I’ve been trying to make friends on Facebook. It’s not easy. Some friend requests that I send out seem to work with one click, others invite me to add a message, still others pop-up with a warning: “Are you sure you know this person?” and others, including Nathan Bransford, say: “This request could not be sent”.
Facebook seems determined to corral me among people that I shared a school or college with, or co-workers. This knocks my idea of social networking into a cocked hat. I am looking to make friendships on a much wider basis than that.
Following people on Twitter is a lot easier (although gathering followers isn’t).
Can I ask anyone who reads this post who has a Facebook account to send me a friend request. My Facebook account is
JJTonerYA
On Twitter I’m @jjtoner_YA
Thanks.
You’re right, it’s harder to make friends on Facebook because they have to confirm you, and a lot of folks won’t confirm someone they don’t actually know in real life. I used to be like that but gave up 🙂 On Twitter, it’s much easier because you just click Follow and hope the person follows back (and a lot of the time, they do).
IMO, its not a good idea to use a personal Facebook page to connect with random strangers. I know I don’t usually accept invites from people I don’t know. Like you said, Twitter is better for that, and so is blogging, LinkedIn, even sites like YouTube and Flickr. However, if you really want to use facebook for book marketing, which I think is a great idea, you could always create a Facebook Fan page for yourself or your writing, and connect with people that way. I am much more willing to connect with a facebook fan page then some strangers personal page. Hope that makes sense and that it helps!
Sarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)
That’s all right for you, Sarah. You have 498 blog followers; I have 23. When I put out that call for FB friends, I had 7. I will probably set up a FB page when I have a book out there (in about 3 weeks).
Thanks for commenting.
Hi JB
Facebook is a pain in the posterior on many fronts. I’ve had an account for the last 3 years and I still ahve less than 200 friends. A lot of those are family and old workmates, too.
As for old school chums, they can forget it. I put my education down as the “back fields behind the Thorpe Hotel” and that’s got them snookered. A lot of us were “educated” there, but you won’t find it on the list of British educational establishments.