You have a friend suggestion!

Since I joined Facebook in July last year, one of my favorite third party apps has been Introduce Me. With the click of a button, I can introduce two friends who I believe should meet for specific reasons, typically business-related.

However, now there’s a new feature from Facebook: Friend Suggestion.

Here’s how it works:

How do I suggest a friend to someone?

• After you confirm a friend request from a new user, you can suggest to your friends that they also send a friend request to the user.

• Clicking “Suggest friends that [Name] may know” will bring up a window of all of your confirmed friends.
• You can use the search bar to find a particular person, filter all of your friends by network or simply scroll through your complete friends list.
• Clicking a friend’s picture will add them to the “Selected” tab.

• Once you’ve made all of your selections, click “Send Suggestions” to send a suggestion to each user that they add the new user as a friend.
• The suggestions will appear on your friends’ home pages, and will allow them to quickly send a friend request to the new user.
• Please take note that you currently cannot suggest friends for users who have been on Facebook for some time.

I’m a tad disappointed at this last point about not being able to suggest friends retroactively. This feature only applies to NEW Facebook users. Still, I can just use the Introduce Me app for “old” Facebook members! (Though I believe the introduced parties have to install the app. Bah.)

So, what do you think? “So-and-so is new on Facebook. To welcome him/her… suggest friends that he/she may know.” Is that really to help new users get started on Facebook… so they keep using it and get excited about it and don’t leave? 😉

I do recommend writing a warm greeting on new friends’ Walls. Look for something in their Profile that you can make a positive comment about. Often the person will respond back and you can begin a new personal or professional relationship that way.

Mari Smith

Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is widely known as the Premier Facebook Marketing Expert and a top Social Media Thought Leader. Forbes describes Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” IBM named Mari as one of seven women that are shaping digital marketing. Mari is an in-demand keynote speaker, corporate social media strategist, dynamic live webcast host, and popular brand ambassador. She is coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, and author of The New Relationship Marketing.

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