Effectively Using Facebook for Business
You don’t have to know me very well to realize that I’m a big fan of Facebook and use it extensively for both business and personal reasons. However, one of my pet peeves is total strangers who send me friend requests with no explanation as to why it is to either of our benefits to connect. To me this type of activity has about as much value as attending a large networking event and running around and exchanging business cards with as many people as possible, hoping that sometime, somewhere, something may come of it.
I was therefore delighted to see Andrea J. Stenberg of The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur address this very subject in her recent blog post, How to Grow A Useful Facebook Network. In her post she explains how to build a targeted network of Facebook friends, how to approach strangers you wish to connect with, and how to build relationships with them once you have connected. In my opinion, this is a must read for anyone who uses Facebook for business networking. I may even send a link to it to people who send me UFOs (unidentified friend offers) in the future, instead of just clicking "Ignore". After all, just because they didn’t think to add a note doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be a good contact to have!
I’m going to steal a line from Andrea’s post and conclude by saying If you send me an invitation to become Friends on Facebook and mention you’re a reader of my blog, I promise to accept your invitation.
