A couple months ago Facebook announced they would allow users to acquire vanity URLs so your personal account would be http://www.facebook.com/timothydahl (insert my name with yours). It was basically a land rush and as soon as they turned on the service you could grab your name and it would be yours to use. For Facebook it was genius. It brought them more press and more importantly an opportunity for all of their users to promote their Facebook profiles with all of their offline and out-of-network friends.
I’m fortunate enough to not have a super common name and I actually forgot about this announcement but was still able to grab my name the next day. What have I done with it? Nothing. It’s comforting to know I have it but beyond that it does nothing for me nor my friends who, if they visit my profile, are doing so while already perusing Facebook. I would also prefer to promote my name before Facebook and since I own my domain name I can use it for just that. Although I have yet to set it up I can go with:
timothydahl.com/facebook
timothydahl.com/twitter
timothydahl.com/whateveriwant
If you’re a business or manage a Facebook page it’s a bit tougher to get your own vanity page URL as Facebook requires 1000 fans. I’ve done nothing to promote our page for Dahlism but plan to build this page up shortly. If you’re so inclined friend us and we’ll only be 999 fans away from our own URL!
There are many social networks that I don’t have any presence on and don’t feel it’s as important. I rank the importance of a social network profile in how well that social network ranks in search engines (Google). Ultimately your own domain name is the most important and I’m wondering how many babies these days are named via available domains?
Here’s how I would rank the steps to acquiring and controlling your online identity.
1. Vanity Domain – You can have a primary domain that’s not your full name but you should also have your first and last name with a .com and maybe even a .net and point that domain to your primary domain.
2. LinkedIn – LinkedIn profiles rank very high in Google and as they offer professional information about you it’s important that your profile comes up quickly when a possible employer or date “Googles” you.
3. Facebook – This social network also ranks high with Google but you should be cautious about what you post in updates, on your wall, and in your photo gallery (also what others post about you). I’ll cover ways to manage this in a later article. Facebook ranks well and also shows a bit of personality as it shows people what pages you are a fan of and what network you belong too.
4. Twitter – Your actual name isn’t as vital here but always helps to have especially if you are a business. As the influence of Twitter the value of your own name will only increase.
5. All other networks – I know I’ve ignored some big ones here that have millions of users so please prove me wrong in the comments if I’ve left one off. MySpace is great for some people but to me it’s not a vital network to be a part of if you want to control your identity especially if you have all of your other bases covered.
More Dahlism available:
Dahlism on Twitter
Dahlism on Facebook
Timothy Dahl’s LinkedIn
