Unless your executives or hospitals’ names have the drawing power of a Katie Couric or a CBS, a premium Facebook URL is arguably useless for hospital marketing.

There’s been lots of buzz on Twitter and in the blogosphere about how Facebook may possibly offer premium/vanity URLs. What might this mean for hospital marketers?

Not much.

Although it’s exciting news (at least for those of us that follow these things!) and certainly could generate revenue for Facebook, it is not likely something that will work for a hospital or any other kind of enterprise. Why?

• Facebook is not MySpace. This model worked for MySpace and corporate URL buyers because MySpace lets business create profiles. As most know, only individuals can create profiles (and thus, purchase URLs).

• URLs mean less and less to SEO. This further assumes that a Facebook URL could be linked to a business profile (which it can’t), rather than to an individual.

But assume it did or could. The best SEO value for a company’s name is already dominated in SERPs where it matters most: linking to the company’s actual Website. This same logic applies to buying Facebook URLs with top keywords.

• Hospital execs lack drawing power. CBS skillfully used a Katie Couric Facebook page to craft a nifty promotional stunt (with the added bonus of being able to hype it on national TV).

If Facebook were to offer vanity URLs, obviously, it’s going to work best for people with famous names (like Katie Couric) and well-known companies (like CBS) since people might actually type “facebook.com/katiecouric”. Which leads to the next point?

• Do site names even matter anymore? Isn’t it usually just easier to search for what you need and click on the link in a SERP? Would you be more likely to type the aforementioned URL, or just type “katie couric facebook” into a search engine?

Contact us for a free Web 2.0 consultation or SEO evaluation for your Website or blog.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am and is filed under Industry Trends, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.