Is Facebook Telling SMBs to Take a Hike?

• Jun 10th, 2009
• Posted by Ron
• Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Media News

The Twittersphere has been blowing up with stories about the username shift that happens just after midnight Eastern time this Friday.

The thing that few people, if any, are talking about is the fact that the new rules leave small and medium businesses out in the cold with the strings of numbers attached to their Facebook pages.

According to Facebook, only pages with 1k + fans will be eligible to create their vanity URL. This leaves small and medium businesses who are relying on the relatively do-it-yourselfness of low-level social media marketing in the dust as 13 and 14 year-old kids can snatch up any vanity URL they want.

This means that the only alternative for these small and medium businesses is to make ad buys from Facebook in order to nail down their vanity URL. In a time where social media is an accessible alternative to much more costly forms of marketing, wouldn’t it be nice to offer these small and medium businesses a chance at being part of the party?