I’m in the process of promoting a brand new website and as I created a new Facebook fan page for it, I thought it’d be a good idea to remind you guys about Facebook usernames for fan pages.

We all know that a fan page on Facebook can be a great marketing tool – it allows you to create a space that’s as specific or as general as you like, giving you an easy way to reach out to people without having to clutter up your personal Facebook account in the process. Facebook is a great way to help get the word out, but trying to promote the usual direct link to a Facebook fan page can get awkward, because they’re so long (i.e. www.facebook.com/yourpagenamehere/reallyreallylongIDnumberfacebookgaveyouhere).

So obviously, it’d be much easier to handle if it were shorter AND branded to you. But how?

Enter Facebook usernames for fan pages. This feature allows you to get a “pretty” link, like www.facebook.com/yourpagename, without all of those excess ID numbers and other confusing stuff that won’t fit in a Tweet and people won’t be able to remember anyway.

To give your Facebook fan page a username and a better direct link, all you need to do is go to www.facebook.com/username and follow the easy directions.

Not everyone is eligible right away, though. In order to be eligible for a fan page username, you need to have at least 25 fans already. At first blush, that sounds annoying – no one likes to wait to lock in something they need to promote their business – but this policy is actually designed to make things a little more fair by preventing squatters. Theoretically, if you can get at least 25 fans, then your page is “real” and you’re not some random person creating a fan page using some celebrity’s name or that of a big corporation and preventing the actual people from getting their own “pretty” link. So unless your entire business model is somehow based on pretending to be a Kardashian or a 50 Cent or a Gaga or whatever in order to make fans on the Internet, this is probably good for you. After all, if it’s harder for you to snatch up someone else’s brand identity, it’s also harder for other people to snatch up yours.

Once you have those 25 fans, though, you’re set, but keep a few things in mind:

- Make your fan page username easy to remember.

- Make your username as close as you can to your business or whatever it is your are promoting.

- Make sure you’re not trying to use a generic word like “cookies” or “cameras,” because Facebook won’t allow that. It must be something as close to your business name or product name as possible.

- Make sure you LIKE IT, because once you’ve chosen it and named your page, there are no take-backs. You’re stuck with it.

- Make sure you spell it correctly, because, again, once it’s done, it’s done – you can’t change it.

So if you haven’t yet given your fan pages pretty links, and you have enough fans to do it, head over to www.facebook.com/username and set them up. It will make promotion easier and you’ll look more professional. That’s a definite win-win situation in my book.

PS – Speaking of that new website, it’s called OWNT. If you like video games, go check it out. We’re even running a GameStop gift card giveaway.