LaughlinOutLoud

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”.

Friday evening, it’s 11:00 PM, do you know where your marketing agency is? Are they securing your Facebook username?

Over the course of this past week Facebook has released details on how to claim your Facebook username. Once called “Vanity URLs” the username rush will make it much easier to share your Facebook profile and pages.

For marketers it’s very important to secure your preferred username. Much like the valuable .com domain name, the Facebook username land grab will cause some companies to miss out on a preferred username. However Facebook has implemented some procedures to avoid issues with registered trademarks and copyrights.

If your brand does not currently have an official page, and you have the rights to a given name today, you can proactively prevent the registration of that name by filling out the form here: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights.

If for some reason you discover the name you hold rights to is taken, you can report the infringement here: http://www.facebook.com/copyright.php?noncopyright_notice=1.

Otherwise, what are you waiting for? Grab your username now, facebook.com/username.