Manage ‘Friend’ Requests

When Facebook ‘suggests’ you as a friend, or a potential Business Associate that you don’t know personally sends a Facebook Friend Requests, here is a way to Attempt to redirect them to Page Followers out of Friend Requests to your Business Profile:

Go to the requesting person’s profile by clicking on their name in the Friend Request notification window.
Here is a link that will get you to this window: https://www.facebook.com/friends

Once you click on their profile page, you will have the option of sending a ‘message’. Send them a friendly note:

• clarifying that you would like them to join you on your Business Page, you could suggest that your Facebook Profile is getting full and/or you are migrating it to family-only – but I prefer a less wordy approach (see below).
• INCLUDE YOUR FB PAGE ADDRESS. Include the entire URL so that it will be a hot link and FB will place the preview image of your Page. In the message. You will know you did it correctly if the cover photo from your FB Page automatically populates the message.
• Hit Send.

Now go back to the friend request and hit the Delete button.

This does two things:

• Opens the door for communication. Now they can send you a note on Messenger without it being put in that ‘other’ box.
• Converts their friend request to a follower instead as long as your profile is setup this way.
  • If you let people who aren’t your friends follow you, people who send friend requests that you ignore or delete will automatically start following your PUBLIC posts. This is ok, of course – anyone can see your public posts anyway. And it might help them see those sprinklings of ‘follow my page’ posts that you are doing on a monthly basis.

Remember, if you don’t want someone to follow you, you can block them at any time.

Here is a sample note that I have used:

Hello! Thank you for your Facebook friend request! Before accepting a friend request on my personal profile, I first like to get to know the person a little better.

To start, let’s connect on my public Facebook ART page (or group): https://www.facebook.com/gelprinting/, or my public TECH consulting page: https://www.facebook.com/techgeekery/

Notes: whichever page/groups is listed first will be the one that shows up in the preview window graphic and is more likely to be clicked

Are we a professional connection? I also have a profile on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-lynn-macdonald

My YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/c/SallyLynnMacDonald

Thanks again for reaching out and I look forward to connecting with you!
Sally Lynn MacDonald

fb.com/book/techgeekery

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