The odds are overwhelmingly good that even people you do not know will accept your friend request.

In report one, the Facebook Friends Experiment was explained as essentially adding every friend that Facebook suggests to add in order to achieve an audience to promote a product or a brand.  This is especially valuable for owners of small businesses or those that are self-employed but it can work well for large businesses with people who are invested wholly in its mission and values.

How Does Facebook Decide What Friends to Suggest?

Facebook’s friend suggestion is an automatically generated list based upon the friends you already have.

Underneath the friend suggestion, it displays how many mutual friends you have in common with this person.  Facebook will suggest from one mutual friend to an infinite number of common friends.  The highest number of mutual friends I achieved in this experiment was 43.  Typically, the number of mutual friends will be lower until your friend base is over 200.  From there Facebook seems to be able to generate suggestions faster, as well as find common friends because of a larger mutual friend group.

One downside of adding friends from the suggestion box only is that future Facebook suggestion will be shaped upon who initially accepts your friend request.  For example, if many people accept your friend request that you formerly attended high school with, chances are your future friend suggestions will be more former high school acquaintances and the friends of those new Facebook friends.

I Don’t Know These People.  Why Would They Accept My Friend Request?

Depending on how many acquaintances, social groups and friendships you keep in ‘real life,’ you may or may not have any idea of the people now being suggested to you to add on Facebook.  This is all right!  Keep in mind that you are trying to build an audience, not a friendship in the literal sense of the word.   If you put in a request to add a Facebook friend that you do not know here are the outcomes:

1.     They accept your friend request.

2.     They do not accept your friend request, whereupon Facebook will stop suggesting you add them.

3.     They write you a message asking who you are and why you wish to be their friend.  You will respond telling them that you believe you have mutual friends and that Facebook suggested that you add them.  Most likely, they will add you.

4.     They accept your friend request to find out for themselves who you are.

Three out of four options have people accepting your friend request.  Good odds, isn’t it?  And now you have access to find out more about them and interact with them ‘where they live.’  You can’t beat a captive audience like this – better than a television commercial and more engaged than a radio spot.  But now what do you do with them?

See Facebook Friends Experiment: Report Three. It’s all about being authentically you.