Who Are These People That Keep Contacting Me on Facebook?

Several people have asked me recently why they received a friend request from me, or why they receive weekly messages from me. So I thought I would write about why this happens, to help those who are feeling "bombarded" understand where all of this is coming from.Social media sites were started to help people connect with friends and find friends they haven't talked to in a long time. But it wasn't long before people figured out they could use these sites to market. The training most people receive when they join a network marketing company includes "make a list of friends and family" as a first step in their marketing strategy, so if you already have a list on Facebook it would be natural to start there if you believe in this strategy. I personally found this to fall flat on its face and make me a member of the "NFL" (no friends left) club! Seriously, my true friends just said "no thanks" but that still didn't get me any new distributors!These days, people who want to use social media to brand themselves and build their network marketing/MLM business are taught to:
Reach out to people who are also in MLM/network marketing
Form groups of the people who accept the connection
Stay in touch with group members to brand yourself and build relationships
All of this is done with the hope that someday you can do business with some of these people. But if you are on the receiving end of all of this and you have no interest in network marketing, you need to understand how the MLMers are finding you! If you are in MLM but don't want to connect with others, I would love to talk to you and explain how you could benefit from accepting those connections!Those of us who are trying to find other network marketers look in groups and fan pages on Facebook. If you have joined any groups or fan pages that:
Have MLM or Network Marketing in the title
Have anything to do with wealth building or home based business
Are related to a specific MLM/network marketing company
Are related to a prominent person in network marketing (Tom "Big Al" Schreiter, Dani Johnson, Mike Dillard, Jim Rohn, Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki)
If you are a member of any such groups or fan pages which are public, I can practically guarantee you will receive friend requests from people in MLM/network marketing. You can always send a message before accepting a friend request to inquire as to their purpose for connecting, and reject the request if you don't want to connect.Administrators of fan pages can send notifications to all members, and administrators of groups can send messages to all members. You may not have even noticed the notifications (I didn't for a long time) but you may notice the messages, especially if you receive email alerts when you receive a message (which you can turn off.)The only recourse I know of if you want to stop receiving the friend requests, messages, and notifications is to leave the types of groups and fan pages mentioned above. Especially in the case of messages, some people send way more than others so you might choose to eliminate only those who are truly annoying!I hope this helps those of you who do not want these communications and did not understand where they were coming from.