Why I'll be boring with my Facebook username
Yesterday, Facebook staff posted an announcement on the company blog regarding the unlocking of Facebook usernames or “vanity URLs.” Now, instead of going to facebook.com/profile.php?id=7901458, starting this weekend, you could visit facebook.com/cesart (or whatever name I choose on Friday night) to write on my wall and view pictures I’ve uploaded.
This is huge for social networking. Not only does it make Facebook more semantic and easier for people to use, but it also adds a new level of interaction between users—assuming people start to use Facebook more like Twitter.
From the announcement:
Your new Facebook URL is like your personal destination, or home, on the Web. People can enter a Facebook username as a search term on Facebook or a popular search engine like Google, for example, which will make it much easier for people to find friends with common names.
I imagine two situations occurring:
- People who link their Twitter accounts to their Facebook accounts (like me) will see increased use of the @ symbol in things like Facebook comments or any other time there is need to reference another user—there will be demand to link to the profiles when someone’s username is mentioned;
- people who don’t merge Twitter and Facebook will begin to use the @ syntax, further blurring the lines between Facebook and Twitter.
My advice, and this is what I’m planning to do, is to make sure you’re happy with your Twitter account username since that’s always editable. Come Friday night, make your Twitter and Facebook usernames match, because (as stated in the username FAQ) once you lock in your Facebook name, there’s no going back; your online identity will be set.
EDIT: I indeed ended up with facebook.com/cesart. Let’s be friends (that is of course, if we already have met in real life)!
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I definitely see this as the catalyst to an overall branding of every person online.For those of us on multiple networks, it allows us to be further market our “namebrand” and for those without, they will begin to think about the implications of branding their profile.
Or people will choose ridiculous things like “partygirlsally.” Either way, this is big.
I’m with that.
Remember, however, that these unique addresses also apply to Pages.
My strategy and targets in order:
1. /johnmetcalf – hardest to get – will redirect to my actual profile.
2. /johnerik – easy to get – will redirect to my fan page. (might swap 1&2)
3. /metcalf – hard to get, but not that big a deal – will redirect to a fan page.
4. /johnerikmetcalf – super-easy to get – will redirect to a fan page.
5. /conjunctured…
6. /startupdistrict…
…now, how can I get with this “partygirlsally???”
You make a good point about blurring the lines between Twitter and Facebook usernames. However, I’m still struggling whether I’ll try to grab ‘ryanjoy’ or ‘atxryan’. I already have the well-established atxryan as my personal online brand, but I’ve been slowly moving over to establish my name as my brand. I regret choosing atxryan as my LinkedIn permalink name.
@johnerik: Wait, you have a fan page? Sign me up!
@atxryan: It’s tough, I know. Ultimately, I think it’s better to facilitate connections by being able to say “I’m ‘cesart’ everywhere online.” Ultimately, just choose which networks you use the most and are most important to you. Mine are Twitter, Facebook, Gchat and YouTube once I get my iPhone S.
From a graphic design perspective, I also imagine business cards and other paper collateral moving towards ways to display this kind of information neatly. How cool would it be to hand someone a letterpressed card that only says “/cesart” dead-center?!