The Mark Zuckerberg Guide to Building Facebook Profiles

Who better?

When marketers are faced with building a powerful Facebook profiles, they are quick to say:

Hey, I’m no Zuckerberg!

But really, who better than Zuckerberg to copy? Not only does he know the ins and outs of Facebook, but he knows what Facebook users like.

So lets see what good ol’ Zuck can teach you about creating a powerful Facebook profile.

Step #1: To be a cool kid, you have to be friends with cool kids

As you already know, Mark is well connected. Not only does he know famous web celebrities like Sean Parker, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen, but he also knows Barack Obama.

When you are friends with the cool kids, you are naturally perceived as being “cool”. When you are perceived as being cool, people will start requesting you to become their friend.

So if you want to create a Facebook profile that’s not just popular, but powerful, you need to start requesting the cool kids to become your “friend”. Many of them will say no because they don’t know you, but for every 10 cool kids you request 1 to 3 will accept your friendship.

You’ll need to do this until 100 influential people accept your friend request. Once you reach that point, you’ll notice that a lot of random people on a daily basis will request your friendship on Facebook. The reason for this is usually because influencers have a lot of friends and their friends tend to look through their profile to see whom they are also friends with.

Step #2: Don’t forget about your real friends

Now that you are friends with the in crowd, you shouldn’t let it get to your head. These influencers are really busy and have so many friends that they’ll rarely bother to read your profile or even like/comment the stuff you put on your wall.

In order to counter act this you’ll actually have to add your real friends on Facebook, just like how Mark is still friends with the people he knew before he became rich. From family members to childhood friends, you want to be friends with people who actually care about you because they’ll care about what you have to say.

You typically can find your real friends on Facebook by giving them access to your email account. Through it, they’ll be able to see who you communicate with on a regular basis and see if those people are on Facebook. If they are, the system will suggest that you add them as a friend.

Step #3: Don’t be shy

Mark isn’t the most out going guy. However, just because you may be shy or awkward in real life doesn’t mean you have to be that way online.

Feel free to make your profile very thorough, upload some pictures of yourself, write on your wall and most importantly start writing on your friends’ walls. If you don’t become more social you won’t do well on Facebook or any social networking website, for that matter.

The strategy I like to use is:

1. Post on your wall daily – I typically like to post something interesting that happened to me, or something I learned or even a quote. What I’ve found is that quotes tend to go the most viral on Facebook.
2. Engage with your friends on your wall – when my friends comment on my wall I try to do my best to respond to them. This lets them, as well as others, know that I care to hear what they have to say and more importantly I appreciate them. Remember, no one likes talking to themselves.
3. Engage with your friends – every day I “like” at least one thing one of my friends says and comment on at least one of their profiles. I try to do this with friends who typically don’t engage on my wall as it encourages new people to interact with my wall.
4. Don’t be predictable – once a week I like to do something out of the ordinary so that it boosts engagement more than normal. This usually means that I am posting something that is either really funny or somewhat controversial. One of my unpredictable postings was “If eye-rolling burned calories, women would never have to diet.”
5. Don’t create enemies – you can easily create enemies with what you post on Facebook. You’ve spent so long gaining friends, why would you want to risk losing them? I typically avoid posting political or religious things onFacebook. Heck, even after I posted that eye-rolling quote I posted one about men so I wouldn’t seem sexist: “If ball-scratching burned calories, men would never have to diet”.

Step #4: Not all friends are equal

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t accept everyone as his friend, which means you shouldn’t either. So instead of just accepting anyone that you know, you should be a bit scientific as Facebook limits your profile to 5000 friends.

After capping out at 5000 friends I did a bit of digging into my Facebook profile and I quickly learned a few things:

• Little is the new big – although it’s wise to be friends with a few influencers, your goal shouldn’t be to friend them all. Although 47% of my friends have over 500 connections (people who their friends with), they only account for 21% of my engagement. Friends who have less than 500 connections account for 79% of the engagement on my profile wall.
• Go worldwide – 62% of my friends aren’t located in the United States. Those friends account for over 83% of the engagement on my Facebook wall.
• Women are powerful – 16% of my friends are female, yet they account for 22% of the engagement on my wall. I wish I befriended more females earlier on, but I guess it’s too late as I am capped out at 5000 friends.

Before you go and cap out your profile at 5000 friends, don’t make the same mistakes I did. Be careful about who you accept as a friend as it can affect how powerful your profile will be.

Step #5: There’s nothing wrong with self-promoting.

One thing that Zuckerberg tends to do is promote himself on Facebook. Heck, he does this on his Fan Page. From promoting his Time Magazine cover to being on Saturday Night Live, he lets everyone know what he is up to.

Don’t be afraid to let others know what you are doing with your business because it’s not only a good way to get traffic, but it can also drive customers.

I let all of my friends know what my company is up to, I also go as far as promoting my personal brand on Facebook. Every time I write a blog post, I share it on my Facebook wall.

Over the last few years I’ve learned that if you want to self promote, timing is everything. I’ve posted on my Facebook profile during each day of the week and even during holidays. I’ve even posted every single hour during the day imaginable. With my friend base, I tend to get the most engagement when I post between the hours of 8am and 11am PST. And the peak days for me tend to be Monday, Wednesday or Thursday.

Conclusion

If you follow Mark Zuckerberg’s footsteps, chances are you won’t become a billionaire like him. But what you can expect is to create a Facebook profile that isn’t just popular, but will be powerful.

Stop wasting time, get out there and build up your Facebook presence. No matter what business venture or career path you decide to take, you can always use your Facebook profile to promote it.

And if you are one of those people that think Facebook is a waste of time, think again. It’s the second most popular website on the Internet. It doesn’t matter what you think, you have no choice but to be on it.