Facebook vanity URLs won’t matter soon enough

kids Everyone is screaming about you needing to camp on Facebook tonight so that you can grab your very own vanity URL because this will somehow change your life, business, game, whatever.

Step back though for a second and think about it. Facebook is currently very important in the small world of social media marketing, social networking, etc. And, having a vanity URL will make it easier to share your profile with your contacts as a vanity URL is much shorter than what they currently allow.

But, the key here is that Facebook is only CURRENTLY important in social media. Think about it… since the early 90s, no social network or web 2.0 technology has stuck around for more than 5 years. Friendster? Where is it now? MySpace? That was a short time on top. AIM? Does anyone even use that anymore? Second Life? Just a ripple in sea of networking technologies ultimately.

And Facebook? It will go the same way, so yes, get your own vanity URL, but don’t believe the hype that this will really change much in terms of what you do online or in terms of how much success you will have. It is, after all, only a Facebook URL, and while a vanity URL is easy to use, your key to success in social media is in the community you build, not in your vanity URL.

Am I wrong? Am I right?

Tags: AIM , facebook , Fan Page , Friendster , myspace , Vanity URLs , web 2.0

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 10:09 am and is filed under , social media , social networking . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.

Lindy

It may not matter down the road, but:
-today, I neglected to get mine soon enough, hence it was taken by someone else...
-today, someone may go to that vanity URL thinking its me but its not...
-tomorrow, if we're still around, someone may go to that vanity URL thinking its me and its not...
Would that I had jumped on that vanity URL when I had the chance!

Colin Christianson

I agree the vanity url's aren't a big deal the hype was a great marketing push to get facebook users and people on the edge of joining to focus their attention onto fb.

Although I am interested to see how facebook plays out. I think it is going to be around a lot longer than the 5 year life cycle. Teaming with Microsoft was a pretty good move that paid off well. At E3 Microsoft's X-Box announced twitter and facebook integration. That is going to extend its life a bit more. The only upcoming challenger I can see is Google Wave sucking a way user's attention span. But having it open source means integration with facebook will be much easier and companies will create API's for both. Part of the eyeball shifting will come down to each social site's ability to create buzz (Like facebook just did).

Marshall_Macias

You are completely correct Sir! I cannot tell you how many social networking I have seen coming through Angels that are wanting to tear Facebook from its #1 spot. If we can learn anything from Twitter it is this: Social networking is still a viable business (if they can make it profitable); however, the faster one can get to greatness, the faster it can also be taken away.
Facebook URL's are useful, but as you point out- It is the quality social network you create that will create value, not the tools that get you there.

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