People often ask me: “Gina, what should I name my Facebook Page?! Should I include my personal name or my business name? The name of my book? My city?”
People really struggle with this and they make a lot of mistakes. In fact, this is one of the biggest mistakes I see people making when they create a Facebook Page. They don’t set it up properly to be found by search engines, to help with online reputation, or to be used as a marketing tool.
Whenever I see an ad that says “Find us on Facebook,” I have to laugh. Do you know how hard it can be to find someone on Facebook?!
Over the years, I’ve named a lot of pages for a lot of businesses. When creating the name, I think very strategically about how people will be looking for this business.
Many people choose their official corporate name. This is usually a mistake. Most people have no idea what your official business name is.
Why is your Facebook Page name so important?
1 . You want people to be able to find you if they need your products or services (search engine optimization).
2. You need your name and your business name to dominate the search engines in the event that you are ever the victim of a cyber-smearing attack where someone seeks to damage your online reputation.
3. Your page name can act as an advertisement for you as you “walk around” Facebook as your Page.
Just to be clear, I am NOT talking about Facebook user names like www.facebook.com/username. If you don’t have one, you need to get one. It needs to be short enough to be understood but long enough to be meaningful. The primary purpose of having a user name is so that you can use it outside of Facebook – on business cards, in print ads, in emails, and such.
The Facebook Page Name appears to the right of your profile picture and underneath your cover picture.
Here are the five key factors for creating findable, effective name.
- Personal Name. For most small businesses, the owner’s personal name should be included. This is because people are more likely to remember your personal name than they are to remember your business name. It is also important to include the author name on a book Page.
2. Business Name. Include this if your business name is well known and people will be searching for it. Also include the business name if your business has a brick and mortar location.
If your business is a “personality driven business,” then you can just use your personal name. Choose this option if you intend to market a number of different products and services – that all have to do with you – from your page. I have chosen to do this at this time.
If the name of your business doesn’t tell much about the business, try adding an explanation.
3. Function – Product or Service. People might not be looking for you specifically, but they might be looking for what you do. Include your product or service in your name. For example, your Facebook Page name might include Pool Service, Real Estate Agent, Hearing Aid Center, Sales Training, Marketing Expert. Use the words your potential customers would use, not “inside baseball” words. For example, most consumers would use the word “doctor” instead of “physician.” I recommend using a tool like Google’s keyword search tool to see what words are searched most often. You will likely be surprised.
4. Location*. If your business focuses on a local marketplace, include your city here. Best if you can include your town or suburb and the nearest large city. (Note – I’ve just received guidelines from Facebook that say you can not include a city. However, I have not seen this to be true. Check these guidelines at the bottom of this article.*)
If your business is global like a speaker, consultant, or author, you might want to eliminate the location.
5. Length. Don’t worry that your name might be too long. I believe that the longer your Page name, the better as it provides better advertising for your business. As of this writing, it appears that you can use up to 74 characters for your page name.
In the past, Facebook would not allow you to change your name after you reached 100 fans. Now, they MIGHT allow you to change it. You must make a request. To change the name of an existing page, choose: EDIT PAGE > UPDATE INFO > NAME.
Or, you might be able to change it yourself. If so, you will see this:
You will receive a confusing error message if you put in too many characters. It will say “Our automated system will not allow that name.”
In summary, your Facebook Page name is very important for several reasons: search engine optimization, reputation management, and marketing. Put some thought into it so that you get a perfect name that includes the five key ingredients: Personal Name, Business Name, Function – Product/Service, Location, and Length. Good luck!
If you need any help with this, please just leave your page name in the comments below (or post on my Facebook wall or give me a call). I love to work with people who are excited about Facebook marketing!
Other great Page names to consider:
*** Just days after this article was posted, I received guidelines from Facebook for naming a page. They include:
Page names cannot:
– include words in all capital or lowercase letters unless the name is an acronym
– be all lowercase letters
– include the symbols *, |, _, ^, {, }, and ~
– use the qualifiers, “official” or “unofficial” to describe their legitimacy
– use location qualifiers (ex: Facebook – Austin) <<< This conflicts with my point number 3. I am surprised at this rule.
– use intra-capitalization (ex: FaceBook)
Additionally, Page names must:
– begin with a capital letter or number
– use proper grammar, punctuation, and spacing
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