How to Get Pretty Profile URLs for any Social Network
It seems everyone on the web loves social networks but hates the long convoluted profile addresses they give us. Many measures have been used to rectify this issue, with a lot of people using URL shortening services like TinyURL or bit.ly to make short versions of their profile links. Sites like SocialToo even allow you to register a subdomain that will redirect users to your various social networks. Well, neither solution was elegant enough for me so I decided to roll my own pretty profile URLs.
How did I do it?
Simple, I just registered a few short domain names with my first name in it and redirected those domains to my various social networks.
For a meager seven bucks a year atwww.GoDaddy.com
and five minutes of work, you too can have the prettiest social network profile links on the web.
After buying three domains and setting up 301 redirects to my social media pages, my profile URLs went from:
- twitter.com/AdamPieniazek
- www.linkedin.com/in/adampieniazek
- www.facebook.com/people/Adam-Pieniazek/2707703
to the much prettier and easier to remember (especially with my crazy Polish surname):
Each of those three domains will take you directly to my twitter, linkedin, and facebook profiles (respectively). Much easier than telling people to google Adam Pieniazek (though I can still tell people to hit up adamp.com for super ease of use).
Almost 80% shorter, 100% more memorable
Reactions so far to my pretty profile links
Now, instead of looking for me based on my real name, which is tough to remember and even tougher to spell I can give you one of the above URLs, depending on your preferred social network. I’ve already attended a few events where I simply put one of these simple links on my name tag and got a great reception to the idea. Lots of people immediately say they’re doing the same with their name once they get home. So, hurry up and get your own personal pretty social profile links before they’re all gone!
@AdamPieniazek so simple but never thought about it (in reply to your domains for social networks post: http://tinyurl.com/dzvk2a)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
nice post! following and bookmarked.
Thanks Joshua! Better grab TweetJoshua.com before it’s gone. 😉
Pretty URLs for any Social Network, including Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin | The 42nd Estate http://ff.im/-1OPJ3
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Not a bad idea for promoting your social network profiles http://sn.im/evqxs
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
@makteck That’s cool but I like these two solutions for one/easy social profiles better: http://jjwright85.com/ http://bit.ly/vfp67
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@LinkedInExpert Not quite, the facebook URL adds numbers to your name for a messy URL. Check out my solution here: http://bit.ly/1afwdY
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Another method, depending on the type of server you have, is to create some redirects in your .htaccess file, or dummy directories on your server that redirect to the intended URL.
Also, Facebook does offer an option for a pretty URL, such as http://profile.to/terriorlowski/, with the help of this app: http://apps.facebook.com/webaddress/
Very good points Terri, though my issue with the facebook app is it’s still another web address for people to remember that isn’t short and simple. One could make the same argument for fbadam.com but so far I’ve found people do remember it because it’s so unique and short.
I like your suggestion of the redirect but with my name it would raise the issue that brought about these short domains (which is that my last name is very tough to remember and spell correctly). Something tells me adampieniazek.com/twitter (or twitter.adampieniazek.com) wouldn’t help!
Another solution that fellow The 42nd Estate member, Justin, created, is to have one landing page for all your social networks. Check it out at jjwright85.com
[…] Pieniazek presents Pretty URLs for any Social Network, including Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin | The 42nd Estate posted at The 42nd Estate, saying, “An article about how to take any social network’s […]
Cool info thanx for the Twitter tips….
This comment was originally posted on Buzz Networker – Social Networking