Social Media Can't Defeat The Law Of 250

It's been speculated that because of social media, we'll all have far more friends than ever before. This was expected especially of the Millennial generation, who have been far more connected in their lifetimes than all previous generations combined.

But a new Pew study has found that even for Millennials, the median friend count on Facebook is still 250, just like it's been for other generations.

250 has always been a magic number. People would like to invite 250 or so to a wedding, and an average of 250 show up to a funeral. In sales, 250 is seen as the number needed for a sales or business career. Joe Girard, who's been billed as the world's greatest salesmen, has long contented that 250 prospects or referrals are required for sales success. The number has cropped up time and again, but it was thought that social media would transcend it.

But it looks like despite all of our hyper-connectivity, we just can't get away from that 250 friend count. Sure, many of us are way beyond that number on various social platforms, but how many can we really count as true friends? My bet is that you're lucky if you get to 250.

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Facebook's 140 Billion Friends And How To Leverage Them

Facebook reached a milestone a few weeks ago when it blew past a billion active accounts, an astonishing number any way you look at it. That said, a number that's often overlooked is one that perhaps more accurately measures the breath of the network - 140.3 billion.

What does 140.3 billion represent? That's the number of total friendships on Facebook. It means that every active member has 140.3 Facebook friends. What's astonishing about that number is that it's close to Dunbar's Number of 150, which is what social anthropologists use to signify the number of persistent face-to-face relationships that the average person usually has.

Obviously Facebook number is an average, because you all know people who have way more than 140 Facebook friends, but the point is that if you just look a single step away from your 140 average friends to their 140 average friends, then you're at 19,600 connections, which is quite a large network. Now image that you have the maximum number of friends on you personal page, which is 5,000. That means that you're one step away from 700,000 people. That's quite a network!

OK, so how do you leverage the friends you have? Facebook has now started a new program that will keep one of your posts at the top of your friends Newsfeed (just click on the Promote button on your post as in the picture on the left). This is perfect if you're announcing a new product, record release or a gig. The downside is that it'll cost you $7 each time you do it, so it can get expensive fast.

Yes, this is another way that FB is trying to monetize their user base, but it's not so far off from what other networks already do. People can buy trending topics on Twitter and users can pin Tumblr posts to the tops of follower's dashboards for $5, so FB is just upping the ante a little.

The bottom line is that there's a big network out there on Facebook, and it's there for the leveraging.

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How People Use Facebook

Last week Pew Internet & American Life Project, a project of the Pew Research Center, launched a detailed report on how social networking affects our lives. Among the things it detailed is just who is using Facebook and how they use it.

First of all, the most active Facebook users tend to be women. 19% of women update their status at least once a day, while only about 11% of men provide daily status updates.

Breakdown of Friend Relationships
The report also found some interesting info about friend relationships.

• 22% people from high school
• 12% extended family
• 10% coworkers
• 9% college friends
• 8% immediate family
• 7% people from voluntary groups
• 2% neighbors

Some of the most interesting stats that prove social networks are more than just online relationships are:

• Only 3% of users’ Facebook friends have never met in person. While 89% of all Facebook friends have met in person more than once.
• Internet Users are more trusting of others than non-Internet users. Facebook users are over 3 times more likely than non-internet users to agree that “most people can be trusted.”

 Comments And Likes
According to the report, Facebook users are not only active in posting, but in interacting as well. For instance:

• 22% of users comment on another’s post or status
• 26% of users “like” another user’s content
• 15% of users update their own status
• 20% of users comment on another user’s photos

In addition to commenting and updating statuses, Facebook users do “like” quite a bit of content.

• 44% of users in the 18-22 age range “like” content on a daily basis.
• Men are less likely to “like” Facebook content than women.  20% of women “like” content several times a day compared to just 9% of men.

That said, private messages are not frequently used. Only 38% of users claim to use Facebook’s private messages at once a week or more.

Facebook is truly a community, but you respond to your friends in your community differently than in real life, as the report shows. With that in mind, remember to be mindful of what you're posting and how you treat your online friends. They deserve the same respect as if they were in the room with you.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for daily discussion of music, recording, and production tips and tricks.

3 Ways To Screen Your Followers

When it comes to social networking, not all fans are created equal. Some are stalkers, some only want to build a large friend list and could care less about you, some will never use the service after the first week, and others want things from you that go above and beyond the typical follower relationship. That's why you have to screen your Facebook Friend requests when possible. After a couple of, shall we say, unsavory experiences, here's what I do.

1. Ask yourself "How Do I Know You?" Even if you have 25 mutual Facebook friends, there has to be something more to be sure the connection is right for both of you. Unless there's a referral from a a most trusted friend, I automatically go to step 2.

2. Check out the bio, photos and posts. I always look at someone's bio first to see if he or she is in the music business or some other business that I'm in. If I can't tell from that, then I move on to the photos. If I see something like the person on stage or in the studio, you're in. If there's nothing to indicate we have a connection of some sort, then I move on to the posts. Again, if you have some posts that indicate we have a professional connection in some way, you're in. If all I see are posts about your personal life, you're not.

About the worst thing is someone who has no history of posts, won't let me see their info unless we become friends, or only has some goofy profile picture that tells me nothing about you. Next!

3. Keep it professional. If you're using social networks as a promotional tool, you've got to keep your posts professional for the most part. It's okay to post something personal, and your fans certainly want that, but never get too intimate regardless of how tempted you may be. A certain congressman just found that out the hard way.

It goes the same for your fans. If someone is coming on too strong, it's time to unfriend them. If a "friend" is coming into town and wants to meet, check them out thoroughly first. No background info, no coffee or lunch!

While we're on it, let me give you a few criteria I use when people email me to ask for help. I love to help people and I'm always there for anyone that asks, but there are a few times when I hedge a bit. The main one is "I'm doing a project for school and......." and suddenly there are 20 questions, or only one that's so broad it can take an hour to write a reply. I'm not going to write your paper for you unfortunately. Usually what I say is, "This is too complicated to write in an email. Here's my number and the best time to call. I'll tell you all you want to know then." I figure that in 15 minutes on the phone I can be a lot more helpful than taking an hour out of my day to write a reply that might not answer the question properly. It's funny though, people rarely call. Once again, I'd love to help, but I'm not going to write your paper for you.

So this is the criteria I use for accepting Facebook friends, which I've found to work very well. If I haven't accepted your Friend Request, now you know why.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for daily discussion of music, recording, and production tips and tricks.