went over why you need a Custom URL for your profile, but don’t stop there. Obtain a Custom URL for your Fan Pages too.

Don’t you want to protect your Brand?

You have a 50-50 chance this late in the game of obtaining exactly what you want. Good luck!

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KIM RANDALL SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST

Social Brand Strategist & Interwebs Addict, Blogger, Lame joke teller, St. Louis Cardinals fan (woot! woot! 2011 Champs!!), Twitterholic, Second Life Resident (Sadie Pippita), entrepreneur, CEO of KiMedia Strategies - Tampa Social Media, Startup Weekend Tampa co-organizer and Chihuahua owner.

Kim has 384 awesome posts.

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Dr. Rus at: Another great post! Also, if you can afford it, make sure you grab variations of your personal URL. For example, I own both http://www.DrRus.com AND http://www.DoctorRus.com – They both point to DrRus.com .
Kim Randall at: If you can obtain them, I suggest obtaining all variations of your name as well as your name on all Social Sites. I am personally considering purchasing the domain for my friends kid so he has that domain available to him if he should want it in (15 years?) LOL