JMPR Communication

Archive for the ‘facebook’ Category

Like many people, on the dawn of the new personal Facebook Vanity URL, I debated it’s merits.  On the one hand, I would be able to insert my own name on my Facebook page.  On the other, I have one of the most common names in America.  I knew if I was going to “land-grab” my very own birth name, this was going to be the time to do it.

At 9:00 EST on the dot, my best friend was camped out at the computer to claim our names.  I had intended to be home and on MY computer, but this was one of those nights when things just didn’t go as planned.  From the dinner table with my family, I sat on the phone with my friend saying: Ok- so I can’t get Jennifer Mitchell.  What about Jen Mitchell?  No?

JMPR Communication's Take on the Facebook Vanity URL Panic: photo by akanekal

6 minutes into the release, it was already too late to grab my name.  In fact, Mashable reported that in the first three minutes, 200,000 names had been claimed.  It seemed logical to me that by then, a number of Jennifer Mitchell’s could have claimed their names in this “#facesquatting” effort.

As usual, I settled with my usual username “jenmitch.”  From a personal branding effort, in retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t get “MY name.” And I’ve already noticed that my Facebook page is turning up on page one of my Google search.  Not bad.

What amazes me here is that no one ever seemed to care this much about their Myspace URL names.  I viewed Myspace as a very personal spot on the web, and I actually used a URL that would make it harder for professional folks to find me.  But with Facebook, many more people seem to be grabbing their birth names.  Which reminds me how careful we ALL have to be about our personal updates on Facebook.  Those new private groups are more important than ever.

From a business prospective, I’m finding the June 28th hold for non-registered trademark names OR businesses under 1,000 fans frustrating.  Of course, all my clients want to claim their URL’s and frankly, I think this is more important for businesses than individuals.  Many of those companies have hundreds of fans, though they have not reached 1,000 yet.  And telling them we need to wait seems as non-sensical to me as it does to them.

Perhaps Facebook used the personal land grab to figure out how to prevent companies from grabbing names that are not theirs and selling them? Or perhaps the tactic is more simple- using trademark numbers and/or fans lets through the companies that seem more legtimate first.

Either way, I’ll be camped out again on the 28th.  And in time, we’ll see if all this madness even matters.  I think not.

What do all of you think?  Did you grab your personal/corporate URL’s?  Do you think it will matter either way in the end?