This question came up recently when a client asked about ‘friending’ on Facebook.

Do these situations sound familiar..?

• You regularly use your Facebook business page to make connections and build buzz around your business, products and services (gold star!)
• You’re a member of several groups on Facebook and network through them to find leads and joint ventures
• You want a Facebook business page but the thought of being exposed personally on Facebook turns your stomach

Chances are then that you get lots of Facebook friend requests too, or you’re worried that you will…

The question is: what do you do with them?

Some Facebookers are trigger-happy with their friend requests and collect as many as possible – anything goes! (Which is totally cool, as long as it works for them).

But you may not consider these just-met business acquaintances and clients to be friends yet, and you’re not quite ready to show them your holiday snaps.

At some point they may become great friends (which is often the case when you’re networking with like-minded entrepreneurial types using social media) – many of my very best buddies I’ve met online.

Others want to keep their personal profile private – just for their closest friends and relatives. (This is also cool and everyone on Facebook respects this if it applies to you).

And then you have the in-betweeners who wait a little before making a commitment. (This is what I do).

Wherever you sit in this mix you probably don’t want to cause offense by snubbing anyone, so here’s a few ideas to help you figure this thing out…

Decide…

1. How do you want to use your personal profile?

The important thing is that YOU’RE comfortable with your decision – don’t feel pressured into thinking that there’s a right or wrong way. It’s your account, you decide.

2. How are you going to approach inevitable friend requests?

Make a plan and stick to it:

• Will you accept them willingly and neatly filter them into a list so they don’t get lost in a big ol’ jumble? (Ok…please humour me – y’know I’m a neat freak but Facebook lists are AMAZING!)

Once you’ve made the decision, you can spend less time stressing over it and more time nurturing connections, while cultivating genuine page likes too.

Inside my Facebook Likes To Quality Leads self study training, there are loads of top tips and strategies you can apply to turn those page Likes into hot prospects and clients. They’re quick, simple to apply and will have your page ready to generate genuine leads for your business in just one day.

One more thing…

Whatever you decide, avoid potential sticky situations and don’t delete your pending friend requests! You never know who you might become friends with in the future… (Psst…this applies to LinkedIn business contacts too).

Over to you:

So what’s your approach to accepting friend requests on Facebook? Share your thoughts in the comment section below so we can learn from your experience!