Why Accept a Friend Request?

While reading Peter Kim’s post “Reputation Matters“ in my head I began listing reasons why someone would accept a social networking friend request (e.g. a request on Facebook, Linkedin, etc).

Initially I thought the list would be long. Surprisingly I quickly ran out of additional reasons as there seem to only be a core set of motivations when you distill other alternatives down to their most basic form.

Reasons to Accept a Friend Request:

-As acknowledgment that you personally know each other
-To exhibit mutual respect for someone you admire
-Because you feel displaying the “public connection” bolsters your own reputation
-Because you want or intend to meet the person
-You feel specific social or career pressure to reciprocate
-To gain addition insights or access otherwise inaccessible information
-For future opportunistic reasons
-General politeness (desire not to offend)

If you have suggestions to add, please do so in the comments and I’ll update the post accordingly…