Sports and music is the key to popularity on Facebook

Data crimped from Facebook has found that if you want people to Like your status and become your friend, then writing about sports and music is the key.

Facebook looked at 1 million status updates (stop seething, they were all anonymous) and found that those who were 'popular' on the site liked to use the pronoun 'you' and speak about music and sports.

It seems that they are also all about themselves, preferring not to speak about their family and they are emotionless in their updates.

"Word usage of more 'popular' people also differs from people with a lower friend count," said Facebook.

"They write longer updates, and use more words referring to music and sports. More 'popular' people also talk less about their families, are less emotional overall, use fewer past tense and present tense verbs and words related to time."

They sound like idiots to us.

A lot of negativity

Facebook also found that if you use negative comments in your update, then this will garner less Likes but it will increase comments.

"Positive emotional updates receive fewer comments – perhaps there's nothing more to say," says Facebook.

"Negative emotional updates receive more comments – perhaps as a consolation."

So if you want to be popular, receive lots of comments and Likes, we suggest you say in your status update: "I hate sport, music and you. But I really like being liked."

For more information on the status update breakdown, head over to the Facebook blog.