How to grab a vanity URL for your Facebook fan page

We maintain a couple of Facebook fan pages for Unreality TV and its sister site, Unreality Shout.

Now, I knew that it was possible to set up a vanity URL for your own account on Facebook (mine's facebook.com/gerardmcgarry - don't stalk me, I won't follow you), but I just discovered today that it's quite simple to set up a vanity URL or username for your Facebook fan pages. If you're a publisher this is a godsend, because it makes the URL more concise and easy to share.

The Default Fan Page Address

When you create a Facebook fan page, it automatically generates a horrible URL - something ugly like http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unreality-TV/126180992476. That's a nightmare to remember, and also to paste into other places, like Twitter.

Setting up your Facebook vanity URL

1. Visit the Facebook username page.
2. You'll see a link on that page to Set a username for your pages. Click this and a utility will appear. There's a drop down list of all your Facebook pages. Select the fan page you want to create an URL for and type the proposed vanity URL in the next box. Better to leave out spaces and punctuation to keep it short.
3. Press the Check Availability button to see if your URL is available. If it's not, you'll be asked to choose something else. If it is available, it'll automatically link your fan page to that URL. So, make sure you've got your spelling right in the first place!

You can continue to repeat the process for all of the Facebook pages under your account. Yes, you too can have a short vanity URL like http://www.facebook.com/unrealitytv!

Update: It seems that you must have a minimum number of followers to your fan page before you're eligible for the vanity URL. I think the number is 30 followers before you can use this fature. It's annoying, but smart on Facebook's part!

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