Facebook Usernames are Used for What?

By Craig Agranoff    June 19th, 2009

When Facebook announced that they were going to implement user names (vanity names) on the site, some buzz started amongst users. When Facebook started promoting the change by giving it a virtual “countdown” to the implementation, the buzz became a real roar.

Twitter was aflame with “OMG! Have you chosen your Facebook name yet?” and “Facebook announces vanity names. Y U need one for your social marketing.”

These were endlessly retweeted and nearly every Facebook profile started sporting status messages like “My new name’s gonna be CAPTAINX” or “I’d tell you my chosen Facebook name, but then I’d have to kill ya.”

The implementation was set to happen at 12:01am Facebook time and users were poised at Facebook.com, on their home page, waiting for the moment they could click the link at the top of the page and make the mad rush to ensure that they got their chosen profile name.

Even I was sucked into this. I sat on the page, hovering over the link and waiting. My friend even left the movie theater early to make sure she got home in time to claim her name, since I guess the other 2 people in the world who share it might rush to get it.  When the clock ticked, I clicked. Then I clicked a couple of more times because half the planet was apparently clicking too and it was SLOWWW.

When it finally came through, I quickly entered my choice: “pizza.”

Taken. Damn.

“pizzapizza”

Stupid Little Caesars got to it before me. Lamers. (Actually, it turns out some guy name Chris has this one)

“craiga”

Taken? Craig Anderson, you suck!

Panic! What to do! My list was only the first two, the third was just a panic response. When that was gone, I was sweating. Would I be “id=503310668” forever? AUGH! Must. Have. Facebook. Name.  Need. Facebook. Name.

In my wide-eyed panic, I typed “agranoff” and it was available. Eureka! I took it. At least it had something to do with who I am. Right?

Now that I had my killer new Facebook name that would make it easy for my friends to find me there, I was prepped. If anyone asked what my name on Facebook was, I’d be prepared. Ready for it. On the tip of my tongue, ready to go. Preparado=Agranoff.

So far, no one’s asked. Nobody. Not a soul.

Maybe this Facebook name thing was over hyped.

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Most Commented

  • timexking
    thats too bad you didn't get pizza, but now there is a website where you can buy/sell vanity names, its called assetize.com...maybe you can find the chap who stole pizza from you!
  • I was able to get my name though I feel it is more important for your company to have your name to make it easier for people to find you on Facebook and prevent impostors from trading on your name
  • mattspizza
    I got matthewm & while I agree with you that NOTHING is happening with these names, it fits nicely on a business card.
  • I think the username is very good concept by Facebook, they are little late to do this, but i am happy that facebook username will show among my other user name.
  • mkhall
    I admit that I jumped in and picked up my preferred social network name (mkhall), but that was more to avoid any potential confusion than out of a perceived need. If they had been charging for the service, I would happily remain a string of random digits.
  • Craig -

    I completely agree that the facebook "landrush" for profile usernames was a rush for fool's gold. As I tweeted on June 13th, the morning after, lol, "Facebook vanity urls? Color me unimpressed. Surprised at all the experts and gurus who are in a frenzy, like babies groping for a teat."

    Only time and some new application will tell us if we're wrong. But here are just two reasons why we're not wrong right now:

    1) the era of the vanity URL has pretty much passed. There's still some value in a good URL, no denying that, but the real value is in content and "google-juice" - which will win out over a domain name almost every time. Can't get "craigagranoff.com"? Not a big deal, really. Get something else that's related to you or a niche, fill it with great content, and people will find you.

    2) the era of the "free service" domain name ended long ago. There's NO VALUE to it, and too much risk. I'm not big on "should's", but NOBODY should rely on a free service like facebook to be their URL. It's too easy and cheap now to get a URL that you "own" - like, oh, pizzatweetup.com, for example - for less than $US10, and forward that to your facebook profile or page if you so choose, or better yet, create an actual website for pizzatweetup and use your facebook profile or page to link to that.

    From the hypothetical pizzatweetup website, or any website for that matter, a text link or icon to "Friend Me on Facebook" or "Become A Fan on Facebook" renders the actual url of that facebook link (/agranoff or /pizzapizza) irrelevant. Worst case, someone goes looking for you on facebook, a simple search will find YOU. I don't think you'll lose too many, what...visitors? who type in facebook.com/pizzapizza for some reason and give up from there. And if they weren't looking for you, but were looking for random pizza information and expecting that the facebook vanity url they type in would lead them to it, well...you probably didn't want that visitor, anyway.

    The bottom line for traffic and search is not the URL of a site, but how that site is promoted.
  • Well said Patrick!
  • Nice. Ya, I waited until the clock ticked over too and I got "MacAaron." Lot of good it's done me.
  • I must admit I was a little disappointed that my desired name "Mike Haynes" had already been taken. For Facebook, I figured that it was probably a pretty good idea to try and claim my "actual" name if it was available. But, it wasn't. So, instead, I opted for my old standby... iSatisfy. Works for me I guess. Now, I will await the next "big thing" to hit the social media market... and remain poised to claim my name. Again, and again, and again.
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