3 Tips for Building Your Facebook Network
If you’re using Facebook as a way to make new connections, rather than just stay in touch with established ones, here are three very simple tips to
keep in mind:
1. Build Out Your Profile and Make it Public
For people to want to connect with you they need to know you who are and what you’re about. Therefore, take some time to review your bio, and make it more interesting for the kinds of people you want to connect with.
This can be from a professional perspective (e.g. “I’m an inbound marketer for an open source development firm, looking to connect with others about new marketing techniques and cool things going on in tech.”) or personal (e.g. “I recently started gardening and truly enjoy it. I’d love to connect with others about organic gardening tips for a Midwestern climate.”).
Once you’re happy with the way your bio reads (a good test is to ask if you’d actually want to connect with yourself), jump into your privacy settings and make sure that your “Bio and favorite quotations” is available to “Everyone.”
Depending upon your level of comfort with online sharing, you might also want to make the setting for “My status, photos and posts” available to “Everyone” as well. This way, new connections can get a good idea of the kind of information you share — which will soon be populating their news feed if you become Facebook friends.
2. Accept Friend Requests and Messages from Anyone
Under Privacy Settings > Basic Directory Settings, you can establish controls for who is able to find and connect with you on Facebook. If you want to grow your personal and/or professional network, make sure that you set “Send me friend requests” and “Send me messages” to “Everyone.” This way, if people want to connect with you and introduce themselves, they can actually do so. In this regard, you may also want to make sure that “Search for me on Facebook” and “Can comment on posts” are set to “Everyone” too.
3. Send Messages Along with Friend Requests
When it comes to requesting new connections: if you’ve found someone on Facebook that you’d like to connect with, but don’t know personally, or haven’t seen in some time, send a message along with your friend request. (It astonishes me how few people do this.)
A simple message can go a long way to helping someone understand who you are, why you’re reaching out to them, and why they might want to connect with you. For example:
- “Hey, remember me? We had public speaking class together at Kent State. I’d love to reconnect.” Or,
- “Hi, as a fellow PR professional, I really enjoy your blog. I’d like to connect on here so that I can be sure to stay up-to-date with your articles and resulting conversations.”
Note: The tips mentioned in this post are for those that are comfortable with openly sharing themselves online. If you have concerns about privacy and security, and don't want aspects of your life that you share on Facebook available to the world, please disregard. You may want to check out my previous post on updating your Facebook privacy settings with personal branding in mind.
Your Advice?
Do you have any tips for using Facebook more effectively for building your network or personal brand? Share them in the comments below.
Laurel Miltner is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter @laurelmackenzie, or connect on Facebook at Facebook.com/laurelmiltner.
Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.
Comments
Leave a Comment