Do you remember Don Adams in the Emmy-winning TV comedy series, Get Smart? Barbara Feldon was
Agent 99--a tall, attractive female agent whose appearance was useful in many undercover operations. Agent 99 was more competent than Maxwell Smart, but Max saves her life in several episodes. I loved the Agent 99 character and my new 500th friend on Facebook reminds me of Agent 99. It could be just the dark hair, but my new friend does look like a star too! I am going to call her friend 500, Theresa Pennisi from the greater NYC area, aspiring actress/model.
I am a 50-something More reader and am finding my way in cyberspace through Social Media. I have started communicating with members of the More.com community and have found some very interesting discussion groups. I joined the fan page for More magazine and watched engagement of facebook friends in commenting on articles published by the magazine.
One of the ways I have found to keep my friends organic in building my friend base on Facebook is to watch how different people express themselves in discussion groups and on posts in a specific community or with existing friends. If I like how the individual responds to a specific post or article I will send them a friend request and let them know why I am asking them to be a friend. I describe the post they commented on and tell them why I liked it and then ask them to consider friending me on Facebook.
It sounds kind of weird, like lurking around in cyberspace stalking someone before friending them. I think of it as due diligence and doing your research before friending. Social Networking allows you to find people to communicate with in a short period of time and decide if you really want to be friends. By reading a person's profile you can see their work history, education, what books they like to read and movies they like to watch. By exploring their background information, looking at their pictures and reading their friend comments you can ascertain who a person is and how they respond to different topics posted for discussion. In a limited amount of time, it is possible to have a new world of connections.
Many readers tying to "reinvent" themselves can find this to be a lifesaver in making new connections when trying to walk away from a chapter in life that has closed. When I first started on Facebook I was mortified to have the screen say "Carra has NO friends." I called the few people I knew on Facebook and told them I was creating a Facebook profile and would they please friend me right away. The process worked and the first day I had 11 friends, so I felt good. I wasn't a complete loser in cyberspace.
I navigated through my e-mail address book, getting old friends and then when I connected with that specific friend I looked at their friends and hijacked people I knew. The process went smoothly and I started creating my own friendship group. I wanted to expand my sphere of influence so I ventured out from the sales industry group I had associated with for 30 years and started to connect with some writers, publishers, motivational speakers and social media gurus.
To find different types of friends, I needed to participate in niche social networks. One of the communities I enjoy is the discussion groups at More.com. There is healthy engagement going on every topic you can think of and an enormous sense of diversity. If you don't see a group talking about something that interests you, the forum allows you to start a discussion group and go where ever you want on topics you are interested in. I joined the fan page for More Magazine on Facebook and would read the links they posted to articles in the hard copy magazine. I watched the responses being posted to different topics and could see some conversation getting heated on an article about acting your age.
Friend 500 had this to say about the age article.
