Friend of a friend

Promotion similar to member-get-a-member that offers an incentive for referring a third party to the seller; also called third-party referral. It differs from member-get-a-member promotions in that the person making the referral is not necessarily a customer; however, most friend-of-a-friend promotions are directed to current or new customers. This is an inexpensive way for direct marketers to identify their best prospects, assuming that those receiving the promotion will only refer friends likely to be interested in the product or service being sold. catalog houses frequently offer a discount on future purchases to individuals who request a catalog for a friend, although this offer might be contingent upon the friend's making a purchase. This type of promotion is also a popular technique of airline travel clubs that award mileage credits in exchange for referrals.

For the Foo Fighters song, see Friend of a Friend (song). For the social networking software, see FOAF (software).

Look up FOAF in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Friend of a friend (FOAF) is a phrase used to refer to someone that one does not know well — literally, a friend of a friend.

In some social sciences, the phrase is used as a half-joking shorthand for the fact that much of the information on which people act comes from distant sources (as in "It happened to a friend of a friend of mine") and cannot be confirmed. It is probably best known from urban legend studies. The term was popularized by Jan Harold Brunvand, the best-known writer of that field. It was apparently first published by Rodney Dale in his 1978 book The Tumour in the Whale - WH Allen ISBN 0-426-18710-5, in which he discussed the "FOAFtale".

The rise of social network services has led to increased use of this term.

See also

• "Dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi" (Irish proverb) — a similar Irish language term literally meaning a woman told me that a woman told her that…

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