Comments on: Facebook is Holding My Friends Hostage

By: Joanne

Joanne — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:34:59 +0000

Yeah, I realize that but by doing the former, you will be able to open up more places for the others. And just add a status update to tell people you recognize that they're waiting. I've already tried communcating with FB about removing the 5000 restriction and they don't answer.

By: Erin Blaskie

Erin Blaskie — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:35:50 +0000

Hi Mia!

It's not so much my friends that are the issue. It's the pending / awaiting confirmation people that I can't do anything about. Since my profile isn't public, they wouldn't be able to see my status either of, "Go to my Fan page instead".

E.

By: Erin Blaskie

Erin Blaskie — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:34:38 +0000

My current friends aren't the issue — it's the 2,188 pending people that I can't message.

By: Joanne Burgess

Joanne Burgess — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:33:36 +0000

Sorry not “invite friends”…it's “suggest to friends”

By: Joanne Burgess

Joanne Burgess — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:31:42 +0000

Hi Erin, you don't need to message your friends 20 at a time. Just go to your business page and under your image, you'll see “invite friends”. You can invite all your friends to fan your page. The ones who are already a fan of the page will not be highlighted. If you want to ask people to go the extra mile so you don't have to keep track, ask them to 'unfriend' you after they've become a fan of the page. Not as elegant as it should be but it works.

By: @MiaChambers

@MiaChambers — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:26:38 +0000

This is a sticky situation, one that doesn't really have a simple answer.

Unfortunately, Facebook no longer offers migration of your friends to your Page.

While the process you'll need to take to convert your Friends to Fans is straightforward, it certainly doesn't guarantee that your Friends will follow you to your Page.

*sigh*

Here are a few things that I would recommend to my clients:

1. Announce this transition on your profile letting people know of your dilemma: "Yo, People. Facebook is wacked and needs to get its ass kicked in a dark alley." << Okay, not exactly an appropriate status update, but, in essence, you need to let your Friends know that you'd like them to Fan your Page. Do this once a day for a week.

2. Blog about it. Post the blog post on your profile once a week for a month.

3. Send bulk messages (up to 20 at a time) to your Friends asking them to migrate. Yup, you read that correctly "up to 20." While you can send out messages to your Friends, it's quite limited when doing so directly from your personal profile. WARNING: Make sure to change up each message ever so slightly. If you cut and paste the same message, FB will deem you a spammer and shut your account down. *sigh*

4. I would recommend picking a few of your *best* Friends and asking them to promote this migration on their status bar updates. Send them individual emails using their first name. Don't bulk send this message.

5. Tweet about the migration a few times a week.

Are you tired yet? Yeah, I am.

The point being that there's no easy way to do this. Facebook took their migration process out of circulation and it's created this situation for a lot of people.

Good luck with the process! May the force be with you.

By: Erin Blaskie

Erin Blaskie — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:23:25 +0000

Really? Hmm… Maybe I will contact them to see if it's possible. Just seems like such a shame that I have these connections but can't use them very well, you know?

By: Edin Shaba

Edin Shaba — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:02:53 +0000

Have you tried talking with Facebook about it?
Read somewhere on some blog (sorry can't find it right now) that such transfer operation of Friends to Fan has been successfully done for others…