How to Clean Up Your Facebook Friends List

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Jan 15, 2011 in Entrepreneurism | 1 comment

Today on the Your Partner In Success Radio Show I had the opportunity to interview Diane Conklin who  is an internationally known marketing and business strategist. We talked a LOT about Twitter and Facebook and I was delighted to learn a few new tips and tricks from her about Twitter marketing for brick-and-mortar businesses. You will have to listen to the show to hear them!

One Facebook tip that I shared with our audience is how I clean out my Facebook friend list. It is a lot easier than you would think to hit that 5,000 friend limit and once you are there, you have no option but to either remove “friends” or create a Fan Page. So here is how I handle it.

Each day when I login to my Facebook profile I go to my home page and click on the birthdays for that day. By visiting each page listed I have the opportunity to see if this is really a connection that makes sense or if it was somebody that I accepted just because they asked way back in the day when I was first building up my Facebook presence. If that person is somebody that I am connected with at some level and who is active in my FB community, I wish them a very Happy Birthday and then go to the next page. If the next person is somebody that I have never connected with in all my years on FB, or who is using their page largely for personal connections or playing games like Farmville or Mafia Wars, I unfriend them and free up space for people who will have more in common with my business goals. Now before you start yelling at me, I see nothing at all wrong with playing games on Facebook if that is what you enjoy, but I am there for business, so my focus has to stay on social networking. The truth is, that when you have 5,000 connections on FB there are simply going to be some that don’t meet your networking criteria. Mentally wish them well and move on.