First and last name. Middle name. This can be helpful if the person has a common name, or if your friend later switched to using their middle name. Approximate age and date of birth. Place of birth Schools attended, and years in attendance. Known employers, and years of employment. Military service information: unit served in, dates/locations of service, years active. Last known area of residence. The names of your friend’s parents, siblings, and/or other close relations. The names of other people who also knew your friend.
Go to Google, or your search engine of choice. (Not all search engines do as well accessing various social media sites, so if the first search engine you try doesn’t give you the kinds of results you would like, try another. ) Enter in the person’s first and last name and click the “Search” button, or hit the enter key. Scroll through the results and see if anything about your friend comes up.
You might add a geographical location, and search for: “Mary Smith” Evergreen, WA. Try adding a school name, such as “John Jones” Remington High School Colorado. Try adding an employer name, such as “Rachel Roberts” Boeing. Keep experimenting like this for a while, chances are you will eventually hit on the right person.
Facebook provides a lot of automated assistance in locating people and will take the information you have entered about your other friends, as well as your own employment and educational history to narrow down the list. Remember that Facebook gives its users the opportunity to keep their names from appearing in public searches, so often you can find people within Facebook that you could not find using a Google search. New social networking sites are always appearing, and you never know which one your friend might be using. If Facebook doesn’t turn anything up, try searching other sites like Google+, Ello, etc.
Make your initial message brief and to the point. There is still a chance you have the wrong person, and it’s best to clarify first. An example contact message might be: “Hi, this is Jenny Smith from Arlington. I was just wondering if this is the same Melissa Jones who went to Smith Elementary in the early 1980s. If so, message me back, I would love to catch up!” If you have a potential phone number for the person, call it and be prepared to deliver a similar message. Remember not to be too cryptic about who you are or why you are calling/writing. Make it clear that you are trying to track down an old friend, and are not working for a collections agency or something similarly unpleasant.
A simple message to send might read: “Hi, this is Chrissy Jones from Denver. I am trying to track down my friend Sarah Smith, who you also went to school with. Do you by any chance know how I might reach her? Thank you!”
Remember that LinkedIn is a website targeted towards making and finding new business contacts, so keep your profile professionally-oriented. Even though you may be using the site to look for an old friend, remember that it is something that future employers will likely see. [6] X Research source If you do not find your friend quickly, you may still find mutual acquaintances who you can contact for additional information. Note that LinkedIn and other similar sites frequently inform users when someone views their profile. When you finally get around to contacting your friend, don’t be surprised if she has already been alerted to the fact that you were looking for her. Look for social networking platforms specifically targeted to your particular industry or field. For example, Academia. edu is a networking site for academic researchers and employees. [7] X Research source Check with your own professional organization or with colleagues to find out if there is a targeted network or registry that you could use.
