Some words of wisdom from Tinu Abayomi-Paul on how to measure the value of a Facebook friend:

…Facebook Friends aren’t All necessarily friends, not in the American sense of the word.

They’re people you know. But Facebook calls them friends and I like to treat them that way until such a time that they prove me wrong – which I doubt will ever happen with 99% of the people I know there.

Something that all social networks suffer from to some degree is a lack of distinction between different types of contact, grouping them all under one nebulous category of ‘friend’. Facebook does give you the option of providing information about how you know them, but that in itself only gives you a clue about the start of the relationship, not its intrinsic worth.

What I like about Tinu’s approach is that it turns this potential drawback on its head, to make it an advantage — everybody in your social circle known as your ‘friends list’ has the potential to be a friend.

To whit, she has three points which, she says, illustrate what makes a Quality Facebook Friend:

1. They’re Active – they log in often enough for you to maintain a connection through Facebook, and do they do interesting things when logged in.
2. They’re Friendly – they may not all be your friends, but if you say hello/poke/message/write on their wall, they’ll eventually return the greeting in a fashion of their choosing.
3. They’re Enigmas in the inspirational sense of the word – enough alike me that we have common ground, but different enough for me to be fascinated by what they do.

I have people on my friends list that I’ve only met once, through work; some who I went to school or university with; people I work with every day; friends I’ve met elsewhere, and wish I could see more often; and people with whom my relationship has, to date, been exclusively online. But pretty much all of them fit those three criteria.

PS: If you’re on Facebook, I’m easy to find — I’m the Scott Matthewman who lives in the UK and not Florida.