Wow, what a week! OK, I’ve had a Facebook account for a few months but I did nothing with it until last week, when I followed the example of John Reese by inviting my “Update” subscribers to add me as a Facebook friend. OK, I can’t match John, who reached his Facebook limit of 5,000 friends in little over a week!

But many subscribers did what I asked, and my li.st of friends is steadily growing.

However - and this is important - it’s not about numbers. It’s about getting to know people better, and communicating with them. I now feel that I know a lot of my subscribers much better.

I’ve also opened up channels of communication with many other people in the internet marketing world, people whom I’ve only previously “known” through their websites and newsletters.

Yes, there are excellent marketing opport’unities in Facebook, but you have to do this discreetly, always remembering that you are dealing with savvy people who are generally pretty intelligent.

It’s been a steep learning curve for me over the past week, but I thought I’d share a few tips that I learnt recently. Remember, though, that these tips come from a “Facebook newbie”, not a “Facebook guru”!

Actively try to build your li.st of friends, but don’t try to invite too many people too quickly. Do just 4 or 5 at a time.

When you invite someone, look at their profile first, and see if you have something in common with them. The, when you invite them always use the “add message” facility to say just a few words about why you want to be added to their friends. And don’t copy and paste the same message for everybody.

If you are looking for people you want to invite as a friend, try groups of people who have something in common with you - such as, in my case, internet marketing. Search the “groups”. Look at your friend’s friends. If it’s someone well-known, use the general search facility.

Visit your Facebook account at least once per day and change your status update regularly (you can insert clickable URLs into this update). Status updates will appear in the profiles of all your friend.

Reply to messages promptly. This includes writing on people’s walls.

Limit your time spent on Facebook or it could become a huge time waster

Now if none of this makes sense to you, then you clearly haven’t got a Facebook account! I strongly suggest that you do. You could well make some very useful contacts there. Visit:

http://www.IanSays.com/Facebook.html

If / when you have a Facebook account, then I’ll repeat the invitation I extended in last week’s “Update” - to add me as one of your Facebook friends:

1) Log in to your account

2) Next, with your Facebook account still open, view my profile at:

http://www.IanSays.com/Facebook.html

3) Hit the “Add to friends” link on the right hand side of the panel. And please leave a message when you do this, so that I know that you are one of my subscribers. I should have asked you last week to do that. I know better now

See you inside - and I’m still working on how I can share unique information just with my Facebook friends.

Oh, and this does not mean that I will be neglecting my select group of “Special Subscribers” - I’ve been adding stuff to their private area during the past week. If you’re not yet one of my Special Subscribers, you’ll find details in the Download Library.