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First Question: Does this apply to you? If you have a Facebook Fan Page with over 1000 fans (as of the end of May) , you can now get a username that will make it a little easier to find your page. If you are the trademark owner for the term you want to get, for example facebook.com/wholefoods, then you have nothing to worry about. Trademark owners don't have to worry about squatters, as there is a process in place to prevent this anyway.
But what if you're a Wedding Photographer in a medium-size city, and your business is called BeautifulWeddings.com? Your business name is pretty generic, and you probably don't have over 1000 fans. You can cross your fingers and hope that you get to 1000 before someone else in the wedding industry reserves that username, or you can pick something else.
Facebook has done a pretty good job of thinking this through to prevent squatters, and protect trademarks, but for the small business person, looking to maximize their search engine optimization, and google-juice by having a great username, this may be a hairy situation.
For those concerned about personal profiles, just be first. There are lots of Andrew Kinnears out there, but I plan on doing my best to be first. If your name is common, you may want to set your alarm... Midnight on Friday night EDT (12:01 Saturday June 13th, 2009 EDT) the Facebook servers are going to get absolutely HAMMERED with traffic, so be patient, have a strategy, and be patient.
I have a few pages that I manage, including some pages for work, but it's pretty simple to figure out. The work stuff, though under 1000, are protected by trademark. --Everything else is either under 1000 and doesn't qualify or over 1000 fans, and I'll need to make sure I get it. There isn't any sneaky-thinking going on here: You can't squat, you can't protect multiple names, you pick a winner and go for it.
Question #2: Does this matter for regular users? No. Short Answer. Google can find you right now, even with the big number in your URL, so it will just be easier. It won't violate your privacy, as you will still have all the same controls.
Question #3: Will this be like MySpace.com where everyone has a stupid username? Yes and No. Anyone with a brain will attempt to get their name, and barring that should give up. Usernames are FOREVER. If you can't get your name, but you decide to register PhoenixCoyotesFan2009 as your username--- you'll feel pretty stupid when the team moves to Hamilton. I recommend trying to get your name, and if you can't-- STOP. Facebook is a social network, designed to connect the REAL you to your REAL friends. That's why it doesn't suck. That's why it has far surpassed the success of MySpace. Sure there are spammers, but they are on the periphery.
Question #4: If I'm a regular person, not a marketing guru, not a brand, should I bother? Again-- why not? Try to get your name, and if you can't--- oh well! It's not like you won't be found by the people who want to find you. Google and Facebook know more about you and your Socialgraph than any two other organizations on earth. I would say brush up on your awareness of your privacy settings, what's being published to whom, and wait to see what's next. What would you rather have facebook.com/andrewkinnear or facebook.com/andrewdk2009 ? The answer is either A) the winner or B) Google me. Why add to the complexity of your online digital brand when you can simplify and harmonize.
But what if you're a Wedding Photographer in a medium-size city, and your business is called BeautifulWeddings.com? Your business name is pretty generic, and you probably don't have over 1000 fans. You can cross your fingers and hope that you get to 1000 before someone else in the wedding industry reserves that username, or you can pick something else.
Facebook has done a pretty good job of thinking this through to prevent squatters, and protect trademarks, but for the small business person, looking to maximize their search engine optimization, and google-juice by having a great username, this may be a hairy situation.For those concerned about personal profiles, just be first. There are lots of Andrew Kinnears out there, but I plan on doing my best to be first. If your name is common, you may want to set your alarm... Midnight on Friday night EDT (12:01 Saturday June 13th, 2009 EDT) the Facebook servers are going to get absolutely HAMMERED with traffic, so be patient, have a strategy, and be patient.
I have a few pages that I manage, including some pages for work, but it's pretty simple to figure out. The work stuff, though under 1000, are protected by trademark. --Everything else is either under 1000 and doesn't qualify or over 1000 fans, and I'll need to make sure I get it. There isn't any sneaky-thinking going on here: You can't squat, you can't protect multiple names, you pick a winner and go for it.Question #2: Does this matter for regular users? No. Short Answer. Google can find you right now, even with the big number in your URL, so it will just be easier. It won't violate your privacy, as you will still have all the same controls.
Question #3: Will this be like MySpace.com where everyone has a stupid username? Yes and No. Anyone with a brain will attempt to get their name, and barring that should give up. Usernames are FOREVER. If you can't get your name, but you decide to register PhoenixCoyotesFan2009 as your username--- you'll feel pretty stupid when the team moves to Hamilton. I recommend trying to get your name, and if you can't-- STOP. Facebook is a social network, designed to connect the REAL you to your REAL friends. That's why it doesn't suck. That's why it has far surpassed the success of MySpace. Sure there are spammers, but they are on the periphery.
Question #4: If I'm a regular person, not a marketing guru, not a brand, should I bother? Again-- why not? Try to get your name, and if you can't--- oh well! It's not like you won't be found by the people who want to find you. Google and Facebook know more about you and your Socialgraph than any two other organizations on earth. I would say brush up on your awareness of your privacy settings, what's being published to whom, and wait to see what's next. What would you rather have facebook.com/andrewkinnear or facebook.com/andrewdk2009 ? The answer is either A) the winner or B) Google me. Why add to the complexity of your online digital brand when you can simplify and harmonize.
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Recently while browsing some Facebook Fan pages I stumbled across the Official page for Kings of Leon. I saw them play the MTV Movie Awards last weekend and they did a great job and even played a song I had heard before. Good for them.The reason that I think this band, and I'm sure many others like it, have an issue is that they are being controlled by their label or producers so much that even the cool social media integration like their Facebook Fan Page is not being integrated properly with their Youtube presence. They took the time and energy to add special apps to FB to allow the presentation of videos from Youtube, but then set the YouTube videos to non-embeddable, thus limiting the viral distribution (and possible infringing use) but also killing the FB integration that they had so thoughtfully created.
I'm not meaning to pick on the Kings of Leon, because I'm sure they're not doing this all themselves, and have many marketing and production and artistic people helping in many stages of the development.
How can we solve this problem? It's easy enough, right? Either turn off the restriction in YouTube and keep everything else the same OR use a different player, re-encode your media, host it somewhere else, and put it in a Static FMBL Box on Facebook however you want (making sure to take design into the equation) OR just put a big link to your MySpace page where you've probably already solved these problems because this is where bands Should be.
Now that being said, I opt for selection (A) as the simplest thing to do. You want people to listen to your music, wath your videos, and ultimately to buy the songs! Make it easy for them and you may actually succeed!
The other option is to not try to do everything. YouTube is a great site. Keep your videos there, and on your Facebook page (which is great at so many other things) just put a link to YouTube. Interconnect everything in such a way as to maximize exposure of your music (in this case), and minimize the negative user experience for your listener/fan/shopper/etc
Also, since we're on the topic of music: My friends in the Midway State have been nominated for 3 MMVAs this year. Go check them out, Vote, and check out their website too: TheMidwayState.com
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From a Motorola Phone to an Avaya Business System to a line of paint from Benjamin Moore to a car from Saturn to a new condo under development in Toronto. The name Aura is both trademarked AND over-used. Are brand agencies so desperate for cool words that they need to use (and fight for recognition for) such a term.
Is it so hard to think up a short, memorable word that can make people think the same sorts of things? My concern, not as a brand guy, but an eBusiness guy, is when the new brand is presented to the rest of the team, and everybody says "We better get the Dot Com." Ya right. And then the next thing they say is "Well at least we should come up first in Google, right?" Sure.
If you have a product with a generic term as its name, and there is a wikipedia entry about the disambiguation of the term-- it's the wrong term. You want a word that when people hear it, they know how to spell it, you own the Dot Com, and there aren't any other sites, products, (foreign or domestic) using the term. That's a great new name.
Don't get lazy Mr. Brand Agency! Talk to your eBusiness and Digital stakeholders about what you're doing. Learn what SEO means. For the love of pete GOOGLE the new, awesome, name you came up with...
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Although the web search results are very consistent between the two engines, Microsoft's new search engine BING has some work to do as far as image search.
Here's my two examples:
Oh, and also--- what is this guy doing on my search results page? He's from Australia, so not much of a confusion issue, just weird. Believe me, you don't want to see me with my shirt off.
Here's my two examples:
Oh, and also--- what is this guy doing on my search results page? He's from Australia, so not much of a confusion issue, just weird. Believe me, you don't want to see me with my shirt off.
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