Rethinking Your Facebook Username?
Posted Jul. 27, 2009 by Dennis Jenders
Filed under: Digital / Interactive
Facebook has been quite adamant that they would not allow people to change their “Username” after you have selected it. However, it seems Facebook may have taken a step back because they have updated your “Account Settings” to allow you to change you username, as a one-time only service.
One has to wonder if the influx of change requests and complaints have made Facebook change their mind. Will they do so for “Pages” as well?
Digging a bit deeper in the interface, Facebook has not yet given Page administrators this ability. While changing your username may be valuable to those who made a mistake or chose one without much though, this is likely one of the more valuable features for an administrator.
Another important note, if you have been unable to secure a preferred username you should check with your Facebook account team. They may have black listed trademarked names to proactively protect your brand. With a little help from Facebook we were able to change the username for one of our client’s “Pages”.
2 Responses to “Rethinking Your Facebook Username?”
Posted on Aug 14, 2009 by Brian
I’ve often times noticed that when I search a person’s name in Google, I’ll find links to FB accounts and LinkedIn accounts. Have you had any clients use this feature as an SEO technique? So if a Company decides to re-name their chosen account name to be more of a marketing tool, will they allow it? And would that have any impact anyway? I’ve gotten this question before and didn’t really know the answer. Thanks!
Posted on Sep 18, 2009 by djenders
Brian -
I think with any of the very large sites out there it is essential to use them for SEO purposes. With Wikipedia it’s definitely a marketing and SEO opportunity because of the business name. With Facebook and Twitter I would definitely recommend using a business name for SEO purposes. For individual employees I would develop a social media policy that includes having them update their LinkedIn account with the proper company name and suggest they add that to their Facebook or Twitter profile as well.
It’s definitely a worthwhile strategy after you determine your marketing needs. But it does require some discussion. As an example, maybe you want to focus on a piece of technology or a service offering – if that is the case maybe your name strategy and tactics change.
Would love to discuss further with you, or maybe make it an upcoming blog entry!