Facebook is the largest social networking website with hundreds of millions of users worldwide. If you’ve ever wondered whether someone you know is active on Facebook, it is highly likely that they are, given the platform’s extensive reach.

In this article, we will delve into the most efficient methods of locating someone on Facebook – from strategies to refine your search with Facebook’s default search function to the advanced techniques of using people search engines.

1. Search on Facebook

Facebook has embedded a search function within its platform, allowing you to conveniently search for other users.

If you already know the person’s name, just type it into the search bar to see what shows up. There are cases when multiple people share the same name on Facebook. To identify the right account, you can use filters like City, Education, and Work on the left panel. These markers can help narrow down the search and increase the accuracy of your results.

Depending on how people have made their personal information public, you can use an email address, a phone number, a college, or a workplace to find information about the person, too.

2. Use People Search Engines

If you’re unable to locate the profile on Facebook, your best bet for finding the person is using a paid people search engine.

Note that many services such as WhitePages claim to offer free searches. However, during our test, there wasn’t a single service that was truly free for finding social media profiles. So we tested the premium accounts of several popular people search services and compared their search reports and prices. Below are our top picks.

Option 1 – TruthFinder

TruthFinder is a powerful people search engine that scours millions of detailed public records from federal, state and local government agencies and across the web to find people’s public records, and social media profiles.

I conducted several searches on different people using TruthFinder, and this tool was not always able to pull up the Facebook profile associated with the subject. This could either be because the person doesn’t have a Facebook account on this platform, or TruthFinder failed to retrieve it. On occasion, TruthFinder successfully located the individual’s profiles on other social networks, which is pretty useful for anyone who wishes to locate someone’s social media profiles.

Below is a report I generated with TruthFinder, displaying the individual’s Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts under the EXTENDED DATA section. Please note that this report serves as a sample report from TruthFinder and the actual report may contain different amounts of information based on the subjects of the search. If you’d like to test this service, you would need to purchase a membership plan and log into the report to perform the search.

Option 2 – BeenVerified

BeenVerified is a robust people search engine, specifically designed to search for individuals’ contact details, background information, and social media profiles across more than 55 platforms. It’s a subscription-based service with two pricing tiers, each capped at 100 reports per month.

• 1-month membership — $29.99/month
• 3-month membership — $19.49/month

To use this service, just log into your account and choose the search option you like. For example, I did a few searches with its reverse name lookup feature and I was able to uncover 9 social media profiles of the individual in one of the reports. However, not all profiles appeared to belong to the said person. 

This inconsistency in data accuracy is a common critique of people search services. Another thing that many users complain about is that BeenVerified doesn’t always find the social media profiles of the subject. In my experience, these services tend to have a higher chance of finding the profiles of those who are more active online.

Option 3 – Spokeo

Spokeo is a powerful and well-known people search tool. It gathers all available information from public sources and stores it in one database, providing an easy way to confidentially look up information about anyone you wish to investigate. To use this tool, simply visit Spokeo, and choose the type of search you want. For example, enter the name of the individual you’re looking for in the search field, and click SEARCH NOW.

Below is a sample Spokeo report I generated. It displayed 22 social media profiles linked to the person I searched for. However, during my test, only a handful of the profiles actually belonged to my search subject. Therefore, it’s important that you verify the accuracy of the information on your own.