Tonight at 12:01am EST you can register for a vanity URL on Facebook. This means you can create, for your profile or fan page, a URL with the format www.Facebook.com/yourname.
There are some restrictions involved in this (as always.) You can get the full details on Facebook’s blog about the URL change or it’s URL change FAQ . The few things I want to point out here will focus on helping brands to take advantage of this situation while protecting their trademark as well.
The rules for a fan page to get a username to use in their URL are:
- The page had to be created before May 31st, 2009
- The page has to have reached 1,000 fans before May 31st, 2009
If those requirements aren’t met – the page has to wait until June 28th to register. This is to prevent people from hearing this news and “squatting” on popular names.
If you don’t meet those requirements and are worried about someone taking your name for their personal profile, don’t worry. There are ways to protect yourself.
First of all, if you have a trademarked name go to Facebook’s form for preventing registration of a username . Here you can fill out your information; company name, your name, email, trademarked name and registration #. Once you do that, that name will be banned from users to choose.
If you’re unable to do that, or fail to complete the form in time, and then you find out tomorrow that someone has taking your name you still have recourse. If you feel a name has been selected that infringes on your rights you can fill out Facebook’s notice of intellectual property infringement (non-copyright claim) .
If you have questions contact your account manager (for current Sitewire clients) or leave me a comment below!
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Thank you for bringing this to our clients’ attention, Katie!