How do I invite a friend to join me on Facebook?

I want to start getting into the habit of inviting people I meet at conferences to join me on Facebook. Is there an easy way to do that?

Dave's Answer:

That's a superb strategy. Let me say that first off. In fact, my approach to meeting people is a slight variation on that: I use LinkedIn to memorialize the connections I make at conferences, workshops and seminars. My logic is two-fold. First, it helps me remember who I met and gains me some level of access to their network of friends and colleagues, and second, it also demonstrates to them that I walk my talk: that I really do put a lot of effort into social networking. As my Mum would say, the proof's in the pudding, though I'm not really entirely sure what that means!

Like most of the big social networks now, Facebook makes it pretty darn easy to invite someone to join you or connect to you or link to you (pick your favorite metaphor).

At this point, you get to a very simple and straightforward friend invitation entry box:

Facebook: Invite Friends: Invitation Compose Window

As you can see, I filled in a personal message to Greg Cohn, a colleague at Yahoo with whom I hope to soon have a connection on Facebook. You don't have to put in a personal message but I can't emphasize enough that invitations with personal messages are far more likely to be successful. I think this is even doubly-so after a major conference like Blogworld Expo or similar since they might be inundated with invitations. If they don't know who you are, they might just axe your invite.

Click "Invite" when you're ready and you'll get a quick confirmation:

As you can see - and as is no surprise at all - Greg is already on Facebook. That's okay, the invitation magically turns into a "let's connect" rather than a "you should join Facebook to connect" invitation.

That's all there is to it.

Want to learn more about Facebook? I have lots of Facebook Help here, and you can also find me on Facebook too (and practice sending invitations by sending me a personalized invite if you'd like.

That's not all! I also have a Facebook Fan Page that I invite you to join too!

Categorized: Facebook Help (Article 8122, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: facebook, linkedin, social networking
Previous: Copy Google Calendar events from one calendar to another?
Next: How do I create custom Microsoft Word templates?

Subscribe!

Never miss another Q&A article! Click to subscribe:

Comments

"the proof's in the pudding" is shortened from "the proof of the pudding is in the eating" :-)

Posted by: jeffrey at June 12, 2008 3:11 PM

I want to invite a friend that I could see is on facebook but I don't have their email address. I tried just to invite a friend but it wants me to type a code in. I don't have a code and can't see the code to type in

Posted by: Gail Page at February 26, 2009 6:26 PM

Hi i'm 16 years old

Posted by: Naagii at September 19, 2009 4:23 AM

Posted by: Salah at January 10, 2010 2:12 PM

Since they changed Facebook, there isn't a Friends menu and I can't figure out how to invite friends. Would you be willing to reply to this comment to tell me if you've figured out how to invite new people via their email address like we use dto be able to do?

Posted by: Wendee Holtcamp at March 10, 2010 8:14 AM

This info is for the old interface. Please could you update it to the new one?

Posted by: old school at March 10, 2010 8:41 PM

i log in to facebook and it reply that another person has use my mail am just tried pls help me do itb am expecting

Posted by: awolesi at April 13, 2010 11:47 AM

Here is an invite control for Facebook iFrame applications and Facebook Connect web sites. Implementaition is for ASP.NET in C# and VB.NET:
http://vatlab.com/asp-net-facebook-controls/invite-friends

Posted by: vatlab at June 6, 2010 12:37 PM

You need to update your answer - you now need to click on Friends - then edit friends - then invite a freind. And the photos of the views also need to be updated.

Posted by: Ted at March 21, 2011 11:17 PM

How do I join up my husband on facebook when he has the same email address as me?

Posted by: Lesley at May 3, 2011 10:20 AM

Lesley, sorry to report that you need a different address for your husband so you can sign up for different accounts on Facebook. Check out Yahoo.com or Gmail.com - both are free.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at May 3, 2011 11:40 AM

I want to invite someone as a friend and the advice that is on your link, is outdated, as the FB page looks totally different now.
How do I invite someone? Why is it so difficult? Is it because I am from the previous generation or what? It is frustrating.
Regards.
Johann de Kock.

Posted by: Johann at September 25, 2011 1:38 AM

I don't know why they removed the memu for friend's invitation. the following worked for me.
https://www.facebook.com/invite.php
(as of 2011/Oct/21)

Posted by: fbinvite at October 21, 2011 12:59 AM

One of us must be using an old version of Facebook. There are no listins at the top of the home page that match the directions in this answer. Drives me nuts when it either doesn't match the current version (and isn't deleted whent he version updates) or they start one or two menus into the steps.

Posted by: Allen at October 30, 2011 9:50 AM

Allen, you're right. This feature seems to have been removed from the latest version of Facebook. What I do instead now is use my shortened Facebook URL and just send a regular email instead. Don't know yours? Just go to http://www.facebook.com/username and it'll show you what you've set or, if you don't have a custom URL yet, tell you how to set it. Just be careful: you can't change it once set.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at November 7, 2011 5:57 PM

thanks for the information you include, I'll try to invite friends myself following your steps.
yours,
18th of Dec.

Posted by: asma at December 19, 2011 3:02 PM

Go to:
http://www.facebook.com/invite.php

Posted by: Spg at January 24, 2012 11:32 AM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!