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How to win/lose Facebook friends

It's not about B.O. and halitosis anymore...

How to win/lose Facebook friends
Danielle de Wolfe
20 December 2011

What is the meaning of life? Do we really exist? If a tree falls in the woods… yadda yadda yadda. The question we all want to know is why we ‘friend’ and ‘de-friend’ people on Facebook.

And now all has been revealed thanks to new research from NM Incite. In the main, the reasons are as you might expect, but there are a few curve balls in there too.

‘Depressing comments’ will get you dropped like a hot, social networking potato, seemingly, and keep your politics to yourself too. That also appears to be a no-no, according to 14% of users.

Want to get more friends? Easy. Be more physically attractive. Oh, and stop trying to sell people stuff all the time. It’s not on.

Top Five Reasons People Add Friends

Know in real life – 82%

Mutual friends – 60%

Business networks – 11%

Physical attractiveness – 8%

Increasing friend count – 7%

Top Five Reasons People Drop Friends

Offensive Comments – 55%

Don’t know well – 41%

Trying to sell me something – 39%

Depressing comments – 23%

Lack of interaction – 20%

(Image: Rex Features)

[via NM Incite]