There’s a lot of noise on the net about the impending availability of vanity Facebook URLs… that is, for example, being able to have a Facebook page at “facebook.com/nike” as opposed to “facebook.com/user?123″ (neither of those addresses actually goes anywhere, so don’t bother).

This is a GREAT brand-reinforcing idea for Facebook themselves, but it remains to be seen what it will mean in the long term to the brands that have or will create FB pages.

Here’s my take on the enormity of this change: “meh.”  And here’s why…

Long story short, the ease of memorization for urls is made less relevant by social media… not more.  To get to this site, for example, you probably clicked a link or found it in your RSS feed… you didn’t type “www.idistillery.com/blog” to get here.  Chances are, the link was even from a URL-shortener like bit.ly or tinyurl… need there be any more evidence that the letters in the address bar mean very little, from a usability standpoint?!

And even if it were imperative that your Facebook page’s URL be easy to remember, there are better ways to get users there from non-web notification points like TV or billboards; through a redirect setup at your site’s existing domain, for instance.  It’s a bit more trouble to set up, but it leaves YOU in control, DOESN’T depend on availability, and can be UPDATED in the future, should things on the web change (and what are the odds of that?)

Go ahead and pick one up for your business (if only to deter imposters or squatters), but don’t expect it to be a game changer for you.  Great buzz for Facebook… not so much for your brand.

The web is great, and I love working with it, but it’s not the answer to every marketing problem… sometimes an old fashioned telephone call is still the best way handle an interaction.  If you insist on an all-encompassing rule to guide your marketing communications, let it be this: “Think ye first of the viewer.”

• If you’re advertising on a billboard, don’t force drivers-by to memorize a complicated website URL.
• If they’re finding you in the newspaper, don’t omit your phone number in favor of an email address.
• If you’re fostering conversational referrals, that second business card you handed over for pass-along is going to get you further than a snappy domain name.

Use your website as a hub… but never force it at the expense of more appropriate means of communication.

Watch a few of this guy’s keynote addresses.  His name is Gary Vaynerchuk, and he’s changed the way I feel about “the hustle”.

I’m from the midwest.  People from the midwest don’t hustle.  We don’t!  Don’t get me wrong… we have an unsurpassed work ethic; we’ll do grueling labor (physical, mental or otherwise) to the absolute best of our ability for 14, 16, 18 hours a day–but you’ll never hear us call that “hustling”.  It’s just what you do with your day.

Case and point: my parents.  In addition to their full-time jobs, they run a small hobby farm with horses, rabbits, dogs (they breed labradors and labradoodles because they love raising puppies).  From May to October, my folks spend as much time as possible outside: not always working (they like to ride horses… a lot) but always tending to the farm in one way or another so that they can enjoy the fruits of all that labor when the opportunity presents itself.  Is that “hustling”?  Not in my opinion.  Is it “work”? Hell yes!

Work, in my opinion, is unavoidable if you want to achieve anything.  Period.  That’s not groundbreaking or anything… just want to clear that up.

The “hustle”, to me, comes when you’re actively working your ass off to get others involved in what you’re doing.  Does that sound bad?  Not at all!  But when midwesterners hear “hustle”, we think of a less-than-virtuous pursuit… like some trenchcoat pushing fake Rolexes on the streets of NY, or a boilerroom investment operation making cold calls and raking in commissions with no regard for the client’s well-being.

And that right there is the key: regard for the client’s well-being.  If some guy wants to call me (even in the middle of dinner) to sell me on something that is actually going to make my life better, I’m fine with that!  (I probably won’t like it initially, but we’re talking about creating a long-term benefit here, so long-term connection and loyalty has to be the metric).

What I’m going to push myself to do from now on is disregard my tendancy toward introversion.  I’ve been an “approach me first” person almost my entire life… The Image Distillery’s clientele is almost exclusively referral-based (which is great, but referrals haven’t reached that point where they can sustain the business for more than a few months at a time).  Those client “roots” have been well-established over the last few years, and the metaphorical plant is beginning to bear fruit.  But I want to sow a few more seeds… get into more networks and impress them while continuing to tend to that first rooted plant that’s gotten me this far.

What I’ve got to do is start hustling more… pushing boundaries and getting in front of more faces.  What my midwestern ideals are newly open to is the idea that even if people aren’t asking to hear about [insert your business here], they’ll thank you later for “imposing” upon them so long as 1) your product/service has a legitimate and recognizable benefit and 2) you have enough faith in that product/service to take it to them before they know they want it.

And that, my friends, takes a little hustle.