To Friend or not to Friend, that is the question. I'm pretty sure Shakespeare would have been intrigued with Facebook and used it to promote his work and draw upon it for characters to write about. It seems every day I read another blog about Social Media, many of them focusing on Facebook and the issue of Friending people. A couple of questions seem to emerge all the time; should you accept a Friend Request from people you don't know and should you send a Friend Request to someone you don't know? Opinions abound, some clearly negative and some taking a more positive view. Me, I'm going to propose that it all depends on what you are on Facebook for.
- Is Facebook your means to keep connecting with family and friends?
- Do you share somewhat personal information?
- Are photos being shared that you would prefer strangers not to see?
- By the way, if your answers to these are YES, be sure and check your Privacy Settings so they are appropriate.
It may seem ridiculously obvious but if the answer to the above questions is YES, why would you contact or accept people you do not know? I guess some people feel compelled to Accept a Friend Request for fear they will offend someone they do not know and may never meet. I get that but if it's purely for personal connecting with family and friends, it's okay to not accept a stranger's Friend Request.
Okay, what about everyone who uses a Profile Page for personal and business purposes (business should be limited on a Personal Profile)? Business Pages (the old Fan pages) are definitely the way to go for your business information on Facebook. However, your Profile Page can act as a funnel for Friends to your business page. Or as we have it now, people who will LIKE your business page.
So what about those Friend Requests, to Friend or not to Friend? I say, go for it. I usually will look at someone's profile and 95% of the time, I will accept the friend request. The more engaging you are on Facebook, the more you'll find yourself with Friend Requests. And go ahead, don't be shy, invite people to be your Friend. You can always remove someone if they become inappropriate.
By all means let people know what you do on your Personal Page - the more they connect with you and get to know you, the more likely they will be to visit your Business Page. But keep it to a minimum on your Personal Page. Remember to engage with others with Posts, Comments, Likes. Most of all, I believe that connecting and sharing with others is what Social Media is all about, and that this is ultimately what motivates people to do business with you. You may be able to help someone with something/anything just because they Posted a request on Facebook. I have experienced that several times. You may need help with something and find that your Facebook Friends are ready and willing to help you - I've experienced that too. I have met other Rotarians, people from Brooklyn and more recently a gentleman from Nigeria working in Amsterdam who chatted with me and asked to be my life partner. Some things you just have to politely answer NO to and move on. It's all part of connecting, sharing and reaching out. Social Media and Friending people gives us the opportunity to learn about and respect our differences while acknowledging our similarities as people.
Lastly, I have used the LISTS function on Facebook to categorize my Friends and I have a LIST entitled Networking-FB for people I have never personally met. On occasion I meet one of them and they say, "don't I know you"? Yup, we're Facebook Friends. Happy Friending.
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