If you’ve ever used a social networking website, you have probably come across two related phenomena: the friend suggestion and the collection.
The friend suggestion, otherwise known as the “people you may know” page, often holds people who fit into one of several categories:
- People you know but don’t want to know online
- People you’ve heard of or might be vaguely acquainted with
- People you don’t know but somehow 50% of your friends do
- People who you don’t know at all
- People you don’t know but want to stalk over the Internet
So who should you add?
How about all of them!
It’s a good idea to send out the request with a message saying how you know them, or barring that, who you know them through. By reaching out and developing your network outside of the usual people, you might find others who can help you with everything from finding a job to joining new activity groups. And you’ll be making new friends.
If you’re a bit nervous about the whole experience, just use the three-second rule.
The collection is a unique phenomenon that traces back to users’ early experiences with Pogs, trading cards and Pokemon. It’s the adding of others just for the sake of having a large number of friends and then never talking to them. And don’t lie and say you’re not guilty of this – everyone’s done it. In fact, if you follow through with the friend suggestion, you might wind up with a collection.
So how do you deal with a collection? You turn it back into a list of contacts! As an experiment earlier this week, I messaged 50 people who had become part of my “collection” on a social networking site, and I heard back from 46 of them. That means that 92% of the time, I was able to re-initiate contact successfully. Instead of staring at a screen of names and pictures of people I used to know, I now look at a screen full of social contacts.
Not sure who to get back in touch with or how to do it? Use the three-second rule!
The point of a social network is to network socially, and if you don’t take advantage of the contacts you could or already have, you might be missing out on some great opportunities – and great people.
