The happy days of Facebook.
Your online identity is part of your brand’s overall image.
Often, it’s the “name” or “handle” that you have on a given network that is the intermediary between interest (a want to find your page), and action (accessing your website, “liking” your Facebook page, etc.).
Domain names can be bought and sold on the open market – but Facebook names are a bit trickier. Not getting the right one can appear to put a crimp in your overall image. Kind of like realizing you’re wearing mismatched socks. It’s easy to freak out about, but with the right mindset, it’s a minor inconvenience at worst.
To set things straight, there’s just about no way to buy a Facebook username for any amount of money.
It doesn’t happen. Transferring them from one party to another is strictly prohibited by Facebook’s terms of service, which is why many early participants in Facebook can retain some of the most prestigious Facebook usernames to this day, despite having great utility to others with very deep pockets.
For example, facebook.com/mortgages has been untouched since the Spring of 2012, and only has 34 “likes”. Or facebook.com/laptops – it has no posts at all, and only 4 “likes”. Or facebook.com/radio, which belongs to a Brazilian man’s personal profile, who has no clear connection to the radio business. If these handles were .com’s, they would each easily command a sum in the millions of dollars. As Facebook usernames, with virtually zero portability, they are left grossly underused.
Not everyone likes Mark Zuckerberg.
So, to be clear, if your brand name is “example”, and facebook.com/example is taken, you’re stuck. But that doesn’t mean you’re screwed. Here’s a few ways that you can get around not having an exact-match username for your social media accounts, to include Facebook…
Think up a “garnish word”; yes, that’s a term I made up about three years ago. A garnish word is a word, or a few letters that complement the core keyword, in such a way that it’s a fundamentally different username.
For instance, if you were to own example.com, but facebook.com/example was taken, a way to “garnish” the word “example” might be to try and register, say, exampleco, or exampleinc. These are all different usernames from just “example”, but the original significance of “example” is virtually untouched.
A perfect example of this concept in action would be Fedex’s phone number of 1-800-GO-FEDEX. They have a different dilemma, in that they couldn’t just get 1-800-FEDEX. So, they had to get at least two more letters in there; hence “GO-FEDEX”.
Are you mad your brand is taken?
Set up a subdomain; when you own a domain, you have complete control over everything that pertains to it – to include subdomains. Meaning that it’s perfectly within your power to create a subdomain of, say, facebook.example.com – and redirecting it to your Facebook page. Since visitors won’t actually see your real Facebook username until they’ve gotten to your page, your username becomes substantially less relevant.
This is particularly useful on social networks such as linkedin, where profile URL’s are often lengthy. By using subdomains, you only have to remember two words; the name of the social network, and your domain name.
Use it in a sentence; where garnish words may seem indistinct, and setting up subdomains perhaps too complicated, you may want to consider using your brand name in a sentence, as your Facebook username.
Let’s say your name is John Appleseed and you’re a real estate agent. You already have www.johnappleseed.com, but facebook.com/johnappleseed is taken. Think of a sentence that your brand name (or a part of it) could be applied to. For instance – facebook.com/johngetsitsold. Or facebook.com/homesbyjohn.
This is where a little creativity helps. In cases like these, there are a number of variations… johnsellsmanhattan, givejohnacall, johncandoit – that sort of thing. By creatively using your brand name, you can overcome the seemingly grim reality that your exact-match username might not be available – and perhaps add a fun twist to your social media presence in the process.
FB’s username is joke. The policy says the minimum length is 5 characters. Well, how the hell then sites like facebook.com/citi, facebook.com/ea and other similar may even exist? If you contact support regarding this question, you will get no answer.
What I also found interesting is that some usernames are redirected to other, which is mystery for me, how to do it in settings of regular user. When for example you go to http://www.facebook.com/jpm, it redirects to http://www.facebook.com/lbljeffmo. Hmmm. How that user made it? How he got 3-letter username and how he setup that redirection? And is it actually allowed to have more username?
Facebook will not comment that. Jerks!
The fb sub is a good tip.
No matter what page is set up, as you stated facebook.com/mortgages unless its branded and informing the user, then it will not receive the likes.
But will this page act as a lead gen which is the goal?
Is there any good solid evidence based lit on sm marketing online? I haven’t found any?
Mike – all I can say is… money talks. They’ll tell you one story about what the username rules are at first, but some money on the table can make for a little plot twist.
It’s also possible that these names might have been grandfathered from the early stages, just like single-letter .com’s. Whatever the case may be, it’s a closed-door process.