20-40-60 Etiquette---I thought we were (Facebook) friends?

YOU ASK! WE ANSWER! YOU DECIDE!

By Callie Gordon and Lillie-Beth Brinkman and Helen Ford Wallace

QUESTION: Recently, I have had several acquaintances and people “friend” me on Facebook. It seemed nice and social. Yet it was not long before the real reason for the friend request emerged — relational marketing.

The posts included requests to try products, posts directed about what cool items they sell or promotional messages about specials that are available in their store. How can I diplomatically navigate through these social media waters and avoid the endless sales pitches?

CALLIE’S ANSWER: Choose your friends wisely? Or, there are certain people you can “hide” from you to not see their information.

LILLIE-BETH’S ANSWER: Facebook provides all of us a good way to connect, including those who are trying to market a business. After all, word about a business often spreads through friends anyway, or at least starts in that network, and social media provides a great forum to let people know about it.

But if it bothers you, you don’t have to clutter your Facebook news feed with promotional posts. If you don’t want to unfriend the person, hide the updates. Facebook changes the way to do this regularly, but here are two ways that work currently:

1. Go to the person’s Facebook profile and select the gear wheel on the right-hand side just below the cover photo. You will see an option to report/block the friend, a choice that will give you another option to “unsubscribe from (friend’s name).” You will then prevent any of that person’s updates (even the non-business-related ones) from showing up in your timeline but you will still be Facebook friends and you can visit their profile anytime.