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How to find your friends on Facebook with the Facebook Friend FinderI've just started really getting into Facebook and want to grow my circle of online friends there. From talking with other people, it's definitely a site that's more fun with lots of friends. But how do I find them short of spamming everyone I know with an invitation? One of the great things about the rise of online social network sites like Facebook is that there are capabilities these sites are giving us that we'd never be able to do in real life. Chief among them is to analyze our friend circles. Think about it this way: if Facebook has a list of all your friends and all their friends, then it's straightforward to cross-compare and identify people who are friends with a lot of your friends but not yet friends with you. That's exactly what Facebook Friend Finder does, and while I admit that the majority of the people it shows me are not people I know, every so often a friend or two pops up when I look, friends who surprise me that we aren't already connected. Let me show you how it works, then you can try it and see if it helps you find some of your friends and acquaintances in the Facebook universe. If you're already logged in to Facebook right now, I'm pretty sure you can get directly to the friend finder with this link. Did it work for you? If not, no worries, on your Facebook home page look for the friend finder link on the lower right. It probably looks like this: ![]() but sometimes it shows you 2-3 possible friends and has a small link to "Find more friends" or similar. Either of those should lead you to the Facebook friend finder application: ![]() I scanned through this list and saw my friend Adam Boettiger on the lower left, rather to my surprise as I thought we'd already connected here on Facebook! To request a friend connection, I click on "Add as Friend", which produces a pop-up window: ![]() I believe strongly in adding a personalized message and will tell you that if you want to friend me on Facebook, I rarely accept friend requests without some brief explanation of how we know each other or why you think we should be friends (unless you're a friend already, but even then, it's very much a best practice). You can add one, even just 4-5 words, by clicking on "Add a personal message..." ![]() You can see here that I added a quick, friendly message to Adam, nothing that's too onerous but enough that he'll recall our connection (though I suspect he remembers our friendship anyway). Finally, click on "Add Friend" and you get: ![]() That's it. The friend request has been sent to the other party (Adam, in this case) and hopefully they'll approve it and you'll have added another friend to your Facebook circle. Important Best Practice Suggestion: Some people seem to use friend finder to try and link to everyone that it suggests. I infer this because I get friend requests from people I don't know who omit any personalized message. As I said earlier, I do not link to them and if you're going to use friend finder, I also encourage you to limit your friend requests to either people who have something significant in common with you (alma mater, for example) or are actually your friends or acquaintances. Otherwise it's just spamming and is uncool. And remember, to always, always add a personalized message to explain to the other party how you know them and/or why you think it'd be a good idea to connect. I'd also like to let you know that I have quite a bit of Facebook help here on the site and that I also have an Ask Dave Taylor Facebook Fan Page that I invite you to join.
Categorized:
Facebook Help
(Article 8629,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: building your network, facebook, facebook friends, social networking, spamming Previous: How to remove password protection from a Microsoft Excel worksheet file? Next: How can I count letters in a text file? Subscribe!
Nicely written Dave !! A lot of help for beginners using facebook. Posted by: Steve at December 4, 2008 2:31 PMI do not have the right to add more friends. I have been warned for misusing of features and that my account will be blocked. In fact i was just adding new friends. Regards, Jean Pascal Posted by: Jean Pascal Volbert at January 26, 2009 3:55 AMYes, i don't have anything to say but to wish you good Easter holiday cant find any of my pals and i am really fed up of being lonely ever since i joined facebook. please somebdy...anybody be my friend! Posted by: jade at August 24, 2009 4:52 AMwant to chat with my friends Posted by: kapenauarue tjahuha at November 3, 2009 3:27 AMpleace i need frineds tanks for you help!!, nice guy Posted by: faisal mokammad at April 12, 2010 7:35 PMI would like to be a friend of you for shearing ideas,i m a student of st Augustine university,THEN KS Posted by: mboya at May 14, 2010 10:23 AMi like to talk to my friends. Posted by: wilder at May 24, 2010 5:54 PMi like friendship. Posted by: sahil faryad at June 25, 2010 10:45 AMi only want to meet new friends from england, usa, canada and barbados, i will see where it goes from there Posted by: Hermine Allen at July 3, 2010 3:08 PMi want to friend how the get friend i chat be answear bat not answear how to reply me other replyother not reply how to be respeact to my honor i can not honor to my facebook there not trush how trush to facebook inot hope Posted by: martin at August 2, 2010 6:56 PMi need to find real friends and talk with them Posted by: arezoo at September 14, 2011 12:24 AMI have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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