How do I explain how to add a friend on Facebook over the phone?

There are two types of people; those who don’t need that sort of stuff explained, and those that cannot understand verbal/written directions and must be shown or have it done for them…. and too many computer “users” these days fall into the latter group.

Many things on computers, especially things on popular websites frequented by people whom are largely non-tech-heads, are simplified to the point where it’s fairly obvious; literally so simple a child could do it. Many of them also are visual things requiring a person to relay pictures and positions using nothing but words, making it hard to remotely help those who are actually looking at the screen.

If this simple answer from the FAQ doesn’t explain it, or they didn’t even think to look it up, then maybe it’s best to keep them away from a computer at all until they learn the very basics.

I’ve done lots of tech support over the phone, both at work and for family, friends, etc.

The best thing you can do is go through the process yourself and explain what you’re doing clearly and slowly as you go (under the assumption the person needs a lot of hand-holding).

Start at the beginning, dictate every single step and make sure they are following along properly. Don’t use any technical terms a layperson wouldn’t understand. Example: Instead of saying “URL”, just say “website address”.

This is how you do pretty much any over-the-phone tech help, for almost any task.

The only drawback to this would be if you didn’t know how to do it either, in which case you’re not really qualified to help on that task, now are ya? Good luck!

First, tell the person to go onto his own Facebook page. Are you on there now?

Then say, “There are 2 ways to add a friend. If you know the name of the person you want to add (let’s say it’s your cousin Ellen Jones) then go up to the top area of your page and you will see a search box, it’s just to the right of the Facebook logo in the blue band at the top of your page. There is a little globe icon right next to the search box. Do you see that?

If you know that your cousin Ellen Jones is already on Facebook, then move your cursor into that search box, then type in her name, Ellen Jones, but do NOT push enter unless you find the correct Ellen Jones at the top of the list. If you are lucky, your cousin Ellen’s name and picture will be at the top of the list of people that pop up and you will recognize it to be the correct person. Because sometimes there are other people, also named Ellen Jones, you may have to scroll down through a list of other Ellen Jones’s until you find the right one. If you don’t see the right Ellen Jones, scroll down to the bottom of the list and click on the link where it says See more results for Ellen Jones, keep scrolling down until you find the right person, you may have to go down to the bottom of the 2nd list and click on the link that says See more results. You may have to do this process several times until you find the correct Ellen Jones. When you do see her, move your cursor over to the right hand side of her name and picture, you will see a box that says +1 Add Friend, do you see that box? Click on that, and you have now just added a friend. You may have a wait a day or week, depending upon how often your cousin goes onto Facebook, because she will have the option of accepting or rejecting your friend request. When and if she accepts, her picture and name will appear in your list of friends, and you will start seeing some of her posts in your newsfeed.

To see your list of friends. Go to the top right side of your page, inside that blue band and you will see your own name and picture (that’s called an avatar) click on that, and you will be taken to your “Wall” (that’s what they call your page where you can see everything that you have posted and other things that belong to you. When you get on your Wall, you will see near the top a white band, underneath where your avatar picture and cover picture is (if you have one) in this white band there are several boxes, one says timeline, the next one says about, the next one says friends (that’s the one you want) and the next one says photos the next one says more. Do you see those boxes? Move your cursor to the box that says Friends and click on that. Then you will see the entire list of friends that you have. So you can check and see if your cousin’s picture is in there. You might not see it for a day or more, depending upon whether your cousin accepted your friend request, or how often she goes on Facebook.

Now, we’re going to go back to your homepage, and I’ll show you the other way to add friends. So go back up to the blue band at the top of your page, on the left hand side, you will see your name and picture and next to that it will say Find Friends and next to that it will say Home. Put your cursor over the word Home and click on it. You could have done this next step from your Wall, but I wanted to show you how to get back on your Home page, that’s the place where you see news feeds from your friends. So go back up to the blue band, and next to your name and picture, in between where it says home, you will see something that says Find Friends. Click on that. It will bring up a box that shows a listing of people that you may or may not know, these are other people that are friends with people that you have already selected as friends. If you have not yet added any friends, then you will see on the left hand side of the page, boxes that list hometown, current city, high school, college or university, employer etc. Do you see those boxes? If so pick one and move your cursor into that box, for example if you know your cousin works for Sony, then move your cursor into the box that says Employer and type in her name and push enter. Another list of potential people will pop up on the right, you can scroll through all of those until you find her. Although this method is a little bit harder, because some people have not listed any of this information on their own Facebook page. But if you do find the correct Ellen Jones by typing in the information in any of those boxes, by typing it in, such as the name of her high school then pushing enter (each time you type in information in any of those boxes and push enter, a new list of people will pop up on the right) then move your cursor over to her name a picture and click on it. You will then see her Facebook page. Over near the top right hand side of her page you will see 2 boxes, one says +1 Add Friend and right next to it is one that says Message. Click on the box that says +1 Add Friend and click on it. Then you’re done.

Again, you will have to wait until she accepts your friend request to see her picture appear in your friends list.

The first method is the easiest method.

Just keep emphasizing exactly where the boxes are located and what they look like and what they say. Tell the person to move their cursor into that box, and then say do you see it? Tell them not to click, until they see the box you are talking about. If they make a mistake, you will have to have them click the back button at the top left hand side of their screen, or direct them to the home button, or their name and avatar button, to start again. Just keep asking if they see the thing that you are describing.

^^ Ooops, I made one mistake. If you are searching for your person, in this case our fabled Ellen Jones, by her Employer, you need to type in the name of the company, such as Sony or Pizza Hut, rather than her name, d’oh!

The second method is more difficult in that you need to know some of the info besides the person’s name, and you may have to scroll through a bunch of different people, who are both on Facebook and have listed the same employer or school or city, or whatever. It’s much easier to use the first method. However, if you are looking for a long lost friend, the second method might be more useful, but it takes longer.

I also didn’t mention, what I hope would be obvious, when you are talking the person through the steps over the phone, it’s much easier if you have your own computer in front of you, looking at Facebook, so you can see for yourself where the boxes and pictures and icons and stuff are located, rather than just trying to remember the steps. That’s what I did, when I was writing out the instructions. Good luck : )

Thanks this helped me a lot.
I could not complete these steps as on this particular name she was a famous writer and the
tool bar depicting the simple adding of friends was hidden.
I discovered that this auther did not want thousands of friends on her facebook acct, and that was why I could not befriend her.
Thanks anyways, I learned something new today.
Thanks to all of you.

@Inspired_2write Sometimes a famous person will have a box that you can click called Like on their Facebook page, see if they have one. If so, then you can get selected newsfeeds from the person.

thanks