Popularity on Facebook

With the advent of social networking websites, it is now possible to document and track just how popular you are with the rest of the world. This is great for those people who are actually popular, but what about the rest of us who are still trying to accumulate cool points? Luckily one of the most popular social networking sites, Facebook.com, makes it easy. Here are few tips to make the most of your networking experience:

Invite Friends: If you've met a person, seen a person, smelled a person, recognize the name, know someone with a similar name, like a profile picture, or can in any possible way relate to someone - invite them to be your friend. Worried about rejection? Fear not - Facebook won't tell you when you're rejected so you don't have to worry about feeling like a loser or worse, having everyone else know you got turned down.

Install Applications: The more applications (or "apps" for short) you can fit on your profile page the better. Make sure you include the really obnoxious apps that show how smart or popular you are, as well as the ones that allow all of your cool friends to leave you messages. When you install the apps make sure you also send them to all of your friends. You wouldn't want anyone to feel left out or less cool than you, right?

Leave Messages: The more often you post on your friends' profiles, the more often your name gets listed in the Facebook News Feed. Just make sure you leave messages that include lots of emoticons, acronyms, inside jokes, misspelled words, or just make you sound plain drunk. None of your friends will be impressed with complete sentences and coherent thoughts. If your friend has an Advanced Wall, make sure you also post sparkly clip-art and greetings for every obscure holiday.

Share Everything: Don't be selfish, all of your friends (heck, everyone in the world!) want to know everything you're doing. Make sure you update your status at least once every few hours. Also be sure to post pictures documenting everything in your life. This is especially true if you have recently had a baby. People don't just want to see your baby; they want to see the whole birthing process! College admissions panels and job recruiters love this material; it really gives a thorough picture of who you are so they have better information to discuss in their meetings.

Create Events: Once you're popular, you should be able to host cool parties, right? Facebook has a great feature that allows you to publicize events to all of your friends. There are no stipulations on what constitutes an event, so make sure you create an event for every possible thing you can think of. This includes events that aren't really happening. Also, if you lose your cell phone, consider it an event. You need to invite everyone you know to help you find your cell phone, or at least to write down your new number.

Use these tips wisely and you will be well on your way to thousands of friends. Also make sure you distribute the link to this article on all of your friends' walls, your status updates, and your profile information so everyone will know how devoted you are to your newfound popularity.