It feels rewarding to write a Facebook status update that’s funny enough to draw a chain of comments from your friends. But a poorly written Facebook status update can bring shame to your friends and jubilation to your enemies (although, if you’re enemies, why are you friends with them on Facebook?).

This article will provide a handful of useful tips to keep in mind when you’re making your single sentence status masterpieces, and provide you a few clever examples to get you rolling.

“What’s on your mind?” the Facebook status bar queries.

There are a range of possible responses to this simple question. You could write something mundane enough to bore your friends to tears - but no one cares how stressed you are about your job or how cute your kids are. You could go for something zany and outlandish - but you know your relatives will be interrupting your mobile web browsing with phone calls to check that you're (more or less) sane and sober.

This article provides four secrets to writing great Facebook status messages.