You Like Me! You Really Like Me! Seven Ways To Boost Your Popularity Online.

So you thought you left high school far behind? All those cliques and crowds and cool kids? The fads, the fashion, the frenzy to be popular?

Well, guess what? It’s baaaack.

But as most of you well know, in the Web 2.0 era, it’s called Social Media. And just like in high school, how someone winds up as a popular kid on the social networking sites has been largely a mystery. Until now.

Today we’re de-mystifying the puzzling path to popularity online, starting with these 7 tips:

Smile
A recent study by British psychologists proved that smiling in your profile picture may add up to more friends. What the researchers found after conducting research on Facebook was that smiling students were surrounded by others who were also smiling in small “happiness clusters.” Those who were not smiling seem to be located more peripherally in the network. After performing statistical analysis, they determined that those who smile also tend to have more friends – on average one extra friend, which is good considering that people only tend to have six close friends. Those who smiled were also more likely to be at the center of the network when compared to those who don’t. Wanna boost your popularity? Show those pearlies!

Pick the right social network for you
The sheer number of social networking sites can be daunting. But like High School, that doesn’t mean you should join everything from Chamber Singers to Student Council to Goths R Us. Visit the sites you find interesting but don’t feel pressured to sign up. If you’re networking for business, you can actually hurt your company’s online reputation if you sign up, visit once or twice, and then never return. Especially in this economy — not keeping up with your profile may leave the impression that your business has closed (or you’ve been fired.) So choose your sites carefully — not even Sally Field could be ‘really, really’ liked everywhere.

It’s nice to be important. But it’s more important to be nice.
Okay, so it’s corny. But there’s a reason we all secretly nod right along with this old adage — it’s true. Being nice to the newbie who has just tweeted for the first time and is trying to grow his Twitter account; replying with a ‘Thanks for the follow’; or commenting with an @ response is one of the secrets of being one of the popular kids on Twitter. Making a practice of automatically Following the person who Followed you (unless someone appears to be an obvious spammer) is another way to be ‘really, really liked.’

Here’s another vintage truism: Don’t worry about being interesting. Be interested instead.

We live in a world of Me Media. Every post, every tweet, every comment is all about ME, ME, ME. This is why it is so refreshing online when someone steps outside their universe and pays attention to yours. Maybe they actually read your blog and leave an insightful comment. Maybe they pick up on something you tweeted and take the conversation offline, so it can go beyond 140 characters. Maybe they listen to your job woes — and send you a link from a job post that sounds just like you.

Make your online connection more powerful — meet in person.

At the recent WOMMA Summit in Vegas, Jason Anello, Ideologist at Yahoo, talked about the power of tieing online experiences to the real world, citing the value of tapping into all our senses, especially touch. ‘We’re not seeing each other anymore’ — and even our communications, like email, are missing inflection and emotion. So when we do connect in the real world, the online bond actually strengthens. It’s not always possible to actually see your buddy in Taipei or the Dalmatian Islands in the flesh. But if you do have the chance to tweet-up, meet-up or attend events with your online friends, go for it.

Learn the (underground) rules and play by them.

Each social networking site has its own ‘underground’ rules beyond the obvious FAQs. For example, some people won’t accept a Facebook friend request if they haven’t met the Requester in person. On Twitter, some users won’t return the Follow if the Tweeter hasn’t filled out a profile or posted relevant account information. If your Facebook friend or Linkedin connection request seems to be eternally pending, this may be a tactful way of declining. (Related to ‘I’m washing my hair that night’ or ‘my cousin’s in town that weekend’ during Prom season.) Keep in mind that many users divide their social networks into personal or business and prefer not to blend the two. Your Linkedin connection may not want to check out the youtube of your pre-schooler’s star turn as as SpongeBob or your Emo alter ego on MySpace Music.

Be real.
That’s the whole point of social networking. Be a real, expressive, honest to goodness person. Don’t just shoot links, post self-serving Status updates or in general, use social networks in a way that increases the already-ballooning bogus quotient. Authenticity is the new cool.