Friending & Following in Social Media

What It Is

If sharing is the active part of social media, friending and following are the passive parts. The terms “friending” and “following” refer to the act of joining another person’s or business’s social media network. Once you friend or follow another entity in a social media channel like Facebook or Twitter you are connected to them within that channel. Usually, you’ll see the content and notifications posted by your friends and/or followers when you’re logged in to your social media account. Although the terms are somewhat interchangeable, there’s one important difference: “friending” is always reciprocal; “following” is not. In other words, if you successfully friend someone, they automatically friend you. If you follow someone, they don’t necessarily have to follow you.

What It Does

Often, businesses focus solely on attracting friends and followers via social media, but there’s much to be gained from strategically friending and following others as well. You can learn a lot from friending and following other people or businesses in your industry—or in parallel industries. Networking via social media is becoming increasingly important both for individuals and businesses, and you can indirectly generate leads and sales with the insights and connections you gain by friending and following.

What To Use It With

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Blogs
• Flickr
• Foursquare