Sarah's Marvelous Meddling

This is a post for all the MSF Friends out there (if you're a single reading, be sure to send this on to your friend). You may think that when you've written your single friend's description you can pat yourself on the back for being an excellent pal, mix up a martini and wait for those zesty dating anecdotes to come rolling in. And indeed you can, but if you want to give your single friend a bit of a hand, or perhaps just feel like being an interfering old busybody, here are my Top Meddling Tips.

1.Log in

You've got log in details, so use them! When you log in to your homepage you'll find links to the MSF blog (for handy tips like this), options to add more friends, become a single friend, view the friends you've already added and, most importantly, search.

2. Searching

This is where the fun really begins and where you can really make a difference. Many people have pretty narrow parameters when it comes to looking for a date, with fixed ideas about height, age, looks and so on. As the friend, you have a different perspective on your single friend and what type of person might suit them. If your single friend has dreamy visions of a tall, dark, athletic lawyer then they'll search for that person to the exclusion of all others. When you point them in the direction of that short, red headed web design whizz who you just know they'll get on with, they'll end up thanking you and your broader mind.

From your homepage, click on 'my friends' and then 'search for matches'. From here you can search on your single friend's behalf. If you think your friend's age parameters are a bit narrow you can add a couple of years either side, if you think they could search in a bit of a wider area, then make those changes. You can open up a whole new section of people that your friend might be excluding.

3. Recommending

So you've found all these fab people that you think would be absolutely brilliant for your friend, but what do you do next? It's very simple, just click on the recommend button that you'll find at the top right hand of the profile pages. If you have more than one single friend on the site you can choose who you want to recommend this potential date to and you can also add a comment for your single friend to read (eg. 'Look! Someone else is interested in early medieval lute madrigals!'). The next time your single friend logs in they can peruse these recommendations at their leisure, all the while thanking their lucky stars for such an attentive and lovely friend.

And there we have it. Look out for more dating advice, tips and news from me in the coming weeks.