Facebook Friends and Frenemies Report - Why We Add and Remove

There's a new Facebook research report from Nielsen McKinsey's NM Incite titled Friends & Frenemies: Why We Add and Remove Facebook Friends that's pretty interesting. The report looks at the factors that help Facebook users decide whether they want to add someone as a friend or remove an existing person the their friend list. Here's a few details:

• Knowing someone in real life is the top reason cited for friend-ing someone (82%)
• Offensive comments are the main reason someone gets the boot (55%)

Additional report details suggests that real world interactions drive online friendships. Meanwhile, sales-oriented and depressing comments help drive friend removals. Facebook etiquette also plays a role, with updating too often, too little or having too many friends a consideration for some Facebook users.

Regarding gender, the report research indicates that men are more likely to use social media for careers/networking and dating – while women use social media for a creative outlet, to get coupons/promos or to give positive feedback. More men add friends based on business networks or physical attractiveness and women are more likely to friend based on knowing someone in real life or remove them due to offensive comments.

Here's an interesting infographic from the report.