Three Ways to Make a Social Media Frenemy
Facebook Frenemy: Someone who is your Facebook friend, but you no longer want them to be.
You’re too polite to unfriend them, but they’ve done something to offend, upset, annoy, or disturb you.
Welcome to the world of social media. A new platform on which many people communicate. The problem? Many people who use it fail to see why they’ve created such a gap between the people they used to think of as their friends.
Friend: "I saw Sammy the other day and he told me about his graduation. I knew he was graduating because I followed him on social media and had liked his posts. Because of this, I was able to give him a nice card to congratulate him." This is an example of a friend that you follow and you are actively involved in their life.
Frenemy: "I talked to Miranda and she told me that she just moved across town. I didn’t know this, because I don't know Miranda well and I unfollowed her posts 2 yrs ago, because of the endless posts of her addiction of FarmVille." This is an example of a distant past acquaintance that has become piled into my friends list but never in my newsfeed.
There are some obvious reasons for a person becoming a frenemy like being rude, posting about politics, contrary views or beliefs, publicly exposing their friends faults or even their own, but these reasons I'm about to list might not have been so obvious.
Top 3 reasons I have Social Media Frenemies:
No discretion- this friend puts out constant posts with rantings, cursing, or yelling at random unnamed persons.
Facebook is not your platform for airing out your relationship issues. We’ve all been hurt before but it doesn’t fix anything to post it on your wall for all your friends to see. Chances are your unnamed friend that you’re ranting about has already frenemied you.
Tip:
If you’re upset or angry with a particular person, private message them, call them, or meet them and discuss your issues on a personal level. I know it’s primitive, but that’s how humans used to deal.
The Ghost- we’ve all been there before. You were texting/messaging a friend then all of the sudden they drop the ball of conversation-never to return. It usually ends with a question hanging out there in outer space. It goes like this:
Me: I’m free on Friday. If you want we could meet for coffee or lunch?
Friend: ........... and nothing.
Hours, days, and weeks go by and they never respond. I see them later and it's always awkward. These thoughts start to repeat themselves over and over in my head. "Do I ask them if they got my message?" "Did they ignore me because I crossed the line with personal questions or invitations?" " Did they just never see my last message?"
This is how social media miscommunication happens. One of these mishaps can usually be overlooked, but when it happens more than once, frenemy is just around the corner. It might not have meant to be personal but it hurts to be repeatedly ignored.
Tips:
If you’re messaging someone and you can’t answer right away, make a note to respond as soon as you can. It’s more rude to not respond then to respond and say no to a request.
Another way to avoid ghosting someone is to open your last conversations on messenger to make sure you didn’t miss any last replies.
Glitches do happen and sometimes, for whatever reason, messages don't get delivered. Just make sure that you are doing everything you can to prevent ghosting your friends intentionally.
Unrelenting advertising- if you’re my friend and a direct sales person, I am all for you doing that. I don’t mind seeing you post a few posts a day about your product. But, if you only friended me, just to sell me your products, please do me a favor and unfriend me now. It’s bad enough that Facebook has it's own commercials pouring into my newsfeed, without being bombarded with constant adverts from people I have no connection with.
To my friends: you start to overdo it, and oversell yourself when you start posting every hour of every day. People have limits, and chances are, if you continue in the incessant advertising scheme you will make frenemies soon.
Tips to consider:
Put links to your page on any mentions or memes you put out about your product. Make your product easily available and accessible to your customers. Nobody likes the secrety secret sales person who won't give specific details until you have your wallet out.
If you’re really committed and into your business, make a page and invite people to join who are interested in your product. This will keep your business more organized and separate from your personal page.
Maybe I'm the only one who has social media frenemies, but if not, the frenemy of my frenemy might just be my new best friend.
What are some reasons you have frenemies on social media?