Why follow instead of friend on Facebook?

Facebook offers users two options for connecting with other profiles – friending and following. While friending allows users to see each other’s posts in their News Feeds and interact more deeply, following offers a more limited, one-way connection. There are advantages and disadvantages to both options, so it’s worth considering when you should friend versus follow someone on Facebook.

What’s the Difference Between Friending and Following on Facebook?

When you friend someone on Facebook, you form a two-way, mutual connection. You both gain access to each other’s profiles, can view future posts in your News Feeds, and can interact through commenting, liking, sharing, and private messaging. Friending allows you to get personalized updates from friends and participate in their Facebook experience.

Following a Facebook profile is different – it creates a one-way connection where you can subscribe to their public posts without them needing to approve or reciprocate. When following a profile, you’ll see their public posts in your News Feed but won’t be able to view much else on their profile or interact with them directly. They also won’t see your posts or activity. Following allows you to passively consume someone’s public content without exchanging access to each other’s profiles.

When is it Better to Follow Versus Friend on Facebook?

Here are some common cases where following may be better than friending on Facebook:

When you want to keep up with updates from a public figure, celebrity, brand, or business without giving them access to your profile.
When you want to discreetly keep tabs on an acquaintance, coworker, or distant friend without notifying them.

When you want to limit a professional contact’s access to your personal profile and posts.
When you wish to quietly observe someone you recently met or matched with on a dating site first.
When you want to maintain a casual, arms-length connection without interacting one-on-one.

Here are cases where friending may be better than following:

When you want to actively engage with someone’s posts and participate in their Facebook experience.
When you’d like to message privately and get to know someone better.

When you want to tag each other, invite each other to events/groups, or interact in other ways.
When you’d like full access to their profile, photos, updates, and information.
When you have an established offline connection as friends, family, partners, etc.

Pros of Following Over Friending on Facebook

Here are some potential advantages to following someone instead of friending them:

One-way connection – You can subscribe to their updates without them seeing your profile or posts.
Lower commitment – Following is casual; no need to actively engage or nurture the connection.

Space and separation – Maintains distance between you and the followed profile.
Privacy – Limits their access to your personal information and full profile.
Observational – Lets you quietly keep tabs on someone’s public posts and activity.

Professional – Keeps work/personal contacts access separate.
Less pressure – Alleviates social expectations to interact.

Cons of Following Over Friending

Disadvantages to following rather than friending include:

One-sided – Prevents reciprocal viewing of profiles and posting.
Less engagement – No commenting, liking, messaging, or interacting.
Limited content – Can only see public posts, not private updates.

No notifications – You won’t be alerted when they post.
Less personal – Following maintains distance between connections.
Read-only – Unable to actively contribute to their Facebook experience.

How to Follow Someone on Facebook

Here is how to follow a profile on Facebook:

Go to the profile page of the account you want to follow.
In the top corner, click “Follow” next to the Add Friend button.

Confirm that you want to follow the profile.

Once you follow someone, their public posts will automatically appear in your News Feed. You can unfollow them at any time to stop seeing updates.

Who Can Follow a Profile on Facebook?

Here are the requirements for following Facebook profiles:

Anyone can follow a public figure, celebrity, brand, business, or other public page.
To follow a private personal profile, you must have at least one friend in common.
You can’t follow someone you’ve previously blocked.

Protected personal profiles that are not public can’t be followed.

So following is an option if you share common connections or if the profile is already public. Friending may be your only option if the profile is private with no mutual friends.

Can You See Who Follows You on Facebook?

No, Facebook does not allow you to view a list of who specifically follows your profile. However, you can see how many followers you have in total listed on your public profile page. Pages for businesses and public figures will also display their number of followers.

While you can’t see individual followers, your public posts are visible to them in their News Feeds. Interacting with your content by liking, commenting, and sharing is the main way followers communicate their presence.

Should You Follow or Friend Coworkers on Facebook?

Here are some best practices for connecting with coworkers on Facebook:

Friend close coworkers with whom you have a personal relationship and regularly interact.

Follow professional contacts, distant colleagues, and executives to quietly keep up with company news.
Consider limiting what your coworkers see from your personal profile using custom privacy settings.
Don’t follow a superior without friending as well, as this can look suspicious.

Never use Facebook connections for work-related evaluations or decision making.

In general, follow acquaintances and reserve friending for people you know on a deeper personal level outside of work. Use your best judgment based on each relationship.

What’s Better for Celebrity or Influencer Updates: Follow or Like?

For getting updates from celebrities, influencers, artists, and other public figures on Facebook, following their profile is better than just liking their page. Here is a comparison:

	Following Profile	Liking Page
Posts in News Feed	Yes	No
Life event updates	Yes	No
Ability to comment	Yes	Yes
Get notifications	No	Yes (optional)

As you can see, following a public profile provides more unfiltered updates in your News Feed than liking a fan page. Follow for a personalized feed of posts.

Should You Follow or Friend Dating Connections on Facebook?

When it comes to people you’ve met through dating sites and apps, here are some Facebook friending vs following tips:

Follow at first for low-commitment, low-contact observing.

Friend after a certain level of dating to unlock full profile access.
Meet up first before friend or follow if safety is a concern.
Don’t necessarily friend exes or past dates you want distance from.

Unfollow or unfriend if needed as relationships change.

In general, follow new dating connections for the first interactions, and reserve friending for when you’re ready to take the relationship up a level. Proceed cautiously and use your own discretion.

Should Businesses Friend or Follow Customers on Facebook?

For brand-customer relationships on Facebook, following can be better than friending in many cases. Here are some best practices for businesses:

Follow engaged customers who comment and interact with your content.
Friend loyal brand advocates with whom you have offline meetups and events.
Offer customers the choice to follow your page or interact in groups.

Focus more on providing valuable content than building one-on-one connections.
Never follow private customer profiles without permission.

In general, focus on pushing out great content that followers will naturally want to consume instead of individually friending customers. Follow engaged customers but don’t expect reciprocity.

Should You Follow or Friend Potential Network Contacts on Facebook?

When connecting with people you’d like to network with professionally on Facebook, following can be a safer initial option over friending. Some tips:

Follow first to observe publicly posted content and information about them.
Comment on their posts to signal your interest and build a relationship.

Friend later on when needed to arrange meetings, chat, or coordinate.
Consider following instead of friending new professional contacts after networking events.
Keep work-related conversations to LinkedIn rather than Facebook if possible.

In summary, use following to initiate lower-pressure professional relationships on Facebook, and transition to friending if you need greater access to communicate and coordinate down the line.

Conclusion

While friending facilitates deeper reciprocal connections on Facebook, following allows for more casual, subtle, one-way relationships. Follow when you want to quietly keep up with someone’s public updates without fully exposing your profile and personal information. Friend when you desire actual back-and-forth interaction. Evaluate each potential connection and choose the option that meets your social media needs and preferences.