1. Start where you stand- Look at the REAL or IMAGINED needs, desires, fantasies that people like you, have and share around you, and work on that. True, the original idea might have come for building a Harvard connections network, much like a linkedIn. But, Mark built FACEMASH, a compare site on “hotness” and put all the pictures he could filch and hack from sorority house facebook sites. This is still one of the apps which all newbies on Facebook spend at least 15 minutes or longer with- rating their friends.

2. Focus on Fire Starters- The critical point for early adoption is to hang out with other early movers. One interesting insight shared by one of characters in the movie was- “hey! my inbox is flooded with some 75 invites I got from folks I know to join this network, in the last 2 days”. Focus on that statement- FOLKS I KNOW, and then my inbox got flooded.

3. Use Authenticity- Facemash, the hotness comparison site, probably the precursor to FaceBook, used real faces, albeit without permission and probably breached every privacy law in the process. It was also the reason why a huge number of folks got on board and crashed the servers in 4 hours of being up. Nothing beats REAL people, PEOPLE you know, than hanging out among anonymous strangers. The Social Network has almost killed the internet chat room, and is about to KILL email as we used to know it!

4. Build Reach in Layers- There’s no magic here, but most folks get this part wrong when they go building linkedin communities, facebook pages, or even social media marketing campaigns. One size does not fit all, and too much reach, too early, can kill. Go after your users, your audience, one fraternity group/ sorority club at a time. Today, all social networks encourage you to check other friends on your gmail, yahoo, hotmail email ID’s. How many such invites do you accept? go back to point number 2 to understand why you accept the invites you do. To know more, read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point”.

5. Focus on interactivity- What do you do after the ‘friend’ likes your FaceBook fan page? do you re-tweet, or shoutout, or #FF on twitter? Mark focussed on offline activity. Relationship status, political views, relogious views, help folks to find people like themselves to hang out with offline. What offline behaviour, social or otherwise does your #social_network, #socialmedia_marketing campaign encourage?

Read More of these tips at Jay Vikrams Blog