What is the limit of friends on Facebook
I immediately got critical, telling her that she should be using her page for crying out loud! Those 5,000 friends aren’t actually her friends, and she should be using Facebook to promote her business properly. (Research shows that we can really only handle 150 actual friends, so 5,000 is pretty excessive.)
I was wrong, though. See, they’re not looking to engage with her business. They’re looking to engage with her, as a person, and she wants to engage with them. And she’s not alone.
She’s pretty well known as an expert in her industry; an opinion leader. Each industry, issue, interest and ideology has its own opinion leaders. They are change agents and active media users. Opinion leaders engage with the media where their ideas are spread to the wider world of those who care about the industry, issue, interest or ideology. She helps filter ideas and information about her specific industry – with passion and unsurpassed dedication in both her personal and professional life.
Becoming a “fan” of her business’s page on Facebook doesn’t provide that degree of personal connection or level of influence.
The restriction on ‘friendships’ completely devalues the importance of the personal relationships we build with our clients, customers and colleagues.
Now, does my client want to see status updates and personal photos of those 5,000 friends? Definitely not. But she does love to see their posts about their professional lives – their travels, their problems and solutions, their suggestions to their friends. She’s an entrepreneur – and like any entrepreneur, the lines between “personal” (Facebook’s Profile) and “professional” (Facebook’s Page) are very, very blurry.
When Facebook Says You Have Too Many Friends
A client recently contacted us to design a cover photo for her personal Facebook profile. She’d reached her 5,000 friend limit on Facebook, but wanted visitors to know that they could use the ‘Subscribe’ function to keep up with her posts.I immediately got critical, telling her that she should be using her page for crying out loud! Those 5,000 friends aren’t actually her friends, and she should be using Facebook to promote her business properly. (Research shows that we can really only handle 150 actual friends, so 5,000 is pretty excessive.)
I was wrong, though. See, they’re not looking to engage with her business. They’re looking to engage with her, as a person, and she wants to engage with them. And she’s not alone.
She’s pretty well known as an expert in her industry; an opinion leader. Each industry, issue, interest and ideology has its own opinion leaders. They are change agents and active media users. Opinion leaders engage with the media where their ideas are spread to the wider world of those who care about the industry, issue, interest or ideology. She helps filter ideas and information about her specific industry – with passion and unsurpassed dedication in both her personal and professional life.
Becoming a “fan” of her business’s page on Facebook doesn’t provide that degree of personal connection or level of influence.
The restriction on ‘friendships’ completely devalues the importance of the personal relationships we build with our clients, customers and colleagues.
Now, does my client want to see status updates and personal photos of those 5,000 friends? Definitely not. But she does love to see their posts about their professional lives – their travels, their problems and solutions, their suggestions to their friends. She’s an entrepreneur – and like any entrepreneur, the lines between “personal” (Facebook’s Profile) and “professional” (Facebook’s Page) are very, very blurry.
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With the new filtering and list making capabilities, she’s able to filterwhat she does and doesn’t want to see: it’s her choice. She enjoys commenting occasionally and getting involved in relevant discussions. She thrives on the strong community in her industry, and she’s not alone.