Dan Schawbel did a great job of notifying everyone in advance of the major development of vanity URL’s over at Facebook. I hope most of you were able to get your name or something quite close — I was real pumped to be able to grab www.facebook.com/chadlevitt. There’s been a ton of chatter on Twitter and Facebook about the new feature, but what does it all mean for your personal brand?
Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the world’s most powerful personal brands, shares his thoughts on Facebook vanity URL’s and how they will change the way businesses and people brand themselves.
Check it out!
Facebook is evolving into a real powerhouse tool to build both business and personal brands — fan pages, personal landing pages, live status updates, vanity URL’s, facebook connect, facebook ads — all having their own way of promoting your personal brand to the world. And I’m sure it won’t be long until they develop a live Facebook search feature similar to Twitter search.
With these advancements in their platform and over 200 million active users — is Facebook now the top personal branding tool?
Please share your thoughts and leave a comment below!
Author:
Chad Levitt is the author of the New Sales Economy blog, which focuses on how Sales 2.0 & Social Media can help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. Chad is also the featured Sales 2.0 blogger at SalesGravy.com, the number one web portal for sales pros, the professional athletes of the business world. Make sure to connect with him on Twitter @chadalevitt.
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[...] Is Facebook Now The Top Personal Branding Tool? [...]
First, I want to thank both you and Dan Schawbel for heightening the awareness and urgency of claiming one’s Facebook vanity URL. Your respective calls to action resulted in my successful claims on http://www.facebook/tonyfaustino. This was a critical personal branding tactic because there are other Tony Faustino’s who are active online and on Facebook.
Second, I agree that Facebook is absolutely setting the stage to become the top personal branding tool (and in Gary Vaynerchuk’s example – the corporate stage is forming quickly also). Currently, I don’t have a single source personal branding tool. The closest thing (before my upcoming blog) is probably my Google Profile and My VirtualCV (both serving in combination).
I’m still wrestling with how to balance and maintain an online “professional persona” and “personal persona.” Right now, I keep my Facebook profile focused only on personal and social connections. The conversational tone I utilize there is very different from the tone employed on my Google Profile, VirtualCV, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
However, I’m already rethinking this strategy simply because of the robust functionality and commercial reach that Facebook provides relative to the other aforementioned social networking tools. This strategy may involve developing another Facebook page that’s strictly for professional, personal branding. Mark Zuckerberg explains in this February 2009 Fortune Magazine article that his vision with Facebook is to help us present our “different faces to the different people in our lives” (http://bit.ly/idbCq). Like a Grandmaster chess player, he is already twelve moves ahead of the competition.
I can’t wait to see how this all shakes out. LinkedIn has positioned itself as “the professional and business” social networking site. Let’s see how Reid Hoffman and his talented LinkedIn team respond – should be fun to watch and it will benefit us all tremendously.
As always, I thank you and Dan for generously sharing your insights.
I love that we still title posts like this
As if any of us personal branding/social media nerds need to ask these kinds of questions! Any current learner in these fields (and make no mistake, we’re ALL learners, there are no experts… yet) worth his/her salt knows that descriptors like “Top,” “Best,” or “Big Dog” carry no real weight.
There are no tactics in personal branding. Especially when you’re talking about social media tools. There is an overarching strategy, and Facebook is just one piece. To talk about how one online service might provide more ROE (Return on Engagement) than others would be the more valuable discussion here. There will never be a time when Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, etc. will universally be a “Top” tool.
Nonetheless, it’s nice to see that Facebook is moving on up; they were floundering for a bit. Not that they’re out of murky waters yet, but the tide is subsiding a bit for them finally, and I for one am glad to see it!
The face Facebook is going, it may soon be the hub for grta personal branding so it is wise for everyone to sign on
[...] But with the launch of Facebook’s personalised URLs does this mean Facebook could become your online profile? [...]
[...] Facebook: Facebook is a great tool for personal branding. [...]