How to Poke Someone on Facebook

This Mahalo page will provide information on how to poke someone on Facebook.

Facebook was founded by a Harvard student named Mark Zuckerberg. He launched it on February 4, 2004 while still in school. It all started as a hobby and with the help of two fellow students he managed to bring the social network to the next level. Eventually he ended up dropping out of school to run the application full time. Today over 8 million people in the United States use Facebook. It's the second largest social network after MySpace. ¹

Finding new people to become friends with is one way to use your Facebook account. However, once you've connected with several people on Facebook, you can still lose touch. Sometimes friends may need a little reminder that you are thinking of them or that you are still around on Facebook. This is where the 'Poke' feature comes in. Poking someone on Facebook is basically giving them a nudge and reminding them that you are still on the social network. A 'Poke' can be interpreted in many ways, it can mean anything from 'Look at me' to 'Hey, how are you?' Facebook leaves it up to the users to read into the 'Poke' what they want.

Below you will find step by step information on how to go about poking someone on Facebook. Keep in mind that once you can only poke people that you are already friends with and once you poke someone you cannot take it back, so proceed with caution.²

Poking a Facebook Friend

In this video, you will learn how to poke a friend on Facebook using the button on their profile, under their picture. Someone must be your friend on Facebook before you can poke them.

Step 1: Join Facebook

Before you can 'Poke' someone on Facebook, you will have to have a Facebook account. Keep in mind that you have to be at least 13 years of age to sign up for an account. To sign up for a Facebook account, do as follows:

1. Go to Facebook.com.
2. Fill in the sign up form that asks for your first name, last name, email, password, sex and date of birth. Click 'Sign Up'.
3. Check your email account for a registration email from Facebook. Click on the link in the email.
4. Now you can add your Facebook profile and start adding friends.³

Step 2: Find & Add Friends

In order to poke your Facebook friends, you will need to have them. The next step is therefore adding friends to your Facebook account. You can only poke your friends on Facebook, not strangers. To add friends to your Facebook account, do the following:

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Click on the 'Find Friend' tab in the upper right corner
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and type in the name or email address of the friend you would like to add.
4. A list of people that fit the criteria will show up.
5. Click the 'Add as friend' tab to send the person of your choice a friend request. Once they accept your request, they will be added to your list of Facebook friends.⁴

Step 3: Poke Friends

Now that you've created a Facebook account and added some friends to it, you can opt to 'Poke' one or more of them. This could just be to get their attention or to remind them that you are still around. To poke someone, do the following:

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Search for the friend that you would like to poke.
3. 'Poke your friend by clicking to the link that says 'Poke Me' which you will find on the right side of their profile.
4. A pop-up box will show up asking you to confirm that you want to poke this person.
5. Click 'OK' to confirm.
6. Once you've done this your friend will see that you've poked them when they log into their Facebook account. They can either poke you back or ignore your poke.⁵