More Facebook Etiquette: “Friending” and Personal Notes

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 am

I love social media marketing. It is the first time in history where everyone has the free opportunity of a global audience. It’s really amazing when you stop to think about how that impacts us all. For the entrepreneur and small business owner, it means that we have as much voice and opportunity as the big players of yesterday. The playing field has been leveled. For the consumer, it means we can be choosy shoppers and savvy buyers with a world market at our fingertips.

Facebook is my favorite social media tool for business by far. Do you know that over 360 million people are actively using Facebook? It has become a social and business hub for many. It’s cool that we can connect with so many like-minded people around the world. Facebook has indeed made our planet smaller!

Another thing I appreciate about Facebook is that it is a “gated community” of sorts. There are Facebook staff out there monitoring us to make sure we behave and use good form while connecting with others. I for one totally appreciate that. It’s one place I don’t have to worry about spammers… too much anyway.

Wherever an opportunity for business exists, there will always be those who just don’t get it and end up violating the rules by pushing their agendas. They end up killing the joy for the rest of us. Twitter is a great example of that. There is an art to social media and once you know it, agenda pushing becomes obsolete. Sharing is the name of the game… and meeting people, building relationships…

So with that, Facebook users everywhere, in an effort to keep Facebook friendly, I have a request of you. When you reach out to “friend” me or anyone else, there is a little link in the friend request box that reads “Add a personal message.”

Do that.

Let people know how you have come to know them: through mutual friends, a common group, belong to the same network… anything that establishes you as a human reaching out. Otherwise, a friend request without a message doesn’t feel friendly. In fact, it feels spammy. In most cases, unless we have 50 mutual friends, I ignore those friend requests.

Facebook is a wonderful place to build your professional platform as long as you remember this little rule: Relationships first, business second.

Let’s keep Facebook friendly