Many amongst us have had flashbacks to figures from our past that we've long lost touch with, which induce us try and find out what they're doing now. So many in fact that websites such as Friends Reunited grew in size and popularity at an incredible rate towards the beginning of the decade. The desire to reconnect with forgotten friends, old school buddies and first loves is universal and can be greatly rewarding. As a consequence of this aspect to social networks, a number of them are now amongst the most popular websites on the internet.

Facebook for instance has picked up where Friends Reunited left off, with somewhere in the region of 500, 000 new sign ups reportedly occurring every day. The magnitude of the membership base in conjunction with the 'search' facility allows members a good chance of re-igniting communication with figures from the past, provided they can find them of course. Here lies the problem, if you urgently need to get in touch with a specific individual the chances of actually being able to speak with them are low. Firstly they may not have a Facebook account, in which case there is absolutely no chance of finding them through a Facebook search. Secondly, the chances are that there are a huge number of individuals of the same name registered to the website, in which case your only option is trawl through the listings hoping that a) they have a visible profile picture and that b) you recognise them from it.

If you have successfully overcome the initial hurdles there are still more possible barriers to communication with your chosen individual through Facebook. The regularity with which they check and respond to their friend requests and of course whether they even choose to respond to your request in the affirmative being particularly prominent. Bearing these factors in mind it's apparent that Facebook, although great for many things, is by no means an effective way to track down a specific individual. Considering that this example is based on attempts to reconnect with an old friend, the idea of using a social networking site to try and trace a debtor seems virtually impossible: especially as they are considerably less likely to respond positively to a message or friend request!

Evidently the motives for attempting to track a debtor are for the most part different to those when tracking down an old friend, but both practices are in fact very similar. In each case it is likely that you will have a name, previous contact details and mutual acquaintances to work with, but little more. Similarly, neither an old friend nor an elusive debtor are likely to be actively seeking you, hence the onus is on you to do the legwork. As has been previously established, although definitely a worthy starting place, Facebook is on the most part unlikely to yield success in either instance. But where do you go from here?

If your aim is to find an old friend then a great place to continue your search would be your personal phone book, and a day dedicated to calling all those people who may well still be in touch with the chosen friend, this is however a less effective idea if attempting to find a debtor. Although there is a high chance that an elusive debtor has merely forgotten to give you new contact details, is unaware of missed payments or is even oblivious to any debt, they are still unlikely to be jumping at the opportunity to find you and pay you back, similarly the chances are low that any of your friends will have their latest contact information.

With this in mind it seems sensible to look to one of the new breed of companies who specialise in tracking people down, whether you're looking to trace a debtor, or having trouble re-connecting with someone from your past. With options ranging from one off searches, to prolonged 2 year traces, websites like National Person Finder take the legwork out of finding that elusive individual and do so using legal cutting edge techniques in conjunction with more traditional sleuth methods. Many of these companies also offer smaller services, such as 'who lives there?' address searches.

There are a number of ways in which you can attempt to trace or reconnect with someone, but unless you strike it lucky with Facebook or another social network, the use of a dedicated business specialising in the industry could save hours of work and more than cover its cost.

by Jamie Lyons on behalf of National Person Finder.