FaceBook Friend List Sham!

I just posted on my FaceBook status the question asking who knows the woman above.  Why, because she knows the oddest cross section of my friends I’ve ever seen.  How does she know my former pastor from Virginia, a MySpace friend I have been connecting with for over 3 years, a new client and my daughter’s music teacher, who all don’t know each other exist?  At first I thought she must be a celebrity that I didn’t know.  I googled her, but nothing, then it dawned on me, the FaceBook Friend List Sham!

The Sham is where people “friend” someone because they think he or she is a friend’s friend but in actuality no one knows the person at all.  In the end you find out someone just went through your friend list requesting friendships.  Is it bad?  I don’t know.  Most of the times, I think these people are marketers (which I saw dead on as her only fan page was a MLM Cruise page) and they are using the site to market something (There is nothing wrong with “marketing’ online -everyone is “selling” something-you just need to be social and relational about it).  I do know people who see these types as part of a more sinister plot of home robbers or information thieves that are looking for an opportunity to do harm.

I am a Social Media Consultant so I friend a lot of folks on FaceBook that I do not personally know.  But I do have the following qualifiers to friend someone on FaceBook:

• The person needs to be a real person.  Not a site or a front for some unspoken organization. Of course I am friends with a couple of mascots on FaceBook but I know the organizations behind those. “Real” to me  can answer yes to the following questions:
  • Does the person comment, contribute content  or return messages?
  • Do they have more than one picture that actually shows them?
  • Do they have a more than one interest in fan pages and groups
• I need to have a real connection with the person in some manner, either they are a “friend” from another Social Media site, account, project or a  real person’s friend in which I have contact .  Also I often friend those that are in the same business or support the same non-profits that I do.

I suggest you come up with your qualifiers for “friend-ing” people  or fanning pages.  Also  give yourself privacy on FaceBook if you have reservations that people may have a sinister plot or just want to be overbearing marketers.