If you intend on marketing on Facebook, you're going to need friends and lots of them.
Some quick statistics that stand out are this:
What we'll cover here is how to increase that number substantially; but it will take work and effort on your part.
If you're using Facebook to market yourself and/or your products, you'll need to bring up that level quite a bit.
The nice thing is, once you have around 500 friends and are considered "popular" more people will start to gravitate towards you and you'll likely end up getting more friend requests than you can handle.
The first thing I want to point out is that you should not use software created to add friends to your list.
You'll gain more credibility by doing it "the hard way"; but the nice thing is, this "hard way" really isn't all that difficult.
So where do you start? The very first and I mean the VERY first thing you need to make sure of is that you've updated your own Facebook profile and have at least a few wall posts.
This way when you do as I suggest below, and someone visits your profile, they'll see that you are in fact a real person.
Plus, a picture of yourself goes a very long way in establishing trust.
If you are using a marketing photo or a product photo this won't give people the warm-fuzzies about you so make sure that you have an honest-to-goodness photo of yourself within your profile.
Next, we'll first head out to find a few groups within Facebook that have quite a few members themselves already.
Simply log-in to Facebook and in the search box at the top of the page, type in the overall description of the market that you're personally in.
For instance, if you're interested in Internet Marketing, then type that phrase in the search box.
If you're interested in SEO, then type that phrase in the box.
The next page defaults to showing you "all results" but instead, you want just the groups - so click on the groups link on the left hand side of the page.
Take a look through the groups and read the description of them to see if it would be a good fit for you.
If so, join that group.
And you don't have to limit yourself to just one, feel free to join as many as you'd like.
However, I would caution you to not join them all at the same time.
Find a group, join it, and participate in it! Say hello, describe yourself to others in the group and so on.
Get yourself known a little bit before moving on to the next step which is...
...
to send a friend request to those who are in the group with you.
When you do this be absolutely, 100% certain that you are adding a very specific message to those people.
For instance, if you're a member of the "Internet Marketing" group, then mention this when you send out your friend request.
Now, not all members are going to accept your request, but a lot of them will.
Don't forget to also seek out groups that talk about your other interests as well; and also consider joining groups that your friends have become a part of too.
Additionally you can also post a Facebook badge on your website or your blog.
You can find these badges at http://www.
Facebook.
com/badges.
This way your website visitors will see that you are on Facebook and can click on your badge to be taken to your profile.
And don't forget, if you have a Twitter account, make a quick post about where to find you on Facebook to get even more followers.
It does take a concentrated effort to make these new friends but it will be well worth your troubles in the end.
If you continue this process you'll soon find that you have increased your friend count substantially.
Some quick statistics that stand out are this:
- The average Facebook user has around 130 friends.
- At 500 friends you're considered "popular" (and I really hated using that term because it sounds so "high school")
- When you reach the status of 800 - around 1,000 friends you're bordering on internet celebrity-status
- And at 5,000 friends, you're practically a superstar.
What we'll cover here is how to increase that number substantially; but it will take work and effort on your part.
If you're using Facebook to market yourself and/or your products, you'll need to bring up that level quite a bit.
The nice thing is, once you have around 500 friends and are considered "popular" more people will start to gravitate towards you and you'll likely end up getting more friend requests than you can handle.
The first thing I want to point out is that you should not use software created to add friends to your list.
You'll gain more credibility by doing it "the hard way"; but the nice thing is, this "hard way" really isn't all that difficult.
So where do you start? The very first and I mean the VERY first thing you need to make sure of is that you've updated your own Facebook profile and have at least a few wall posts.
This way when you do as I suggest below, and someone visits your profile, they'll see that you are in fact a real person.
Plus, a picture of yourself goes a very long way in establishing trust.
If you are using a marketing photo or a product photo this won't give people the warm-fuzzies about you so make sure that you have an honest-to-goodness photo of yourself within your profile.
Next, we'll first head out to find a few groups within Facebook that have quite a few members themselves already.
Simply log-in to Facebook and in the search box at the top of the page, type in the overall description of the market that you're personally in.
For instance, if you're interested in Internet Marketing, then type that phrase in the search box.
If you're interested in SEO, then type that phrase in the box.
The next page defaults to showing you "all results" but instead, you want just the groups - so click on the groups link on the left hand side of the page.
Take a look through the groups and read the description of them to see if it would be a good fit for you.
If so, join that group.
And you don't have to limit yourself to just one, feel free to join as many as you'd like.
However, I would caution you to not join them all at the same time.
Find a group, join it, and participate in it! Say hello, describe yourself to others in the group and so on.
Get yourself known a little bit before moving on to the next step which is...
...
to send a friend request to those who are in the group with you.
When you do this be absolutely, 100% certain that you are adding a very specific message to those people.
For instance, if you're a member of the "Internet Marketing" group, then mention this when you send out your friend request.
Now, not all members are going to accept your request, but a lot of them will.
Don't forget to also seek out groups that talk about your other interests as well; and also consider joining groups that your friends have become a part of too.
Additionally you can also post a Facebook badge on your website or your blog.
You can find these badges at http://www.
Facebook.
com/badges.
This way your website visitors will see that you are on Facebook and can click on your badge to be taken to your profile.
And don't forget, if you have a Twitter account, make a quick post about where to find you on Facebook to get even more followers.
It does take a concentrated effort to make these new friends but it will be well worth your troubles in the end.
If you continue this process you'll soon find that you have increased your friend count substantially.