Whats Not In a Name

Meh, Facebook is just the flavor of the week, as Myspace was before them, and as someone else will be a year from now.

Not sure I get what all the fuss is about, but I got mine anyway just for the sake of consistency. www.facebook.com/SuburbanOblivion

I completely disagree that FB is the flavor of the week. Some smart cats over there (I've taken a peek into their labs) and I think we'll all be surprised.

Yeah, just like MySpace, Friendster, and AOL.

Rome fell.

I'm just not tying my life to a website.

Agreed. One never knows.

And, if correct, your friends, followers and 'community' will do the work of carrying the vanity URL, not the other way around. It'll likely work and have no impact. Doing brand work for a number of clients.companies, it is clear that, even it takes a while, there is a tipping poing at which the specifics don't matter...and likely your well-put point,

But was is your REAL purpose for doing it Chris?

I'm not sure that I understand what the others are saying?

It would suggest that they think only way people find you online is search. I came here because I'm part of your network, you put up an intriguing tweet and I trust your enough to think pressing on the link won't be a waste of my time.

What's that got to do with whether the url is /mrchrisbrogan or anything else?

Hmm, I have to disagree with you on this one as it relates to you personally if your name is a well recognized one. Otherwise why bother with even chrisbrogan.com? I don't use Facebook for networking/work, just keeping in touch with my family and close friends, and am not looking for people to find me easily. However, for my gallery, I am planning to use the same vanity URL as my gallery name to make it easier to find because I *want* people to find me easily.

Yes of course content is king. But people have to find the content in the first place.

This is a good point, Amrita. Perhaps Chris would be willing to 301 redirect chrisbrogan.com to something like pirateleader.com as further proof that the URL characters do not define the person. But would he? Hrm...

I agree that you add value to the brand, but the brand is also very valuable. Chrysler was more valuable as a brand than Lee Iaccoca (sp?). However, I really don't see a problem with your facebook name, but you will lose some hits to the other guy.

Definitely. I picked not my name, but something that will make people laugh, smile, or smirk when they see if they get the joke. I picked a piece of UNIX terminology. I'm forming a bond, a relationship, with anyone who sees it. Social media success and marketing is about relationship building.

Now I can be found at www.facebook.com/sudoer

Your last line says it all. It's not about the tools, it's about the relationship.

While I agree with your point, I still chose to use my name as the vanity URL. Why?

To make sure that my name links to me and what I control rather than to a site set up by someone else using my name. I suppose FB, like Twitter, could try to verify names so no one else can "squat" on your name, but why take a chance. And what do you do if your name is more common? Then you have a greater chance of someone using your name, and that use would be justified since they share your name.

My husband has this issue going on right now with FB. He has many people trying to friend him since they think he is the other guy. Even when he tries to tell them he is not, they think he is teasing them. His counterpart is a fine, upstanding citizen so there is no real problem here, but what if the other person was a more colorful character representing issues in conflict with your beliefs? And people assumed it was you?

I agree for two reasons. 1) Facebook is not about your public identity, but private connections, so as a personal promotion medium it's limited anyway; and 2) the purpose of the url is to make it easier to invite a connection, not raise a search ranking.

I think it's most important to have something easy and sharable, rather than ubiquitous and searchable. Frankly, I tried for "bob" but was thwarted by the five character minimum limit. ;)

Chris,

Continuing my thoughts from Twitter.

I am not of the opinion that Facebook is critical to your success. You are indeed your success. You are the one that people will hear, and likely want to follow.

In my humble opinion, your blog is your mothership, and is so branded. My only point was, why create a fork in the path on facebook?

It is natural for people to look for you at facebook/chrisbrogan. Will they find you at facebook/dotchrisbrogan? Yes, because you have enough market pull to get people to take the extra step.

If I were to do such a thing, while my company is in its infancy, I'm afraid with people's short attention spans, they would sacrifice the quest for that latest funny viral video.

That's all.

You have demand pull, and people will find you.

Love ya man!

So happy for you Chris, the father of a new movement. We don't care that much about F-Book and let me show you how.

I too was underwhelmed at the HUGE event that was F-Book finally getting with the program on user names verses "i am not a number" user numbers.

But now, guess what. I miss my old number... Well, not really I have no idea what that number was, but I launched a F-Book group just for that reason. I believe in POKING FUN where it belongs.

And while F-Book is important, in the scheme of things it's less important than say LinkedIN. More important the Twitter? Don't know. But the point you make, if I read you correctly, is...

IT IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT.

Please join my F-Book group to bring back the numbers... Cause, even though I got my name (hey I put a DOT in the middle of mine, so perhaps we have the same intention) I sort of missed my number when the page resolved itself to my NEW URL.

If you want to see what's unimportant about me you can find me at http://www.facebook.com/john.mcelhenney

If you want to join my JFF group you can find it at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=90849077959 (HEY F-BOOK, you gonna have a non-event with Group Naming.)

And if you want to see my newest F-Book pokie you might like to look at my F-Book in Spanish http://caralibro.org

I love your new name. And what do you think about mine, with the DOT in the middle and all.

@jmacofearth
http://uber.la

I agree, partly. I think people who use a moniker that in no way represents their real name (e.g. SuburbanOblivion above me) need to stick to their handle for consistency and findability. However, those of us who use our real names can certainly play around with them a bit, especially if those names (both yours and mine) aren't all that common.

I can see where it doesn't matter as much for someone like you, Chris, who already has a massive following, and uses a top shelf blog (with your name as the URL) to host content. People will always be able to find your Facebook page, from your blog, from your Twitter account, etc.

But for the average Joe or Jane trying to carve out a little world in social media, it makes a lot more sense to use - if they can - an easy to search/find/remember Facebook URL.

Your points about content are of course valid. But this little experiment of yours is a marketing tactic, and nothing else. If you simply grabbed Facebook.com/chrisbrogan, where's the big news in that today???

cheers :-)
http://www.facebook.com/jeffcrites

I have to agree with SuburbanOblivion on this one. I just don't get what all the Facebook fuss is about. Yes, I got my vanity domain, but only to make it easier to type. The other version was just crazy long.

But in a year or two, will it matter? I think not.

On Twitter you have Chris Brogan and on LinkedIn you have Chris Brogan, why not just keep the consistency going throughout?

Maybe you're feeling abit unpredictable today. LOL. Good for you!

I partly agree Chris. You say "It’s never about the sites and services. Never forget that. YOU add value to them, not the other way around." True, but they're intertwined and can't be separated. If the sites and services reflect the level of expertise and value you bring to the table - then they succeed. The experience is the brand.

You've built up a ton of great brand equity in Chris Brogan. Because you're that good. And I doubt you plan on changing your URL to www.dotchrisbrogan.com to further test the point.

Though, on second thought, it does have a heck of a nice ring to it.

salient points. i don't understand what all the hype is over a custom "suffix." multiply, twitter, friendster, friendfeed all have it. bandwagon-ing? plus, why were people posting the url on facebook status messages? uhm, okayyyy.
if I search my name, my facebook site comes up as top five. value is usually not augmented by vanity, unless one is one of those showbiz folk who opine that looks are their primary investment.
have a good weekend!

Oddly enough, I just posted about how the most important vanity URL is that of your own domain earlier today. (http://pauloflaherty.com/2009/06/13/the-only-va...)

Vanity urls (and yes I did reserve www.facebook.com/PaulOFlaherty) are fleeting things that only last as long as the company does. Your own domain is yours.

Sometimes we miss the bigger point... tactics and strategies matter, yes, but authenticity and genuine value are the end those means drive to. Very nice reminder.

I've have got to play Devil's advocate here. I agree that a Social Media site in itself cannot make or break you, but there is something to be said of consistency and ease of use. Isn't the whole point of Facebook creating vanity URL's in the first place to make it EASIER for your friends, family, and followers to find you?

Forget SEO, and marketing for a second. Let's say I'm your best friend from third grade and new to this Facebook thing. I might be inclined to type in facebook.com/chrisbrogan first to try to find you if I'd lost track of you over the years and wasn't aware that you had grown to become an Web 2.0 mogul ;) The dotchrisbrogan URL would throw me off, because it's not intuitive to my search.

Sure I could search by name, but again, that defeats the point of the vanity url - to make it EASIER to find you. So to wrap it all up, the URL in NOT necessary to succeed in your business or to grow traffic, but it's there to make it EASIER to get people to find the most relevant search string, Chris Brogan. Right now YOU are the most relevant Chris Brogan on the net. Get it?

If you stand by your logic, why not change your Twitter URL to twitter.com/dotchrisbrogan?

Just for consistency i am...
Twitter.Com/MkeWayne
Facebook.com/MichaelWayne

So whoever needs to find me can find me as quickly as possible;)
Love your site and your thought process 98% of the time, btw - just had to speak up on this one!

Agreed Michael. Well said.

I agree that you aren't your URL, and I can't imagine that this bites you badly: you still come up first in Facebook search (second, by the way, is the Ban Chris Brogan from Facebook group!). You've got a link to your FB profile right in your footer here and would tell people the right URL if they said "hey, how do I find ya?" The only time this hurts you is if someone types in the wrong vanity URL thinking it'll be you... then aren't willing to type something else when they discover it's not you.

Still, I guess what I'm curious about is if you view social media differently for an individual who has become a "brand" like yourself and a company's brand. Would you suggest any of your corporate clients get a vanity URL like, say, dotStarbucks? I don't think you would... but is the difference simply because your Facebook profile is you as a person instead of you as a company? Is there something deeper?

I think sometimes we refer to brand too much as a name rather than the ideas and principles that stand behind the name, particularly for individuals like yourself. Still, there's something to be said for using the "brand name" consistently, isn't there? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the differences, if any, of the personal and corporate divide like this. Unless, of course, you did tell your corporate clients to be dotWhomever. Then I'll know the answer!

Greg, I don't think people are brands, do you? I don't think Chris is a brand. Does he? Chris do you think of yourself as a brand?

Christina - I think we all have personal brands, and online is a fantastic place to build that brand up. It's different than a corporate brand to some extent, and it doesn't prevent you from being "you" - in fact, it requires you to be you.

I guess Chris's personal brand is that he's the guy who will make choices just like this Facebook one - he can see it's unlikely to cause much harm and can make a point. So maybe my question was wrong - it's not about the difference between what he'd recommend to a corporate client vs. him as a person, but is his action just a case of being true to his "brand"?

It's a mix of my own brand beliefs and also a dangerous experiment. I'm making the statement that I don't think FB really cares about me and my success, which is a weird thing to consider, but why are we NOT considering that?

I would agree because the process of finding and friending people on Facebook is a lot more complicated than pure search engine optimization.

I think that Facebook is more about your personal connections rather than a network of *followers*. When someone wants to find you on Facebook it is usually because you have spent or will spend some time with that person. If they are just curious, they will look you up on Google or Twitter. And that's is where seo will matter.

Haha, I've been using "nickdotvr" for everything (myspace, twitter, facebook, linkedin, aim, pandora, gmail, steam, digg, youtube, etc etc ...) so this choice of yours cheers me up after some other guy hi-jacked my first name right under my nose.

Grabbing your name is more about keeping it away from others who seek to do you harm or usurp your brand equity more than it is about identifying or branding you.

Well said Chris, and one has to wonder if this is the most buzz Facebook has had in a very long time (meaning the long term value of the vanity URL, as you've pointed out, may be nill).

Hey Cris I at least respect the fact that you gave a damn to BE DIFFERENT for that you have my respect! Bob Proctor says that when everyone is doing something go against the grain and do something ELSE. I agree.

Ah Chris, there you go again, being so darn *reasonable*. Guh.

Agreed, it's not the tools, it's who's using them and what they do with them.

I like the rebel factor here. Sometimes I ignore SEO. You shouldn't have to care. Most of the time I don't. Way to go Chris!

Conventional wisdom says your blog's url isn't any good - no keywords. Yet no one could say you're blog isn't successful.

I've seen too many people waste tons of time worrying about what url to use, rather than getting down to business.

Great point.

Andrea

ps. I think you should have gone with "typist" lol

LOL!!! Good for you, Chris.

The only place I make it easy to find me is on LinkedIn, somewhat. Otherwise, it's hard to find the bits-n-pieces of me on the worldwide web... And FB is just another bit-n-piece. I decide how I want to share those bits with others.

Toally off topic: How did you theme your FireFox to be so nicely dark?

I was thinking about this very same thing today.

I was so disappointed that I didn't get my name
and I was trying to figure out how the heck I was
going to have to re-work my branding around this.

REALLY, I was thinking that...

But then I realized that it didn't matter and this post
reinforced that. It's all about the value you provide.
The value is more powerful than your SEO/SMO.

hey dot....how ya doin :)
awesome.

and is why i put tresha.thorsen

it will always be about the us behind the tools

well done for reminding, nudging, advocating yet again.

recalling "some famous line" 'may the force be with you?" :) ??? (yeah, yeah from THAT movie)

;)

"The map is not the territory. The ship isn’t what brings the treasure."
Nice metaphor. FB should worry about navigation in the waters not the port names. And so far there are more and more question marks about the value of the service.

Chris, what concerns me more than the URL is the fact you are using a PC..

I mean, come on! ;-)

I use a Mac. What made you think otherwise?

Well said Chris. Kinda reminded me of Gary Vaynerchuk about the middle of the post, and I see your point. Part of the reason I hang around "social networks" is to ultimately draw them to my website. ;)

I follow you on Twitter and your blog. I don't I've even visited you FB page (sorry). I seriously doubt dotchrisbrogan is going to hurt your brand. It is too strong and well established for that.

I think it's great and funny.

While I cant say that I agree, I do admire you taking a stance and doing something different. My only question would be if your truly not just a url, why include you name in it at all? Why not make a statement and choose something like facebook.com/imnotaurl.

If Facebook is your only play, then you're not a player anyway. Chris is certainly bigger than his Facebook url. People had no problem finding him before, and they won't have any problem finding him now. A quick Google search bears that out.

Very interesting. Protecting a brand is not a super compelling argument for a vanity URL. There's an idea that vanity URLs are actually a bad idea for business :-)

WOW, that's really gay

I'm just confused on why use the dotchrisbrogan for the facebook url, but then turn around and post it on your website that you made this change. It seems like that voids the control group of your experiment here.

It's not an experiment. It's a statement.

Gotcha.. Just seemed like double advertising about a statement that you don't need advertising.

I'm not. I'm not banking this whatsoever:

"Everyone else who voiced concerns on Twitter this morning are banking that Facebook is that important to my online presence and success that by choosing a different name, my entire brand will come crashing down around me."

My point was that you added a hurdle for anyone searching for you, specifically any of the hundreds of millions of FB users who are comfortable LOOKING for a PERSON this way.

The URL isn't you. The Facebook page isn't you.
If they're searching for you, let them find you!
You still get to choose who and what the 'you' consists of.

All you're really doing is choosing to give Google and edge over
Facebook. Fine if it's a specific strategy.
Then why not fuck up your Twitter name? Youtube?

Hell the name of this blog?
It's the content of the posts that matters right?
Or is it in fact okay with you if you let people something
extaordinary and sophisticated like say, a NAME to associate the
flow of valuable thoughts give instigate a community,
and present a shingle to the customers for whom you are perfect?

And you're pissed off about a choice I made about a website.

Oh look. You're making my point.

Investing in any of these services -- any of them -- more than you invest in the actual effort of business success is a chump move. This idea of mine this morning was a statement I intended to make and I did it.

You know where to find me. If my move somehow sheds tens of thousands of potential new community members, I guess you'll be right.

But does facebook give a shit about that? They cap me at 5000.

Piss all you want, Ed. You've called me wrong 4 times so far since knowing me and I seem to keep moving onward and upward. If that's wrong, I'm hoping that I keep pissing you off.

PS- What a bunch of lemmings the commenters were this time!

Wouldn't the statement have been just as effective by leaving the standard Facebook number URL as your link? No mention of Chris Brogan at all, so even less to worry about search, SEO, online visibility, etc? Can't be any less "gold" than being just another number.

Struggling to see the point here, I'm afraid. Facebook operates a perfectly adequate search as long as your name isn't John Smith and linkshrinkers obviate the need for vanity URLs.

If you really mean the point you are trying to make wouldn't it have been better served by doing nothing?

Facebook is a great tool for those that are reconnecting with old friends and for many another way to expose your business. While I think it may hang around for a while like Suburban Oblivion said, there will be someone else.

The vanity url for FB was good attention grabbing promotion that did yield results for them. The period or no period proved to be pointless as if you missed having a period it did not matter as once you had the name period or not, the results were the same (for once missing a period is uneventful).

In the grand scheme of it all, generally people search for names and not necessarily the URL. If people are searching for you are they are ever going to think hmmm what would chris brogan's url be on facebook. Although, I may be suprised by that.

I do admit that I fell into the hype and did get my name. Being an uncommon name, I knew there was unlikely competition as here is only 1 other suzanne vara that I know of and she recently retired.

Regarding the SEO aspect, wouldn't your name come up anyway if someone was searching it? Would the dotchrisbrogan have that much of an impact?

The tools and technologies will always change. That I can guarantee. The people, the connections, the important stuff in life, will always be important, no matter what platform - from a neighborhood bar, to a classroom, to the Web, to a phone, to who-knows-what - facilitates it.

Well done Chris. We both know that people are more important than SERPS. People come to your blog because of you.
I get your point and commend you for making it.
Sean aka Bullhunter

I did it like yours .but nothing found www.facebook.com/myhome..........true ? ...

I follow you on Twitter everyday and your blog comes to my email--I've never been to your FB page. And if I wanted to go there I would find it on your blog. I wonder what would be on FB that you don't already have on Twitter or your blog?

Chris,

I completely agree. And Google probably agrees too. Remember, their goal is to serve up the best and more relevant content, based on the user's search.

I kick ass, you kick ass - not keywords.

John

I've read only a couple of the comments but perhaps you addressed this already, Chris.

I've long had an issue with the value of a name in a URL. I agree with you that if your brand is strong enough, people will find you. Not only that, but the Internet is now much more about clicking hot links than typing a phrase into the URL bar of a browser.

However, I get the feeling that the other Chris Brogan (how many can there be?) had already taken your name at FB. I think when you would have chosen the more familiar Vanity name but when you saw it was unavailable, then the wheels started turning?

With FB capping at 5,000, yes, it is not that important because you can easily drive a lot of people quickly to your FB Profile. But what if FB increases that limit in the future?

I had the same problem with my Vanity FB. My son took "gregcryns" so I was left with "greg.cryns" so I took that.

It's nice to have this sort of problem and live to tell about it, isn't it?

Theis new development at Facebook is really important to your personal branding. For those who don't have their own web site, having a 'vanity url' like this is important - just as www.linkedin/in/YOURNAME is important. I have many clients who use their LinkedIn account as their personal web site while they build their own home on the World Wide Web.

Best.
William
www.williamarruda.com

It's not going to have any effect on your brand, because you're ChrisBrogan on a lot of social media sites already, including the most important, IMO, which is chrisbrogan.com. Articles that you wrote online or that mention you link back to chisbrogan.com as well, so your home base remains intact.

It's just that it looks bad.

It looks like some relatively unknown "Chris Brogan" from Glasgow beat you to your name, when we all knew for days the exact day and time that FB vanity urls were going to be available.

Is that going to matter to someone that's familiar with your track record and achievements in social media? I don't believe so.

I just changed the Facebook URL thing so that I could keep the new brand consistent. Consistency is critical to growing a following for a new product or service.

The ChrisBrogan brand is well established and has many touch points that direct searchers to find you.
Facebook is just one of many branding opportunities that you have been using to build your name. If it is there and available, I say use it while it lasts.

I think that it's funny for people to think that "your brand will come crashing down around [you]" because of this. You haven't had the Facebook vanity URL in the past, and things have worked out just fine. Unless your audience somehow stops listening and connecting with you in all of the various ways that they have so far - which is obviously ludicrous - this is going to have a nominal effect, if any.

I applaud you for making the point. I enjoy the risk you've taken here, though clearly, I just don't see it as a big risk, like your detractors have suggested.

Chris,

I'm glad that someone of your stature will stand up and remind us that it's not about the technology, but what people do with it. We have a saying in Loyalty Marketing "Technology enables, but imagination wins".

I also think that the goldrush for anything to do with Facebook is only going to have payback when they open up to the search engines. Otherwise, it is just pure fun and pure vanity.

This is hilarious.

The real reason you didn't take your name is because it WAS NOT available! Some dude scooped it up right at 12:01am. We were all having a good laugh during the mashable chat.

But it's funny you make it sound like you didn't take your name on purpose - as if it was some well thought out plan. After all, its not about you, right?

Chris, I kind of agree with you on this.

I was thinking at 11pm on Friday night how tired I was and that I SHOULD be staying up to get my Facebook profile name.

First, I'll say I'd be going for JessicaKnows instead of JessicaSmith because someone took that latter url a long time ago, and I consider JessicaKnows more what people identify with.

Which got me thinking...if someone Googles me by inputting "Jessica Smith" they're going to get the girl from Laguna Beach that got a DUI, the girl from Survivor who also goes by Flicka, and a few other people that happen to have the same name, doing pretty cool things, but who aren't me.

So, if someone HAD gotten my vanity url of JessicaKnows and people found it, and they decided to do unsavory things with it, it'd be clear to most that it was merely a squatter and not me.

Why?

Because, like a lot of us, my name is part of the fabric of who I am. People know my name, but what's more important, is that there is a set of traits, feelings, and value that people associate with my name. And if someone else takes my name and tries to change those, they're going to have a hard time, because those belong to me.

And really it's those traits, feelings a name evokes, and value that makes BRANDING what it is.

I'm debating whether or not I need to race to get 1000 fans for my Fan Page by June 28 to claim that Facebook url. But I think I'm just going to sit tight. After all, I already own that Facebook page http://facebook.jessicaknows.com ...so in a way I've already taken ownership of my fan page, the question is, I guess, will it matter if someone tries to take ownership over it too?

Chris did you get this name on purpose, or was it cause www.facebook.com/chrisbrogan wasn't available? I saw Chris Penn tweeting that someone else had your name, and if they cyber-squatted it that's lame beyond belief, but a story for another day.

Ultimately, I think the URL you chose is actually more consistent with your branding as someone that's experimenting with these tools, and sharing the results you find. So it might be an SEO loss, but I think it's a 'personal branding' win for you.

Actually, Mack. You're right about Chris Penn posting about this on twitter at 12:08am EST (7 minutes after vanity urls became available):

http://twitter.com/cspenn/status/2150094353

HA HAA HAAAA. SOMEONE TOOK HIS NAME AND HE'S TRYING TO SPIN IT. LMFAO.

Yeah, look at me, I'm trying to be "different". Look at me I'm making a "point".

Please, spare us. How stupid would it be if a company like say ... oh ... I don't know .... GM tired to male a "point". They went with the name dotGeneralMotors. Way to annoy your customers.

Dumbass

The map is not the territory. I like that. For me, I like sameness with my urls just so I can remember the darn things!

Beyond that, it's all about where we want to go. And who is going to be on that journey with us. If we do what we do well, the everything usually works out, doesn't it?

Would you look at that .... someone else does have http://www.facebook.com/chrisbrogan

I don't think it matters that much either. Consider this, type in www.apple.co.uk and you would expect to get a page full of cool mac stuff. Well you don't, here in the UK it's apple.com/uk to get to the apple site. Most would just google it anyway.

It's not a problem for apple and it won't be a problem for Chris Brogan either.

I'm sure all this publicity has actually been very positive for Chris. Those that are unfamiliar with his work will be asking who's Chris Brogan and are google-ing him as we speak.... Remarkable :-)

good point Chris ... you are NOT your profile on the social web ... that's why i signed in a few days after the big Facebook vanity plate deal and register myself as 'cranksturgeon' ... i just thought it sounded more interesting than my real name + i wanted to teach everyone out there a lesson in social site netiquette ;]

Chris,

Greetings from San Francisco and see you @jeffpulver 's "140 Characters" this coming week.

You have chutzpah to even try what you did.

:-)

Chris, Thanks for reminding everyone that social media is about people. We so quickly lose site of that very point as the push to monetize everything is nipping at our heals.

Digging into the core of any issue requires you to find the people and influencers. And your right, those of us who want to follow you will exactly know the name change you made and we will retweet and talk about it on our own blogs and on all our social media places/spaces
www.facebook.com/wendy.soucie

I disagree with that, this post just puts a positive spin on folks who weren't able to get their urls. Easy as that. There are hundreds of quality posts out there but no one knows about them because the sites aren't optimized and no one can remember their URL.

Lots of "FREE" academic papers are hidden away within the non-optimized .edu domains.

Sad post Chris. There is only so much you can put a positive spin on. You lost the url and now you are just making it seem like you did it on purpose. You do post quality material but this one isn't on par with it.

I couldn't get the Jfavreau I wanted so I had to go with my name. I think it is great to have your name but at the same time. You have let everyone know how to find you here so I doubt it is going to make a big difference concerning you.

I took the same approach, but in a somewhat more "do or die" fashion ;-) My vanity URL is "can.kiss.my.ass" :)

I understand what you are getting at here Chris, but I think there is a definite benefit to using your actual name on Facebook as your URL. There are over 300 people with the same exact name as me on Facebook. I've had 2 old friends find me already since the vanity URLs came out - both said they took a shot I got my name and were right. For that alone, it showed it was worth it.

Chris I love your move. I do speeches on networking. One of the things I preach is that knowing where to put your nametag or having a great elevator speech is so much less important than being interesting and valuable. Even if you don't give out your card, people who like your game will find you.

And by the way, your posts are very valuable to me. No matter what fb name you used, I would find you

Greetings Chris and Friends-

I believe there is no need for the custom FB URL if you have branded yourself well enough. Chris, everyone in this field knows who you are, therefore having the "dotchrisbrogan" will probably be completely irrelevant in searching for you...people have MANY other ways of finding you on the net that contain links to your FB page. I am almost positive that certain national brands will experience the same...

However, the customized FB URL will probably incredibly helpful to people/businesses who are still in the early stages of branding themselves.

I doubt your brand will come crashing down, but the "small guy" who pulls the same stunt probably won't experience the same result.

Awesome - you are so right and thank you for going against the current thinking because you hit it on the head.

Maybe the FB vanity URL day has been slightly over-exaggerated. As much as we are encouraged to secure own digital identity, Chris, you did make a good point: it's not the Name/Site, but that person's value and how he/she carries him/herself that shapes the branding. Username is a representative, it could be altered, modified, changed... but it's the personality that stays and makes us different.

@wchingya
social media/blogging

You said:

"It’s never about the sites and services. Never forget that. YOU add value to them, not the other way around."

I could not agree more. Similarly, I never get hung up on taking on the identity of the technology I use. For example, I blog, I tweet, I use Facebook...but I used Myspace too. I didn't get overly attached to it. I have a blast connecting with other writers on Facebook, but would we all go somewhere else if the digs were nicer? I'm thinking we would. Because it's a technology, not a person.

We are still humans, right? That means people get addicted. They confuse the medium for the message.

I'm much more interested to know what's your message than what medium you are using to spread it.

I completely agree Chris, my facebook page already came up SEO without the "vanity" plate. If I cannot demonstrate online my integrity, credibility and trustworthiness, no one will hire me!

Ann Evanston
http://Warrior-Preneur.com
The Warro=ior is Within You

yup really valuable things you have said about facebook as i never find it so easy to use.It was the same when i had first time visited http://thetwittersecret.com/ to know about the twitter applications.But i got failed.

Social link used to change so much, twitter the last one, used to be offline, facebook became the place of spammer and the rest of the Web used to became a Giant Market place.

But that should be normal, the Web can't live without money, and now we are all in the spirit that in Free everywhere.

We Change, Facebook Change, See you ;)

PS: sorry for my French's english :)

I specialze in Online PR, Twitter branding and marketing, Social Media Campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc.