10 Easy Steps to Get 5,000 Friends on Facebook in 90 Days!

As most of you already know, Facebook allows users to have up to 5,000 friends on their personal profiles, and once you reach that coveted benchmark, you will no longer be able to add more friends without deleting some first.  Many Facebook users that reach that limit then start focusing on building an unlimited following at their Facebook fan page.

While building your fan page is definitely an important step and a great long term play, there are tremendous benefits in reaching the max of 5,000 friends on your personal Facebook profile, and if those friends happen to be the target audience of your products or service, then this can give you a tremendous advantage in the marketplace to promote your business.

Having 5,000 friends on your personal Facebook profile is going to dramatically assist you in Promoting your Pages, Groups & Events as well as Branding & Credibility.  In this article I am going to teach you 10 simple steps to increase your Facebook friends list to 5,000 in as little as 90 days.

I hope you take this seriously and make it happen!  Enjoy :)

1. Request 30 New Friends Per Day
2. Have People Suggest Friends For You
3. Provide Massive Value
4. Create A Social Media Signature
5. Add More Content To Your Info Page
6. Create A Great Profile Picture
7. Import Your Entire Email List
8. Create Viral Facebook Videos
9. Start Targeted Facebook Groups
10. Comment, Comment, Comment

1. REQUEST 30 NEW FRIENDS PER DAY:

The most obvious way to increase your Facebook friends list is to send friend requests to other Facebook users.  While this might seem like an extremely obvious concept at first glance, I can assure you that there are some important steps you must follow in order to grow fast and effectively without being a spammer or getting your account suspended.

I have 2 simple rules when it comes to requesting friends

1. Only send friend requests to my target audience of like-minded entrepreneurs.
2. Avoid getting suspended from sending too many friend requests per day.

Facebook does not publish the exact number of daily friend requests that they consider spam, but I have found the sweet spot to be right around 30 friend requests per day.  I know that some of you are going to test the limits and request 40-50 per day or more and many of you may never even have a problem with that, but I stay safe with 30 requests because I do not want to spend a couple of months building something just to have it taken away.

There is a common misunderstanding about sending friend requests and receiving friend requests.  I am suggesting that you send around 30 friend requests per day, but you can have unlimited people request to be your friend per day.

Let’s assume that you request 30 new friends per day every day for the next 90 days.  That would be 2,700 friend requests, and let’s assume that for whatever reason only about 50% accept your friend request in return.  This will generate you roughly 1500 new targeted friends and you would be over a quarter of the way to your goal already.

The easiest way to find these new friends is by searching for Facebook groups related to your target audience and browsing through members and adding them one at a time.  For example, if you are looking to network with Realtors, you would find a group for agents and go through the list until you have added 30 members for the day.  Then the next day you would repeat the process until you have added everyone in that group.  Then you simply find another group and start over again.

It is OK if you miss a day or two here and there but if you want 5,000 friends in 90 days you have to learn how to make this a habit!

2. HAVE PEOPLE SUGGEST FRIENDS FOR YOU:

Since you are limited to how many friend requests you can send out per day, the key is to get other people to request your friendship.  One of the easiest ways to do this is to have your friends suggest their friends to you.  They can do this by visiting your personal profile and clicking the link on the bottom left hand side of your profile where it says “Suggest Friends For…”.

Your friends can select all of their friends by clicking on them, and then click "Send Suggestions"

Hopefully they refer ALL of their friends so that your friends list grows quickly!  I helped one of my clients get to 3,000 friends in one week just through this strategy alone!  Here are a couple of tips to assist you in finding someone who will suggest friends for you.

• Offer to exchange services or provide something of value for them
• Suggest your friends to them in exchange for them suggesting their friends to you
• You can “help” them by sharing these tips in exchange for them promoting your profile :)

Come up with unlimited creative ideas to make it a win-win situation…

3. PROVIDE MASSIVE VALUE:

One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make on Facebook is that they request friends and then spam them with their latest and greatest opportunities right off the bat.  My suggestion is that you create as much value as possible for your friends before talking to them about your business.  When you share quality content it will motivate your friends to comment on your posts and updates and perhaps even pass them on to their friends.  The more that you can create this viral activity, the more exposure that you will gain and the more friends that will request you.

The first step in providing massive value is to find some awesome content that you can share with your target audience.  I would recommend bookmarking a list of blogs that offer relevant content and sharing their articles with your users.  For example, you are on my blog now, which means that you are finding this content useful.  The next step would be to share this article on your Facebook profile to provide value for your following.

There are generally two easy ways to share articles on Social Networks.  First off you should start by looking for a Facebook icon on the page.  If the blog has one, then you can simply click on it and it will automatically share the article to your website.  This same process can work for Twitter and any other social networks that they feature.

At the end of my articles, readers can click these links to share my post on their favorite social network

If they do not have an easy shortcut link to share the article then you will need to copy the URL of the page and visit your Facebook profile and share it as a link.  You will be given the opportunity to edit the title, description & picture then leave a personal note about the article and share it!  Here are a few pictures to explain the process:

If you are learning a lot from the posts on my blog, then instead of “paying me back” you can “pay it forward” by sharing my articles with your Facebook friends.  This is the ultimate win-win situation because I am taking the time to create the quality content for you to share, and you are helping to promote my articles, and at the same time you are providing value for your audience and increasing your friend base at the same time!

For a full listing of all my articles, visit: http://chrisrecord.com/topics/recent/

4. CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA SIGNATURE:

Most of you have an email signature that you already use, but do you have a Social Media Signature?  It is the same as your normal email signature but it includes links to your social networks where people can follow you.  A typical social media signature will usually include links to at least the following social networks:

TWITTER – FACEBOOK – LINKEDIN – YOUTUBE

The easiest way to implement this is to just add your social media profiles below your existing signature.  You can start with a line that says “Follow me on my social networks…” and then include your top profiles.  I highly recommend finding the “shortest” link to your profiles that you can find.  For example, if you are linking to Facebook you should set up your Custom Facebook Username and link directly to it.

Here is an example of my Social Media Signature (with my email and phone number changed)

–
Chris Record, CEO
Record Investments, Inc.
888-555-1212 Cell
example@email.com
http://www.chrisrecord.com

Follow me on my social networks…

TWITTER –> http://twitter.com/chrisrecord
FACEBOOK –> http://facebook.com/recordbreaker
YOUTUBE –> http://youtube.com/facebook4business
LINKEDIN –> http://linkedin.com/in/cashflowchampion

* Tip: You always want to include the http:// before every link so that it will become an active link that your readers can click on.

Another powerful use of a social media signature is making a habit of adding a link to your Facebook emails.  This is a very clean and professional way to always be promoting  your networks without it coming across as spam.  Another cool benefit of this feature is that you can always mix up the link that you are promoting, and even target the link based on the email you are sending.

For example, when I send an email on Facebook I will often ask myself if there is a relevant article on my blog that I can promote while I am at it.  The key to growing your networks quickly is to always be promoting them in a way that doesn’t take too much time and effort.

Here are some screenshots to explain this process:

5. ADD MORE CONTENT TO YOUR INFO PAGE:

The more content that you have on your “info” tab of your profile, the easier that people will be able to find you when they do keyword searches on Facebook.  This same rule also applies to how many status updates that you have, because those are now searchable on Facebook as well.

Some people feel that this step is a waste of time, or they lack the creativity to come up with answers to these questions, but if your goal is to grow your friends list to 5,000 people in 90 days, then I feel this is an important factor in making that happen.  Your answers should have two primary purposes:

1. BRANDING – This is a chance to brand yourself.  When other Facebook users consider adding you as a friend they might want to see what your interests are before making a decision.
2. KEYWORDS – The content that you choose to feature on your info page is also searchable text so think of books and interests that your target market also like.

In a nutshell, it is always important to take the time once to fill in this content, and then forever receive the benefits of it…

6. CREATE A GREAT PROFILE PICTURE:

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”

Most Facebook users do not understand the true value of a great profile picture.  Think about it for a second.  Face-Book.  It is ALL about your face, and you only get one chance to make a great first impression!  When other Facebook users are browsing through friends of friends they will first look at your picture before anything else.  You want to make it stand out from the rest with something original if possible, and make sure that it is very professional with good lighting and of course a great smile!

Here is a screenshot of the current picture that I am using on my Facebook Fan Page.  You might need to start out with a simple cell phone picture for now, but it should be your immediate goal to get a better picture as soon as possible.  It’s as simple as dressing nice and asking a friend to take a few pictures of you for your profile.  If you don’t mind investing a few bucks, then have a professional take some pictures.  You can get 4-5 quality pictures and then mix it up every once in a while with a different version.

Sometimes we wake up and get dressed and we just feel really confident about ourselves for that day, and I will be that there are many other times that we don’t feel confident about our looks at all.  The next time that you have a day where you feel great, you should remind yourself to grab a camera and have someone take a few pictures of you.  I know it doesn’t seem important, but it really is!  You ARE the brand that people are looking at, and the way that you carry yourself and display yourself is what people will first take in.  If they feel comfortable with you, then they will be much more likely to do business with you.

Please make a commitment to upload a quality Facebook profile picture that clearly shows your face in a happy mood in a well-lit environment.  Feel free to use something temporarily for now until you find the right picture.

7. IMPORT YOUR ENTIRE EMAIL LIST:

When you first set up your Facebook account you are prompted to invite friends from your email account to look at your pictures.  Many people skip this option because they don’t understand it, and when they first join Facebook they are usually pretty cautious about who they want to become their friend.  Believe me, I felt the exact same way when I first set up my profile.

Assuming that you now have your profile set up professionally and you are looking to grow your friends list to 5,000 people, it would be very wise to revisit this option and invite everyone from your email account(s).  To do this you simply click on the “Invite Friends” link located under the Friends tab on the top navigation bar on Facebook.

Here is a direct link (http://www.facebook.com/invite.php).

The process is extremely user friendly.  If your email provider is Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail then you simply click on the logo and follow the instructions.  If you use a different email provider then you will need to click on the link that says “Import Email Addresses” and then click on the link that says “How to create a contact file”.  This process may seem a little difficult for non-techies, so if you have any questions, just leave them in the comments below and I will do my best to help you through the process.

* Tip: This email importing tool is a great way to import a database of emails that you may have a collection of.  I am not recommending that you spam people to invite total strangers, but I am suggesting that there is some flexibility here for the creative marketer that has a quality email list.  Also take note if you are importing more than a few hundred emails at a time, that Facebook may stall out and it will force you to retry the process again.  The key is to break your database down into groups of about 300 at a time, and also try not to invite more than about 1,000 people per day, this way it doesn’t come across as spam.

8. CREATE VIRAL FACEBOOK VIDEOS:

Did you know that Facebook is now the #3 video site behind YouTube and Hulu?

The reason for this dramatic growth is because Facebook Videos can go viral very quickly.  You have the ability to upload the video to your personal profile or fan page, and then tag any relevant friends that may be in the video or that want to see your latest videos.

* Tip: If you just randomly tag people in a totally irrelevant manner, they may get ticked off and remove you from their friends list, or write you a nasty email, so be sure to be as relevant as possible in everything that you do.

So think of some awesome videos that your target audience would love and create them, edit them, and upload them to Facebook!  Now you can easily share them on your profile, and share them on the profiles of your friends that want to see them.  If your video has enough quality to it hopefully your friends will want to post it on their profiles as well and it will start spreading rapidly across Facebook.

The perfect example of a viral video done well on Facebook is the Grasshopper Campaign (Public YouTube Version).  They created a motivational video for entrepreneurs and it had hundreds of thousands of views on Facebook as it was passed along.  They simply put a plug for their website at the end in a non-sales type way that made it very easy for people to want to pass it around.  I am sure that it drove a ton of traffic and business for Grasshopper, not to mention the awesome branding they received as well.

Every time that your video is spread virally, people will see a link to your profile as the user who uploaded the video.  This will cause people to check out your profile and request you as a friend.  Get creative and come up with some cool ideas for Facebook videos and encourage your friends to share them!  Also, you can use this same process with YouTube videos that you create as well.  The only downside is that you lose the ability to tag your friends in the videos, but you can still share them on your friends walls and via private messages.

9. START TARGETED FACEBOOK GROUPS:

Now that your personal profile has a professional touch and your friends list is growing like crazy, it is time to start creating targeted Facebook groups and fan pages.  For example, let’s say that you are a Real Estate Agent.  You may want to create a group for real estate agents in your metropolitan area, or perhaps even more targeted just for your city.  Then you can invite other real estate agents to join the group where you can all discuss changes to local laws, and related real estate matters.

But the hidden benefit of being an admin of a group or page is that you have the ability to message the entire group.  So as your group grows, it will quickly become more than just your existing friends who supported you at first.  You can now add a line to the bottom of all of your updates to the group that says “Add me as a personal friend on Facebook” and supply them with a direct link to your profile.

While you might not think this will do much for you at first, believe me that as some of your groups grow into the thousands you will start receiving dozens of friend requests with every single message.  And how difficult is it to add that simple line to the bottom of a message that you were planning on sending anyways?

There are obviously a ton of additional benefits of Facebook pages and groups for your business, but for now I just wanted to point out the valuable benefit of encouraging hundreds of thousands of people to add you as a friend with a simple email signature :)

* Tip: For some of your creative readers out there, why not joint venture or partner with somebody in a related industry to you that already has a group or page with several thousand members?  If they add you as an admin, you will be able to send out an email with your signature to thousands of people instantly without even having to create or promote a group yourself.  Get creative and this can be a goldmine for increasing your friend base!

Here are some example Facebook groups and pages that you can join and study from:

• Real Estate Investing
• 100,000 Real Estate Investors
• Lawyers are Liars
• Chris Record Fan Page
• Puppy Lovers
• Social Media Marketing 101
• Tony Horton P90X Trainer

10. COMMENT, COMMENT, COMMENT:

If you have attended any of my live Social Media Marketing trainings, then you already know that I hate wasting time on Facebook.  While this is an amazing resource for professionals it can also suck you in big time!  That is why I take so much time to write articles like this to really teach people how to actually use Facebook for business and not just for pleasure!

However, if you can spare just a few minutes each time you log on to quickly comment on recent posts from other people it can actually go a long ways towards giving yourself exposure and encouraging other users to add you as a friend.  Basically, every time that I log in, I quickly check the “news feed” on my home tab to see what my friends have recently posted.

When you only have a few hundred friends this is pretty easy to stay on top of, but when you have 5,000 friends it gets a little out of control!  Just do your best to quickly skim through and find quality posts that you find valuable.  You should respond with a very thoughtful comment and do it quickly so that you don’t waste too much time on this step.  The more that you get yourself out there, the easier it will be for people to find you.

For example, if your target market was people who were interested in social media, and you provided training for social media marketing, then you may want to scan through updates to see where you might be able to offer people advice or troubleshoot their questions.  You will quickly brand yourself as a social media coach and people will recognize and respect you for it.  The same thought process can work no matter what industry you are targeting.

BONUS TIP!!!

Make sure you set your profile up so that EVERYONE on Facebook can view it!  There is a section on Facebook that allows you to adjust your Privacy Settings and if you want more exposure, make sure that you are not limiting the number of people that can view your profile!  Other Facebook users are much more likely to add you as a friend if they can see more information about your first, rather than leaving it up to their imagination :)

These screenshots will help you through this process:

If you have learned a lot from this article and you feel that it is exactly what you needed to grow your friends base quickly, then please comment below and let me know your feedback!  If you have ANY QUESTIONS at all about any of the points that I made in this article, please ask and I will take the time to answer.  I truly appreciate you taking the time to read this post and I encourage you to SHARE it on Facebook to help me spread the word!  This is extremely valuable content that I am giving away for FREE, so pass it out quickly before your friends pay for it somewhere else :)

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE FORUM DISCUSSION ON THIS POST - (1) Posts

 Link to this page

 Link to this page

Check out these similar articles:

1. Facebook + Twitter + YouTube + Wordpress = Social Media Success! Social Media Marketing is taking the world by storm, and if you are a small business professional, you absolutely need...
2. BREAKING Facebook Analytics Feature Rolled Out on FB Fan Pages [VIDEO] At midnight tonight Facebook rolled out an Analytics feature on Pages and Groups that allows you to track the Raw...
3. 7 Free Videos on YouTube that Teach Professionals How to Use Facebook for Business Here is a link to 7 free videos that will show professionals how to use their Facebook account to create...
4. Facebook Usage Statistics 2009 On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched The Facebook, originally located at thefacebook.com.  Since then, the growth has been staggering.  The...
5. VIDEO: How to Use Facebook Events to Promote Your Business This video is a basic tutorial showing you how to leverage the Facebook event tool to promote your business. I...