FACEBOOK BASICS continued...

I would see the number of members and realized that the number was a hyperlink, so I clicked on it. Bang! I got a little window to open listing every member. Next to each picture and name was a box that said “Add As Friend”. I thought, “Man I will have a million friends in a heartbeat!” I clicked on one after another sending my “friend request”.

I was clicking away and got this major warning message. “You are operating in a manner that could be offensive! If you keep it up we will shut down your account!” I know those were not the exact words, but the message- STOP. I thought. “What kind of ---- is this?”

I waited for a day and started again, but this time I decided to send a “personal message” with each invitation, thinking that my message might make my friend requests seem more legitimate. You see, Facebook actually thinks that I want to be on Facebook to connect with only people I already know! What could they be thinking? I want more prospects! I want to recruit! I already know how to connect with the people I know- duh!

There I am, clicking away, and I get the same message. I realized that I was doing one after another. Maybe that’s what they were catching on to. And I found that some of my friend requests were going all over the world. I had people responding who could not speak English. I’m limited by having a basic knowledge of English and that’s all. Without spell-check, I have a major problem. Some French guy had me digging way back in my memory to grade school French. I responded and he never responded back. I wonder how offensive I was. One little accent slip and a genuine statement could become something degrading… or sexual. What’s that word for doorknob? I forget.

So I decided that I’d only send Friend requests to people who had faces and who listed a location. I’m on the East Coast of the US so I tried to stay with people on the continental US. Hawaii can be as much as a 6 hour difference. Our business is relationship based. By the time it’s 9:00PM for them, I’m out. And I decided to not sit and send requests in bunches but rather just do a few at a time. Now I operate under their radar, at least I think so.

I even found out that if you put “twitter” in the search box an application (you know, like a program) shows up in the list. If you open the application and follow it, every time you post anything on Twitter, it is sent out on your Facebook feed. So if I make one statement on Twitter I have potentially thousands who could see it and hundreds more on Facebook. I know it works because I get comments.

Let’s talk about comments and that “thumbs up” thing. Every time you are among the first few comments, your picture shows up with your comment. Do that enough and people will start to recognize you. That’s why the picture is important. You don’t want to make a comment and some graphic shows up. People recognize faces. So you give a “thumbs up” or make a comment and you show up on any feeds that are connected. Say something and then ask a question and the next thing you know you have a little forum going. I can post a comment through Twitter and by the time I get to my Facebook account there are people there who show up on my wall discussing what I said on Twitter. How amazing is that?

I could go on and on about the features of Facebook that are beautifully in line with someone wanting to make it happen in Social Networking or Network Marketing. And I’m no expert. I learn something about how it works most every day. If you are new to Facebook I suggest you devote at least a half hour every day for two weeks to learning and building. Though you may be there with an agenda, don’t pitch and chase. You’ll scare people away and the personal branding you do will actually do more harm than good. Friend me on Facebook and you’ll see how I deal with it. Am I perfect? Go to Facebook and in the search box type KimandPhilStone and find out.