Professional networking on Facebook is indeed a tricky thing. If you ONLY add people who you know, you’re limiting the obvious potential to grow your list of trustworthy business contacts. If you say yes to every Friend Request you receive, you could end up giving unsavory characters access to your friends and relatives, your children, your home, etc. Or, maybe you wind up with a computer virus from one of those “fake” profiles.

Here’s my advice to those who want to meet new, quality people on Facebook while avoiding trolls, harassers, hackers and weirdos.

When to Ignore the Friend Request

If you suspect or know the Profile Picture is a fake one.

How would you be able to tell this? Well, I actually had a woman friend request me, and I know for a fact that her photo was a stock photography image. I recognized her from istockphoto.com - and I think I had even used her picture in a blog post for one of my clients!

Granted, there could be a real person behind the stock photo, and maybe they’re completely nice - just want to keep their identity private for reasons I state above. But I don’t know that. So until I find evidence confirming that other people who I trust know this person and have done business with them, I’m going to steer clear. You might opt to take the risk, but if someone is hiding — one must ask why?

If you’re female, and the man who has Friend Requested you ONLY has other women on his list - and there are hundreds of them.

This JUST happened to me. I got a Friend Request from a man I didn’t know, took a look at his profile, saw that he had more than 600 women on his list, and promptly declined the offer. This just seems very suspicious to me. Even if he’s simply a nice man who enjoys looking at women — where is the evidence of him being a balanced and well adjusted human being? “Normal” people have friends of both sexes, some even have family members attached to their Facebook profiles. It is just safer for a woman to avoid a person like that — and shame on this man’s collection of 600+ women for not noticing or caring!

If the name and picture on the profile is just a branding message.

I think some people who have a branding message as their profile name might be “okay.” You might click “Accept” to learn that there’s a real girl or guy behind it all, and he or she just got a little carried away with the branding. But if you’re screening potential friends, I would be cautious about this. I got a Friend Request from someone who is evidently in real estate. His or her profile photo was of a house, not a face, and his “name” was “DreamHome” or something like that. Doesn’t seem like he’s ready to be genuine about who he is. If I want to go house shopping, I can visit Google, so… this person doesn’t get added to my list.

If the profile is riddled with MLM.

If the only thing you have to say is that you’re selling Acacia miracle beverages, I’ll move along, thanks.

Popularity: 27% [?]

David Bohl of SlowDownFast.com has done something cool with his blog. He took the “25 Things About Me” meme from Facebook and turned it into a blog post, then invited people to participate by adding their “25 things” to the comments section.

I posted to his blog, but I thought I would also publish here and invite you to do the same:

25 Things About Dina at Wordfeeder.com:

1. I went nameless for a little longer than most babies. At the hospital, they tagged me “Baby Giolitto” until my parents were flipping through a magazine, saw an article on Dina Merrill, and decided that was going to be my name. Not the Merrill, just the Dina.

2. I love what I do - write advertising copy, web content and marketing materials. I’ve known that I wanted to be in advertising since age 9 when I used to edit Hammecher-Schlemmer catalogs “for fun.” My copywriting website is at http://wordfeeder.com in case you wanted to know.

3. I’m a late bloomer. I was always smaller and looked younger than everyone else. I didn’t get my first kiss until I was seventeen!

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Popularity: 44% [?]

by Dina Giolitto

Some of us simply don’t want to spend the money on a professional photo shoot for our websites and social networking profiles. Besides… with digital cameras offering such high image quality these days, with a little extra effort you can get results that are just as impressive as if you paid top dollar for a photographer.

Some tips for ensuring that you’re shown in your best light:

1. Wait until the afternoon to take your photo.

There are a couple of reasons for this. One, we typically retain water during our sleep, which is why we look “puffier” first thing in the morning, especially around the eyes. To get rid of the excess fluid, avoid high sodium foods for the rest of the day. Hydrate your body with plenty of liquids. You might try flushing your system with unsweetened cranberry juice, water with a squeeze of lemon, or green tea. Keep drinking, and by 2 p.m. or so your face will show the results.

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Popularity: 63% [?]

I don’t know about you, but I resisted setting up a profile on Facebook for the longest time. I mean, who has time for such frivolous activities?

Not to mention, I had tried setting up a page for Wordfeeder.com on Myspace - but I found that something was decidedly missing. “Thanks for the add! Thanks for the add!” (Okay, now what?)

I finally caved in and started using Facebook about a month ago. And I must confess, the mere act of “getting back in touch” with people has resulted in a few copywriting gigs that may not have materialized otherwise.

Facebook IS different than Myspace. The best way for you to find out how different, is obviously to stop reading this and start using it. But in case you need more convincing, let me share with you some things you can do to promote interest in YOU and what you do.

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Popularity: 43% [?]

Since we’re all about breakfast over here at EntrepreneursBreakfast.com, I thought I’d let you know about one entrepreneur who’s serving up something tasty for business owners.

Leesa Barnes the Podcasting Diva is hosting a Podcasting for Breakfast Seminar at a city near you. The event includes:

- 2 hours of live instruction on how to make money using a podcast
- Leesa’s self-authored Podcasting for Profit Book and handouts
- A savory continental breakfast
- And much more!

Fresh, hot and tasty… that’s how we like our marketing at Wordfeeder.com and that’s what Leesa Barnes is dishing up at a major city near you.

To find out more about Podcasting for Breakfast with Leesa Barnes, go here.

Leesa is someone who I have known in an “around the internet business scene” kind of way for several years now, so it’s cool to watch her taking her gig on the road. She has no idea I wrote this and I am not an affiliate of her program and have no intention of becoming one.

(Lately I’m getting this oogy feeling about affiliate programs - as though being involved with one implies that you’re just in it for the money and not because you believe the product can deliver real value.)

I know Leesa and I believe she’s doing a bangup job teaching the internet world about podcasting. You have my word on her worth - no affiliate fees attached.

- Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

Popularity: 61% [?]

Facebook, Ryze, LinkedIn, Myspace… what’s the point?

Can social networking REALLY work to get you clients? Or is this just a way for wily webmasters to bring hits and attention to THEIR websites, so they can pull in more ad and membership revenues?

Last week, a fairly new copywriting client asked me the above question. Then he said to me, “I emailed you to work on my project because I remembered you from Ryze.”

I was active on Ryze… oh, three years ago? And yet this person remembered me after three years, sought me out, and here we are doing a website project together.

This is not the first time I’ve gained a new client due to having “put in my time” on the social networks.

In my humble opinion and experience, I would say that the more of a standout social networking experience you create, and the more you put into making your profiles professional… the more thought you give to creating posts that add value and meaning to others’ professional lives… the more you’ll get out of social networking.

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Popularity: 84% [?]