Keeping in touch with friends is a luxury taken for granted today. Social Networks are available on many devices: computers, cell phones, iPhones, iPads, etc. With the software and hardware already available, the real concern is filling up your Facebook list of friends. Friends are everywhere.
Whether you are a new user of Facebook or an old one, the methods by which finding friends don’t differ that much. Facebook already provides the utilities you need to find your friends. That simple search box on top of the page is already a great tool to get started. Of course, one issue faced by most many users is remembering all their friends.
Where can you get a list of friends?
Successfully adding one friend gives you access to his or her own list. It’s like a video game where there are prices won for any achievement. In the case of Facebook, a friend or friends. Adding those friends will also have the same effect of giving you access to theirs.
Building up your network of friends on Facebook is a two-way route: You either add them or they will add you. Once you think you’ve exhausted every available connection on Facebook, it’s time to turn to other sources like yearbooks in high school, college, or even from your elementary years. If you still need to expand your list, how about some neighbors?
Obviously we’re only looking at your closest connections aside from your relatives, whom can also be added and categorized in Facebook. If you feel like really building up your network, making friends on Facebook itself is a good start. If you’re new to Facebook, you are likely to encounter group pages. Searching for one that is in line with your hobbies and interests and joining them can give your list of friends a boost. With this you can interact with them, share ideas, and eventually they or you may request to be added to their list of friends.
Probably at this point, adding friends and filling up your list isn’t enough. They would begin to feel more like a collection of names than actual friends. It is also a good idea to meet up with these people. But be on the lookout of your own safety. The popular warning to children about not talking to strangers does not apply only to kids but the same can be said to teens and adults as well. When meeting up with folks you barely know, always meet up in an open public area. Never meet in dark alleys or in the person’s house. If it so happens that the group you joined is holding a party, make it clear to your companions at home of where you’re going, who you’re going with, and when.
Safety precautions aside, your list of friends can still be further built up by driving traffic to your Facebook page. This does not only apply to blogs and websites but in Facebook pages, too. If you have a business, for instance, you can point them to your Facebook profile. This will allow you to communicate and befriend your customers.
If you have a blog, website, or you are an active member of an internet forum, you can invite people from these sources to add you as a friend.
Network Migration
People who have been members of older social networking sites can also use these old sites and simply import their contact list.
Keeping Friends Close
Building up that list of friends is an easy task that anyone can do, it’s all about finding the right sources. But the greater question is how to keep all those friends. This can all boil down to how the list was built and how the people on that list are being treated.
Take note that adding lots of friends does not necessarily mean that you are close friends with all these people, or at least maybe you think you are. Nonetheless, genuine friends and friends from random places must be treated well with respect. Ethics is an important aspect of one’s social life in the real world. The same applies in a virtual environment. You are still dealing with people and not a computer with varying Artificial Intelligence.
Being True to Yourself
Nothing can be gained by bragging to all your friends online. Whatever the reason for you to boast: job promotion, you got married, you made it through your college entrance exam, etc., being humble is always a good quality to show to your online friends. This is very true especially for people who have never actually met you. Remember that first impressions last as they say. If you give them the impression that you are not humble then they may not even bother meeting with you in real life. This can also result to your name being removed from their list of friends.
Up the Ante
When one friend is having a birthday, greeting them seems like a good idea but sending gifts ups the ante. If you greet them “Happy Birthday”, you can say it’s the thought that counts. True. But the meaning of such a greeting can drown within the crowd of a hundred more.
Care to Respond
Status updates, greetings, tags, comments, photographs, these are all items that are posted on Facebook. Being active in sharing your opinion about these things gives your friend the impression that you care. Do not also forget to post your own.
Be Interesting, Be Interested.
This is to elaborate of posting stuff of your own. Keeping friends in social networking website like Facebook is synonymous with keeping them in real life. Be an interesting person and post things that can pique their interest. Write stories, post pictures, tag pictures, post clean jokes, compliment people for their achievements, and be interested in what your friends are up to (not to the point of being a stalker, of course). If you discover something interesting in your internet surfing such as a science trivia, share it and see who among your friends have the same interest. Many websites have a Facebook share button ready in place, anyway.
Building up a list friends is easy today with the conveniences offered to us by social network sites and the improving means of communicating. We can maintain old relationships and build new ones. However, the basic rules of social interaction still apply regardless of the platform being used.