It is too common that I get into the conversation about how to use Facebook to network with people in and around your industry. It is also too common that my non-digital friends from college and elsewhere tell me that they will never friend anyone on Facebook that they don't already know. I understand that people want to protect themselves and the content within their profile, but since Facebook's release of the "List" feature a while back, I don't accept that "but I don't really know them" answer anymore.
Using Facebook's "Friend Lists" feature, you can accept "random" friend requests and put them in different buckets, which Facebook calls lists. The benefits of adding friends to lists is two-fold:
- You can set limited profile access to all a lists members
- You can message all the people in a list at once.
Why not accept those "random" and "not sure if I know this person" friend requests and put them into different lists that have limited access to your profile. Why not? Who knows who the strange person friending you is, but they could be your next employer, or the person who is going to make you famous (somehow.)
P.S. To control privacy setting for individual "Lists":
- Go to Privacy Settings
- Click on the privacy setting of a category like "basic info"
- Select "Customize"
- Type the name of the Friends List into the "Execpt These People" box.
