Budding Lotus Designs Blog

Facebook Business Page: Username

So, you have a Facebook page for your business.  Congratulations!  You have taken a big step.  Many business owners still have hesitation about whether they really need to do this, so feel proud that you have committed to growing your business through Facebook!  It is going to be fun.

Now that you have a page your next important step is to promote it.  Let people know that you have a page on Facebook…encourage more fans to follow your page and most importantly make it easy for them.  You can invite people through your Facebook friends on your personal profile, which will hopefully get you started, but what you really want is to gain more fans from outside of your intimate circle.

There are many ways to gain fans, but one big step is to have a personal username for your page so that you can market yourself outside of Facebook.  If you are advertising via print, the web, or telling someone in person that you are on Facebook no one is going to remember a URL like this: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/your-business/299019657350…and don’t assume that many clients will do the “work” of searching for your business through Facebook search.

Facebook now has a super-easy way of claiming your username.  Follow this link: facebook.com/username.  You will then see a page like this:

You can of course select a username for your personal profile, but we are here to talk about your Business page.  As you can see, you will need to select which page you would like to claim if you have more than one.  Select the appropriate page from the list and Facebook will then give you the option to claim a username. **

You are basically building a URL for your Facebook page, so choose something that is short and easy to remember, appropriate to your business name, and hopefully it will be available.  Once you enter the name, Facebook will tell you if it is available, or if you have to choose something else.  That is where the fun starts!  Playing with words, arrangements, spelling etc.  Once Facebook says it is available…your are done!  Wasn’t it easy?

Congratulations, your new Facebook page address is: http://facebook.com/yourusername.

**Note:  If Facebook says that you are “not eligible for a username at this time” it is most likely that you do not have enough Facebook followers yet.  They wait until you have at least 25 fans to give you a username…so don’t get discouraged, just keep it in mind once you have 25 fans.

Don’t have a Facebook page yet?  Stay tuned for my future articles explaining the benefits of a Facebook page and a guide on how to make one.