Read an interesting article on how to build up your popularity on facebook. The suggestions seem well thought out, and if you are trying to increase your profile, would be well worth following. What it doesn’t go into though, is why you would want to. Unless you are trying to engage in a Myspace-esque “who’s got the most friends” game, I am not sure why you would want to use Facebook in this way.
One of the advantages of facebook over alternative social networks is the discrimination inherent in your networks, coupled with the scope of interactions. Proliferation of ‘friend collectors’ would cheapen the benefits of the medium. There are alternative reasons to try and build a profile, but for the ones I can think of there are better mediums. If you are trying to build business connections, then services like LinkedIn work better. If you want to get your opinion seen, blogging works well. If you want to communicate with like-minded individuals then there are innumerable topic specific forums. Even if it is large friend counts you are targeting, MySpace is an easier medium.
I like facebook, I have found it useful to keep in touch with friends and relatives, especially those in other countries. I am still waiting for the killer app to appear that will make it indispensable though. The platform is there but the feature is yet to appear. Unfortunately I have not yet worked out what that killer app is, or I would be out building it myself.
Site found via lifehacker.