Use Your Name Within FaceBook Vanity URL And Google+ URL

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Sayed

Up to yesterday this blog did not have a Facebook or a Google+ account. In fact, I never used Facebook or Google+ ever before, I always just relied on twitter.

The truth is, that if you’re serious about making money online, you will have to expand your own social network to include people who use other social services such as Facebook and Google+.

So I started to learn about Facebook, Google+ a bit and after creating an account on each, I started to see how I can improve it even further.

I found that if I want people to check my Facebook or Google+ pages or even add me, I will have to link for both accounts from my blog. But when I went to acquire the link for each, it looked a bit ridiculous.

For Facebook, my link looked something like this:

“http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456789″

which is not only ugly looking, but if you meet anyone on the street and you want to give them a direct link to your profile or page, it’s just going to be impossible to remember.

For Google+, my link was also too long and it looked something like this:

“https://plus.google.com/111786862965908577487/posts”

Wouldn’t you rather have your Facebook URL be something like:

“http://www.facebook.com/YOUR-USERNAME“ much easier to remember isn’t it?

I saw many people link to their Facebook account with nothing but their name or the name of their company in the address right after Facebook.com so how did they do it?

Let me introduce you to:

Facebook Vanity URL Feature

Facebook allows you to register any name you want as long as its related to your identity, and link it to your Facebook page. The problem is that since this is a unique name to your account, no one else can have it which means that many of the names that you would like to register are already taken.

Facebook knows this, which is why they allow you to use other names for your profile, as long as it’s not offensive of course, otherwise you will get reported and possibly get your account banned. A good idea is to use your nickname, or even your Twitter username. Both are good possibilities, and most likely to be still available.

Possible To Change My Name After Registering It?
Not gonna happen, Facebook have millions of users, and their customer service don’t have time to respond to your name change request. On top of that, when you access their registration page for your name, they clearly state that “You will not be able to edit or transfer this username once you set it.”

How Do I Register My User Name?
The easist way is to:

1) Make sure you login to your account before you do anything else.

2) While you are logged in, visit the address (http://www.facebook.com/username/)

This will allow you to enter a username for not only your profile account but also for any pages that you have created, for example pages that lead to your websites or anything else you may have.

Once you enter a name, you will be able to check its availability and if it’s available you will be able to register it, otherwise Facebook will give you some suggestions if the name you choose is not available.

Please Note: You will not be able to change your name once you set it, so make sure you choose it wisely!

How About Google+?

Right now Google+ shows a big number as part of your profile address (For Example: “https://plus.google.com/111786862965908577487/posts”), not only is it hard to remember, its not easy for your friends to easily identify who you are just by looking at it.

Unlike Facebook, you cant just enter a username that you want in your Google+ account and expect to be able to use it instead of that huge URL. We’re going to have to use services that shorten your URL a bit so it’s easier to remember.

How Do I Shorten My Google+ URL?
There are some services out there that will allow you to do just that, but my favorite 2 are:

1) http://gplus.to/

2) http://plus.ly/

Using the above service my URL transformed from:

“https://plus.google.com/111786862965908577487/posts”

“http://plus.ly/createawebsiteincome”.

So while you may not be able to enter a username for Google+ just yet, you can at least shorten it so you can easily remember it and share it with your friends.

Since I just joined Facebook and Google+, I don’t have any followers or fans yet however I did add a social widget for each service on this blog, you will find it on the sidebar to the right of this page, be sure to hit like on Facebook or add me to your Google+ circles.

20 thoughts on “Use Your Name Within FaceBook Vanity URL And Google+ URL”

denver relocation specialists on November 27, 2011 at 6:19 pm said:

If you own a website then it may be wise for you to explore as many social networks as you can so that you can know which one has many users that are interested in your website. I am glad that you decided to try out Google plus and Facebook.

Reply ↓
- Sayed on November 27, 2011 at 9:02 pm said:
  
  Thank You, Google+ seems to be getting a lot of popularity and I think it’s only a matter of time until they’re as big as Facebook.
  
  Thanks for taking the time to comment.
  
  Reply ↓
  - kristeen on November 29, 2011 at 8:51 am said:
    
    I don’t think Google + will ever be as big as facebook is. Im from the Netherlands, and nobody uses it here.
    kristeen recently posted..autoverzekering en meer
    
    Reply ↓
    - Sayed on November 29, 2011 at 5:29 pm said:
      
      Google owns a lot of major things on the net including YouTube, so only time will tell kristeen, only time will tell indeed.
      
      Reply ↓
Barry Ranns
Twitter: pumbles
on November 28, 2011 at 4:18 pm said:

Hi Sayed,
Thanks for those useful tips, especially the Facebook one, that will make my promotions far less complicated.

As to whether Google+ will overtake Facebook – I suppose it will happen eventually, but is it right for so much influential power to be in one company’s hands. At the moment when we say SEO, what we really mean is, we are optimising our pages according to how Google wants things to be, and Google sets the bar very high for organic search results. However, if you can afford it, you can get front page ranking irrespective of your SEO..

Would we then be seeing the danger of a two tier Social Sites as well, one for the haves, and one for the have nots.

Perhaps I am trying to create a monster which doesn’t exist, but I think Google’s motives need to be examined.

Barry
Barry Ranns recently posted..What’s On Your Hard Drive

Reply ↓
- Sayed on November 28, 2011 at 5:12 pm said:
  
  Thank you Barry, I have a feeling Google will not rest until they either defeat Facebook, or buy it.
  
  And you’re right, when we talk about SEO all that matters is Google, we never pay that much attention to other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing, Google is the most important one these days.
  
  Thanks for the like on Facebook and Google+, added you as well as following you on twitter.
  
  Reply ↓
Anna on November 29, 2011 at 3:16 pm said:

I am very thankful that you gave all this info. Especially that ones we are registered we cannot change our name…i thought we can:(
Anna recently posted..instant veneers

Reply ↓
- Sayed on November 29, 2011 at 5:27 pm said:
  
  You’re welcome Anna, and yup you’re right, we cant change the name once you register it.
  
  Reply ↓
Michelle on November 29, 2011 at 9:48 pm said:

excellent!! very instructive for beginners. I just use gplus this month
Michelle recently posted..weddings oregon

Reply ↓
- Sayed on November 29, 2011 at 11:09 pm said:
  
  Thanks Michelle, Google+ is pretty cool, and if used correctly can drive lots of traffic to your blog/website.
  
  Take care.
  
  Reply ↓
- kristeen on December 5, 2011 at 2:41 pm said:
  
  I agree with you Michelle. This article is very, very instructive for beginners. The Google+ tips are also really good. Thank you for sharing this post with us Sayed.
  kristeen recently posted..autoverzekering
  
  Reply ↓
  - Sayed on December 5, 2011 at 4:04 pm said:
    
    You’re welcome kristeen, thanks for taking the time to comment.
    
    Reply ↓
Demi on December 6, 2011 at 10:25 am said:

Thanks for sharing this because it would be much better if everyone just has it username in the url because it looks better and is easier. Thanks for sharing this!
Demi recently posted..buitenasbakken

Reply ↓
Cindy on January 13, 2012 at 11:13 pm said:

Very informative text, thanks for sharing it! I have been on Facebook for about years but I haven’t known that there is an opportunity to create a shortlink to my account. I just want to give it a try as soon as possible. Thanks for the idea!
Cindy recently posted..Toothache home remedies and natural cures

Reply ↓
Amanda@BuySellWordPress on January 25, 2012 at 2:36 pm said:

I agree that it will be much easier and better if every user will have only its username in the URL! Many thanks for sharing this very updated article
Amanda@BuySellWordPress recently posted..Business WordPress Themes

Reply ↓
James on February 2, 2012 at 5:19 pm said:

I’d go even further – use your most important keywords within social networks URLs It’s easy to be found after your name, it’s harder to attract your niche of readers after certain keywords.
James recently posted..Main Features Of The Kenmore Vacuum Cleaners

Reply ↓
Andreas Pazer on April 14, 2012 at 9:30 am said:

Facebook is actually more and more growing to be a “second home page” for organizations on the web. Facebook has recently developed a good number of innovative possibilities for Pages to get increased traffic with the tried and true ways of search engine optimization. Making use of important web optimization techniques in your Facebook Page can help to accomplish progressively more Facebook devotees. Search engine optimization reveals your Facebook Page to Facebook’s total userbase. In fact, Facebook themselves has taken big steps to improve its own web optimization in current several weeks and months, creating opportunities for Page managers to gain immediately whilst making worth for Facebook while doing so.
Andreas Pazer recently posted..5 Reasons Blog Marketing is Effective

Reply ↓
Ahsan
Twitter: russellworld
on April 21, 2012 at 5:34 am said:

You described the article in a lucid way. So the new bloggers will be benefited from it. I already made a Facebook page & Google+ page for my site. Hope this will bring popularity to my site.
Ahsan recently posted..Protect Your Blog Posts From Copying By Copy Protect Plugin

Reply ↓
- Sayed on April 22, 2012 at 3:19 am said:
  
  Thanks Ashan, and good job on FB and Google+ Pages.
  
  Reply ↓
Mika Castro on May 23, 2012 at 4:41 am said:

Yes. I thought that too. Using true names are really important to use especially when you are related on social media sites and blogs.
Mika Castro recently posted..קייטרינג לאירועים קטנים

Reply ↓

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20 thoughts on “Use Your Name Within FaceBook Vanity URL And Google+ URL”

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