Facebook Friends and Business Networking: Friend is a Dirty Word

What do you share with your Facebook friends?

The endless invites to participate in Mafia Wars, to feed lonely sheep on the Farm or to taste someone’s new chocolates in their cafe are fun for the participants, but off-putting to the rest of us.

But it’s just Facebook, right? We should enjoy our little diversions.

Just keep it to yourself.

As more and more people use Facebook for business networking, along with LinkedIn, Twitter, and a hundred other social networks, the lines we used to draw between our business lives and our personal lives are getting increasingly blurred.

And calling everyone a “friend” doesn’t help.

It seems innocuous to send that funny video to all of your “friends.” Or to invite all your “friends” to your Halloween party. Or to invite all your “friends” to join the Mafia, about once a week.

It’s important to know if all of your Facebook “friends” are really your friends.

If some of your “friends” are truly your business network –  contacts, colleagues, and people you’ve met that can advance your professional goals, constant notices are pushy. They’re intrusive. And they will turn people off.

If you want to use social media for good, you don’t want to push. You want to create pull.

You want to be interesting, compelling, welcoming. You want to create a place where people can hang out, and get comfortable.

You don’t want anything to get in the way of that. Like Mafia Wars.

Don’t spam your network — or your friends.

Instead, check out some best practices on using Facebook for business networking, and do a critical self-assessment on whether your Facebook use will help you achieve your professional goals, or just get in your way.

For an exclamation point, I give you this video from Scott Stratten of UnMarketing. It’s genius, in no small part because he’s a little off-key.

photo credit Balakov via flickr

Related posts:

1. 5 reasons to friend your network on Facebook
2. Trust and Networking: 3 Keys to a Business Network that Works
3. Break out of LinkedIn: Using Facebook for Professional Networking
4. Networking barrier-busters: 4 keys to productive networking
5. Business networking: Stop being nice and start being successful

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