Vanity Facebook URLs Available Soon

Beginning Saturday June 13, 2009 Facebook is joining the ranks of Twitter, Myspace and other social networks by providing vanity URLs for account holders.

In my opinion, that's great news for everyone, but especially for real estate agents. Realtors, brokers and their companies tend to spend lots of time and sometimes lots of money creating consistent, recognizable brands. And, the ability be "top of mind" in the eyes of potential clients and recruits, can contribute heavily to success in real estate.

If you don't believe me, try naming 10 toothpaste brands in 10 seconds. How about 10 bar soaps? Okay, I'll give you an easy one... 10 types of soda/pop. While it's not impossible, I discovered that it's also not very easy.

However, marketing a vanity Facebook URL is extremely easy. There are already major corporations experimenting with this technique. One example is the now-doomed Kobe vs. LeBron campaign by Coca-Cola's VitaminWater: http://www.facebook.com/vitaminwater. The vanity URL made marketing that site much easier than http://www.facebook.com/pages/vitaminwater-kobe-vs-lebron/123424578 (not a real URL).

Networking with friends, business associates, other real estate professionals and potential clients using Facebook has become an important part of "marketing" myself. In the last three weeks I have received 11 solid leads and converted 5 into clients. That may not seem like a lot, but it has a huge positive affect on my bottom line; those leads were FREE. And, the majority of my Facebook activity is during my personal time, so I'm not distracted and can still focus on my other real estate related responsibilities.

In addition, I didn't have to "do" anything to receive these leads other than talk a lot about my life and talk a little about my business. And, during one referral conversation, the gentleman said that he chose me because I "don't just talk about real estate." (NOTE: I am in NO WAY trying to knock agents who only post listings and only talk about real estate, I'm just talking about my personal experience.)

As with many seemingly worthwhile things, there always seems to be a catch. If you have a common name, are part of a franchise or you need multiple names you will have to act quickly if you don't want to be "JohnSmith34279." The expected "gold rush" will also undoubtedly create a perfect environment for "URL squatters." Like cyber squatters, their aim is to register popular or trademarked names then sell them to the highest bidder. I truly hope that Facebook has safeguards in place to prevent that type of thing. Good luck!

For more information, please visit the Facebook Blog or bookmark the registration page (http://www.facebook.com/username), which currently features a registration countdown clock.

Jonathan Bell

I'm trying out a new twitter icon. If it doesn't work... http://www.twitter.com/GothamRealtyGrp