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I'll probably be sorry to have revived this, but I just saw it ... and I'm not sure how "friending" even became part of this discussion. Friending (yeah, I don't like that it's a verb, but on Facebook it is a verb) is a two-way symmetrical relationship between two individuals. It doesn't have a twitter counterpart; twitter is all about following and being followed. On Facebook, there's no use of the term "to follow", but "liking" a page (not a person) has the same effect - you get their updates in your feed. (The "likee" or liked entity doesn't get your updates -- the liked entity is a page, not a person, and doesn't have a feed, per se.) You can't follow or like an individual on Facebook; you friend individuals instead, which, again, is a two-way relationship - the other person has to accept your friendship.
So the action in question is called "getting (or gaining) likes". If you need to set the context, it's "getting likes on Facebook" or "getting Facebook likes". For example, a volunteer organization I "like" just posted today that they "got their 400th like". It's dreadful terminology, but it's used pretty consistently. You'll just create confusion if you try to invent a different term for the same concept.
All of this doesn't really answer Monique's original question, because she wanted something less wordy, and I don't think there is anything less wordy.
-Laura
-----Original Message-----
From: Monique Semp [mailto:monique -dot- semp -at- earthlink -dot- net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2012 12:33 PM
To: TechWR-L
Subject: verb for "gaining followers on Facebook" ?
Hello, writers who know social media terms,
Just wondering if thereâs a one-word verb that means âgain a follower on Facebookâ?
I donât need to worry about whether the people that are gained are fans or followers, and Iâm not talking about the person who chooses to follow someone (which could be sort described by the verb âlikeâ). Iâm hoping that thereâs just a less wordy way to say âgains followers on Facebookâ...
TIA,
-Monique
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