Making the most of a Facebook add

When you connect with someone you don’t already know on Facebook, do you reach out to introduce yourself? Or are you just happy you’ve added another contact to your growing list of friends?

I have to admit I don’t do a great job of managing my virtual network. I’d like to, but it just seems like there’s not enough time to juggle work, my “in person” network, and my virtual network. But a recent Facebook “add” gave me some much needed inspiration.

After another typical friend request/add, I received an email with the subject line “Thanks for the add!” That was great. Who doesn’t like to be thanked? And, although subtle, the exclamation point showed signs of enthusiasm. If I learned one thing from watching hours of infomercials growing up, exclamation points mean I should pay attention. So I read on.

Even though after a sentence or two I was pretty sure the email had been repurposed a few times before, to his credit he did mention a connection to a community of bloggers of which I’ve written a few guest posts. So I was happy to see the email wasn’t completely impersonal.

His email also went on to tell me a little bit about his background. I found this very helpful—it was a concise positioning statement. He was straight and to the point. He works in the financial services industry and is also an author and a speaker.

Now, many (most) networkers would stop there. But here’s where he went for the hook. He asked me to respond with a quick note about my line of work. Who could turn down a chance to talk about what they do? Not me.

I’m not sure if anything more will come of the new addition to my circle of Facebook friends, but I’ve already shared his approach as a best practice to a group of undergrads during a recent presentation.

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