Earlier this year I wrote an article called How to Change the Name of Your Facebook Page in which I said that you can’t change the name of a Facebook page.
This was one of the most wanted features by Page Admins and it can now be done with some limitations.
The page name can be changed only if you have less than 100 fans. I think this is so people don’t create a page under false pretenses and then change the name and topic once they have a lot of fans. And, of course, if you have just over 100 fans, a couple of them could be deleted to bring the number below 100.
To change the name of the page:
- Go to Edit Page > Basic Information > Name
- You can change the page name in the name field.
- If you have over 100 fans, you will not see this field.
Are you glad they added this feature? Do you have too many fans at this point for the change to be useful? Why do you think they created the 100 fan limit?
It’s definitely overdue. Although I’d be more impressed if they allowed you the URL you wanted without having to get past 25 fans… ;-)
Hi Danny – I wonder why you can’t have it right away … 25 isn’t a very high number to get – just ask your friends to like the page and you’re all set.
A ha, but if you build a FB Page with the presumption you’re not asking your friends to like it, it takes a long time to get to 25. Facebook isn’t built for communities, remember? (See my link below if confused.)
I agree with you Arzi, thank you for the link, I mostly use LinkedIn. :) Great post by the way Kim.
It will take longer that way. Although my brothers and other friends were happy to fan the page as a way of supporting me even if they
weren’t interested in the topic. I found it took a really long time to get to 500 and then it grew fast from there. FB ads can help get some quick fans for a minimal cost.
We may be using the sites different then the way the developers intended – doesn’t matter to me.
About Time! I still think that this should be something that requires FB admin approval. There should be some justification for changing a page name. The 100 fan limit seems a bit random – they seem to have different fan limits for different features. Why not class pages as e.g. Newbie (1 – 200 fans), Popular (201 – 1000) and Established (over 1000 fans)?
Hi Angela – 100 does seem random and an approval process is a great idea but they probably don’t want to devote the resources to that.
Glad they have it, but wish it could be for those with more than 100 fans. I understand – this way a page owner can’t mislead fans by changing the complete reason/purpose for the page, but so many brands end up changing their names over time, I wish there was some sort of approval process for more established/fanned pages.
Hi Allie – Hmm … I never thought about a brand changing it’s name as a reason to change the page. An approval process is a good idea because 100 is a pretty low number. At least they have made this first step.
Hi,
That is our predicament now. We have changed our Company name (new branding) and we have 238 fans. We will have to create a new page (thought we really dont want to) as the page with the old name does not serve the purpose if it is promoting a name/brand that does not exist anymore. Before we do this, I wanted to know if there have been any change and perhaps there was now an approval process in place for cases like this with a legitimate reason to change the pages name.
TX
Hi Dana – Not as far as I know. All of their help files say 100 fans and there is no support form related to the issue.
I wonder how this works with the search engines? as pages are indexed with the old url and then the new url? without any sign of 301 redirects?
i think the rankings will drop for the new page since Facebook doesn’t seem to the 301 redirect.
i am thinking the same thing unless of course internal to facebook is some kind of 301 redirect going on that you dont see (as you would if you were hosting your own site etc)
i’ve asked a question about this on the facebook help resource, i’ll post back what turns up as an answer.
Hi Mike – I would like to find out the answer to this – I hadn’t even thought about it.
When it comes to FB, I don’t even try to find the logic behind anything that they do anymore. :)
Hi Vered – Logic? Facebook? lol
Hi Kim,
I don’t understand why want people to change the page name? When your friends have your FB name and U changes the name you going to lose many of them then, so what is the point with it?
HI Marbella – Sometimes when someone makes a page there is a typo in the name. Before now the page had to be deleted and a new one created as the name couldn’t be changed. This is also useful for brands whose names change – but they would probably have more than 100 fans anyway.
i dont think you’d lose the connection as although the name changes the page would still appear in their likes list
Hi Mike – I think that’s true – the ID number stays the same even though the name changes so the connections are probably made through the ID.
My bad, my fan page crossed its 1k limit just today, i was searching to find a way to change the name, but i am sure now unless facebook change their policies there is no other way. Thanks for pointing this to me kim..
James
Hi James – Did you cross 1,000 or 100? You have to have under 100 fans to change it.
The limit is set to 100. I think its cos, by the time you reach you reach 100 likes, you get to know that, the page’s name is suitable or not, and still if you think its not suitable you can change!
I think changing of page’s name should not be allowed to pages with large number of likes as that can really confuse people.
Hi Sudhindra – That’s a good point – you should know by the time you have 100 fans. I think the issue is for pages that acquired more fans before you were allowed to change the name.
A fan page was created to gain fans for voting in a ice skating competition.
Ice Princess to Win Dancing on Ice this page gained ove 3,000 fans the competition is now over, so wanted to keep the name which is not shown above ————— Ice Princess to Win Dancing on Ice, just the facility to remove the to win bit in the title, seems stupid that you cannot do that…. If you could submit a revised title fan page for approval by administrators that would be fine, Facebook is not listening to people and is there anyone there actually listening to what people are asking or are they not interested at all!!!
Hi Julie – I agree – there should be some way to request this. I think many people would even be willing to pay for additional Facebook support. I had a client who had IT in their name for Information Technology and Facebook’s rules would not allow then to capitalize the T and we couldn’t find anyway to request an exception.