Comments on: 5 Reasons to Get A Facebook Custom URL

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:27:34 +0000

Jowita – you’re a genius! I just tried your suggestion – I made my wife an admin, then set the username for my page from her account with no problem. Interestingly, when I log into my page myself and look at the account settings, the username does not show, but it seems to work, so I guess I’m not going to quibble.

It’s completely lame that we have to go through such machinations to get around Facebook’s lousy programming, but what are you going to do, I suppose.

Anyway, thanks for the brilliant work-around, I’ll pass it on to the other discussion about this problem that I know of. You rock!

By: Jowita

Jowita — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:06:41 +0000

To Mike and Cristie:
Finally I decided to create a personal account only to get that custom URL for my page.
It was quite useless, because for some unclear reason I had no option to do it, even though my new personal account was connected to the page I had created previously (the same e-mail address and password). Perhaps if I had created a personal profile first and then the page, it would have worked.
Then I accidentally added myself as a fan of my page and when I wanted to remove myself from the “fans”, I got a warning that it would cause this page to be deleted, since I was the only administrator. So I only set everything to maximum privacy on my personal account (as I don’t intend to use it)…

In the end asked a friend to create the custom URL for my page. I had to make him an administrator and after he set up the URL, I removed him from the admin position. So that’s the easiest way, if you don’t want to have a personal profile. Just ask somebody to do it for you (or if you meet, do it by yourself, when he/she is logged in). But anyway, it’s frustrating that Facebook makes it so complicated.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:48:29 +0000

Hi, I just learned about this discussion thread, and all I can say is – Hallelujah – its not just me! I am having the exact same issue. I have a business page (with 29 fans) and no personal page. Every time I try the “username” route to get a vanity URL, I get redirected to that aggravating “upgradeaccount.php” page! I, too, have also tried to post questions about this on the FB help site, but again was told I have to have a personal account. At first, I just didn’t really want a personal FB profile, but now its a matter of principle – I don’t like being blackmailed into making a personal profile just to get my things to work on my business page. If anyone makes any progress on this I’d love to know about it.

In any case, thanks, at least, for the validation that I’m not a total incompetent!

By: Jowita

Jowita — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:54:23 +0000

I have a similar problem to Cristie’s one.

I do NOT have a personal Facebook profile and don’t want to create one. I just have a page (with over 25 fans, so according to http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=900#!/help/?faq=15073 I’m eligible to secure a custom URL for my page). Yet it seems I can’t do it without having a personal profile.

I’ve read all posts on the Facebook discussion board concerning this issue (http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=10381469571&topic=6826#topic_top), but unfortunately going to http://www.facebook.com/username/ doesn’t fix the problem for me. It redirects me to http://www.facebook.com/upgradeaccount.php and says “To use this feature, you will need to sign up for a personal Facebook profile.”

What’s more: being logged in to my account, I wanted to post the above on the Facebook discussion board, but after typing the captcha and clicking on “Post reply” I was redirected to my own page settings – and the reply was not posted, so it looks like I can’t even post anything there not having a personal profile. I hope somebody will know the answer to my question here.

I will appreciate any help and tips on how I can get a custom URL for my Facebook PAGE without having a personal profile there.

By: Cristie

Cristie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:47:00 +0000

Thanks so much for looking into it for us. This issue is driving me and my employer bananas!!!! We very much appreciate any help you can give us. Thanks!

By: Phil Gerbyshak

Phil Gerbyshak — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:06:43 +0000

Cristie – I don’t know the answer to your question. I’ll see what I can find however and post an update when I do.

Thanks for stopping by!

By: Cristie

Cristie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:12:35 +0000

Last month Wisconsinmade.com set up a “business account” on Facebook. This is very different from a personal FB page – there is no profile. Most small companies have a personal FB account to which they add a business page. This is not what we are doiong. We have registered with FB as a company.
When working on our page, we have to be very careful not to click on “Profile” or the page will automatically convert to a personal account. We have investigated this thorougly and know this information is correct. In fact, two months prior we actually made a mistake and converted the account to a personal account. With Facebook help we had to start all over again, delete that account and set up a new one.
We would like to get a custom URL for our company. We know other companies have done this. Lands’End’s FB page is one example. However, when we go to change the username under the Settings menu, we are asked to verify the account. What does “verifying” the account mean? Could this convert our business account into a personal one?
So you see, we are stuck at the step prior to going to http://www.facebook.com/username. Do you have any suggestions for how we can get a custom URL?

By: Phil Gerbyshak

Phil Gerbyshak — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:11:35 +0000

Thanks Julie. That is great to know. Now we all have a chance to get a custom URL for our fan page.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:44:19 +0000

You do in fact need to have 100 fans on a Facebook page in order to get a custom URL – not 1,000 — but 100

By: Phil Gerbyshak

Phil Gerbyshak — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:41:20 +0000

Hilary – getting any name is better than none. Easier to share and to say.

Brian – Not sure what you mean by “a business.” If you mean a “fan page” then you’ll be able to do that if you have over 100 folks as fans. If you have a business listing, I am not sure this is possible yet. I’ll see if I can find anything for you.