When Facebook first rolled out custom usernames, we were cautioned that much like a bad tattoo, you wouldn’t be able to undo them. However, it now appears that Facebook has updated their policy. Whether this is due to being inundated with requests to change poor name choices, or maybe just because registrations have slowed to a more manageable pace this can be good news.
When I choose my custom username I used my business name. That was fine until I decided to create a fan page for my business and wanted to give it an easy to remember URL name. The name I really wanted outsourcingpro was taken, BY ME!!!! Well I fixed that today.
Change Your Facebook Username
Go to “Account Settings” and look under “Username.” Just remember that as things currently stand Facebook will only let you make this change once.
Just go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and click “Set A Username For Your Pages”.
Update! Using this link will now only change the URL to your facebook page not the name of the page. In order to change your page name you must have less than 101 fans. Simply click the “Edit Page” button on your page and then settings and change the page name there.
I have a question. When you renamed you facebook page to free up your company name for your fan page did you have any trouble reclaiming your company name for your fan page. Since you had used your company name already in facebook did it show up as available immediately after you renamed it to a different name? I have the same issue & I am afraid that after I rename my page (which has my company name) that my company name will not show up as available for my fan page.
I dropped you an email. I would love to help you with you with your Facebook issues as well as answer any other social media questions you might have.
I had the same thought… 5 seconds after changing my profile name. Everything worked out just fine though. I changed my profile and then immediately changed my fan page name and the name with no issues at all. I wouldn’t recommend waiting very long between renaming each page though, just to be on the safe side.
I would love to check out your fan page if you would be willing to share it with me. You can see mine here: Out Sourcing Pro Facebook Fan Page
Uh oh, I just changed the name for my FB page and it disappeared and says that it’s an expired link when I try to look at my fan page. :-0
Sorry I haven’t answered you sooner, been down with the flu. What was your FB page name to start with and what did you change it to? Are you sure you didn’t typo it? That is a very common reason to get the error you are getting.
You are welcome to look at my page. Currently ww.facebook/carterservices goes to my personal facebook page which I never use. There is a link there to my fan page which is the page I should have given the username carterservices label to.
One of my advertising reps set started the setup for me so I really don’t know how to effectively use facebook for my business.
I would be more than happy to talk to you more. I want to change the user name to my fan page but I am afraid to do it since I do not know if I have things set up correct as it it is now.
Feel free to contact me at my email address & I can provide you with my phone number if you would like.
Scott Carter
That’s pretty neat. I know that a lot of facebook users make the mistake you did, naming an account by their business name and then later wanting that name as the fan page. I did it myself but looks like i’ll be able to change it 😉
The same thing happended to me but i didnt no that you could change your username, im going to do that now thanks
You can change your username/fan-page name once in life. Do you know that?
You can change your profile name once but I believe you can change your fan page several times.
This is a good post, great information
I also thought I was naming my company’s page with a username and it turned out it was my personal. I did change it my personal user name but now it says my company user name is not available. will it release it in a few hours or do I need to add on to my company name for my username for my company page?
It will take several hours or so for your company name to become available.
Also, if your fan page has more than 100 fans you cannot change the page name. This is just one of the weird and stupid rules Facebook has in place.
This works- I submitted the form yesterday morning, and in less than 24 hours, Facebook had removed the custom URL from the profile page, and made it available for use on my business’ page.