EDMONTON, AB – Puplic relations employee Steve Wasley, 26, has made visible efforts to show his ability to connect with a variety of races and cultures by seeking out a black woman for his Facebook friend list, coworkers told reporters yesterday.
“Steve kept telling everyone around the office that his friend list was getting to be too waspy,” said Pete Hamletshed, one of Wasley’s colleagues who helped him secure the friendship with Miranda Washington, 28, the black woman.
“He was going on and on about how he really needed a foot in the door to break into the difficult black female 25-35 demographic, which he’d been shut out of for some time.”
According to Hamletshed, Wasley had originally thought of creating a press kit to outline the benefits of his friendship, which he would have then sent out through various channels hoping to generate some leads.
“Steve’s like that,” Hamletshed said. “He’s very professional. But he tends to go overboard sometimes when he’s dealing with a target audience he doesn’t have much experience with.”
Hamletshed and Wasley then decided to focus on finding a black person from Wasley’s social network, which led to Washington, whom he first met seven years ago when the two worked together for a summer camp. Although Wasley and Washington’s work relations did not develop into friendship relations at the time, Wasley carefully crafted a personal message to imply he had been thinking about reconnecting with her for a long time.
“We worked together on several drafts to get the wording right,” Hamletshed told reporters. “We also worked on creating a few wall posts that referenced black athletes and celebrities so that she would feel comfortable with [Wasley] if she looked at his profile before making a decision about the friend request.”
According to Wasley, tracking down Washington was difficult.
“I didn’t really have many contacts from that summer job [at the camp] because it was only an five week thing, and none of them had Miranda listed as a friend,” Wasley explained. “She was the only black employee, so I guess no one really connected with her at the time.”
“She was pretty nice, though, from what I can remember,” he added.
Michelle Owens, author of Is my friend list going to get me a job?, says Wasley’s strategy could be pushed further.
“Right now Wasley is still focusing on people he knows, which is good, but he should consider a more comprehensive ethnic outreach campaign in order to woo recent immigrants that may also be looking to diversify their friend lists to improve their social standings on arrival.”
Since adding Washington as a friend, Wasley has been under pressure to keep up with her wall posts and updates. Just yesterday, he received a notification that Washington had changed her status to “no longer in a relationship.” Within minutes, Wasley had “liked” the status and commented with a winky emoticon.
“I sent a friend request to her ex, who is also black,” Wasley said. “I’m still waiting to hear back from him.”
with files by Leah Edwards
