On June 12th at 12:01 a.m.  EDT Facebook will go crazy. Everyone who was previously assigned a user name made up of random numbers (id=123456789) will be able to obtain a username similar to what LinkedIn offers. (Official announcement here)

I can now shed my previous Facebook identity (120400011) become facebook.com/chris.davies, or if that’s not available perhaps w.chris.davies to match my LinkedIn account.

They’re limiting the potential for name-squatting by preventing pages made after May 31st and profiles after June 9th from signing up for a username, so if you’re not already on Facebook, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time worrying about it. All users who joined Facebook after the cut-off will be ableto claim usernames on, June 28. In the mean time I’ve already had questions from several clients about how they should handle this.

Best Practices:

1. 1. Make a reasonable effort to get a good vanity URL for your pages and/or your profile. It won’t be the end of the world if you don’t lock down facebook.com/firstname-lastname. Don’t stay up all night, but if you happen to be up at 12:01 a.m., you might want to flip on your computer.
2. Your best choice is your proper name as you usually use it, with no spaces. I’m going to shoot for www.facebook.com/chrisdavies. Remember, you want to keep it short, memorable and easy to communicate, like a verbal business card.
3. For brands, go for the most commonly used form of your name. For Enquiro, that means using facebook.com/enquiro, and not the full name of our company, Enquiro Search Solutions. Don’t worry if someone’s squatted on your brand.
4. You can prevent your registered trademarks from being registered as usernames. You can do that by filling out this form.
5. Update your other social networking profiles to reflect your new-found vanity URL.

Resources:

Usernames for Facebook Pages

Username Eligibility FAQ

Info for Intellectual Property Rights Holders


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