Ever wonder what to do when a business acquaintance sends you a friend request on Facebook? Many people limit their Facebook friends to people who are actually their personal friends in real life. So they simply ignore and deny friend requests from business acquaintances.
However, I have been noticing that more and more of the folks I know through business use Facebook as a way to communicate about matters related to business. For example, a client who is a friend on Facebook used a Facebook message to introduce me to a potential client. So, I have decided to accept most of the friend requests I receive from people I have met through business, even if some of them are more “acquaintances” than “friends.”
That said, I don’t necessarily want to share some of the more personal things I post for my actual friends and family with these business acquaintances. Luckily, Facebook settings come can help you differentiate between your actual friends and those Facebook friends who are merely acquaintances.
Friends Who Aren’t Really Friends: Facebook Acquaintances
- Review all your Facebook friends and determine which ones are acquaintances or people you know through business rather than actual friends.
- To do this, click on the Friends tab on your personal page. For those you want to put in the “Acquaintance” status, just hover over the arrow to the right of the box that says “Friends,” and click on the word “Acquaintance.”
- Now, the next time you post an update on Facebook, you can select the option “Friends; Except Acquaintances” as the audience that will see your update.
- The audience selection option is to the left of the blue Post button.
- Just click on the little drop down arrow to find it. If it’s not immediately visible, click on “More Options” to access it.
- Keep in mind that the next time you do an update, only this same audience will see it. If you have something you want everyone to see, simply switch the audience to Public (or you might prefer Friends), but don’t forget to switch back to “Friends; Except Acquaintances” if your next update is more personal in nature.
- And if you don’t want acquaintances to be able to use your Facebook friends list as a potential client pool, go back to the Friends tab on your personal page and click on the pencil icon to the right of the Find Friends button.
- Now click on Manage, then Edit Privacy.
- Select “Friends; Except Acquaintances” and those will be the only connections who can see the list of your Facebook friends.
- If you group your photos into albums in the Photos section of your Facebook account, you can also select the “Friends; Except Acquaintances” option to determine see which photos. But, you can’t select an audience for photos that aren’t in albums. All you can do is hide them from your timeline if you don’t want others to see them.
How About You?
How do you respond when a business acquaintance sends you a friend request on Facebook? Have you changed the audience for some of your updates? If you do become Facebook friends with business connections, how much of your personal life do you share with them?
About Joyce
Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.
She works with business owners, business development professionals, leaders of nonprofit organizations, job seekers, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.
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