Once you respond to our question, let your friends know and tell them to smile at your response. Why push for the smiles? Five Formspringers behind the top smiled responses to tomorrow’s Formspring question will get a promise from Anthony that he’ll respond to their questions directly from his Formspring account next week.

We’ll post the question from our Formspring account tomorrow around 9 a.m, PST and we’ll announce the top smiled responses early next week. You know what they say — Smile early, Smile often for the best chance to win!

UPDATE:

We just asked the question. Click through here to respond to the question “What’s something that’s beautiful to you?”

Across social networking sites, there are a variety of ways relationships and actions are structured. From “liking” to “following” to “reblogging” to “smiling”, you can choose how to interact with your friends and followers on your own terms. As one of the few social networking sites that gives its members the choice of whether they want to use anonymity as part of their experience, we thought it would be interesting to provide some background info on where and how Formspringers use anonymity on the site.

As we’ve grown as a company, we’ve added new features, new ways of asking questions, and new settings that make questions with names attached to them an ever-increasing part of our site. In the past two years, the percentage of responses on Formspring that are to anonymous questions has dropped by almost 75 percent.

Much of this has to do with our site’s growth over the past 2+ years. When we launched in late 2009, many of the questions being asked were from people who weren’t signed in and thus couldn’t send questions with their names. Since then, more than 28 million users have signed up and joined the Formspring community. With becoming a member on Formspring also comes the ability to send a question and keep your name attached. When you consider this, along with new questions coming from celebrities, favorite publications, new friends and others, it’s no surprise that more and more questions on Formspring are sent with a name. We still believe there’s value in anonymous questions, whether you’re a rabbi responding to questions from a congregant or a personal finance expert responding to inquiries about job performance.

Of course we know not everyone wants to ask — or receive — anonymous questions. That’s why we’ve added settings so you can choose if you’d like to receive these questions or not. It’s totally up to you. And if you ever receive an anonymous question you don’t like, we’ve added in a host of safety features that make it easy for you manage and control your experience.

Our team is hard at work building a great service for discovering more about your friends and people you care about. In the past few months alone we’ve introduced the Formspring directory, topic pages where you can ask questions of other Formspringers with similar interests, added public follow and just recently, added comments.

We’ll continue to add new features and update existing ones in 2012, so stay tuned — we’ve got some great projects in the works.

You’re in control
You’re in control of how you get questions and what’s on your profile, so it makes sense that you’re in control over who can comment. By default, only people you publicly follow and the person you responded to can comment on your responses. This approach ensures that everyone who is part of your conversation is someone you’re already familiar with.

If you want comments from your friends, but haven’t made who you follow public, now is a good time to do that. There are two other setting choices for people who want to open the floodgates a bit more or don’t want comments at all. However, we will not allow comments with hidden names.

Because we know conversations can go on, and on, and on, we’re also giving you control over the most valuable part of a conversation: the last word. On any of your responses, you can leave a final comment and then end the conversation.

Notifications & Smiles
Conversations are constantly happening on Formspring, so keeping track in an intuitive way is key. Not too long ago, we introduced a notification alert to let you know when something important to you happened on the site. You can use the notification alert to keep track of comments, and we’ll also send an email when you get comments on your responses.

Smiles are a popular way to give feedback, so we definitely wanted to make them part of comments. Like responses, anyone can smile any comment. For those constantly checking the smile count on their profile, comment smiles will count toward your weekly and all-time smiles.

The Android app allows you to take Formspring on the road and not miss out on any of the fun. All the actions you regularly do on the site are built in to the app, including asking, responding, smiling, adding a photo and following (both public and private). Beyond that, we’ve built in notifications, so you’ll know as soon as a new question, response, smile or follow comes in. And, we’ve made it super simple to find friends, since you can send questions to contacts on your phone who might not be on Formspring yet.

For those who don’t have an Android, iPhone or iPod Touch, there’s good news for you, too. Over the next few months we’ll be updating the mobile Web version of Formspring as well, updating the features available and making it much more fun to use.

The Android app is big news, but it’s not our only news; we’re also rolling out a new homepage in the coming days which gives newcomers a better picture of what’s actually happening on Formspring (Hint: To check it out for yourself, sign out of Formspring later this week or grab a sneak peek right here).

Yes, there are questions and responses, but there are also members meeting each other around interests, celebrities taking time to respond to their fans’ most pressing questions, and thousands of people building conversation around the question of the day. Along with the homepage redesign we’ve also refreshed our About section to make it easier to learn about Formspring, who we are, what we do, and what you can do on the site.

Going through high school has its challenging moments. Can you imagine going to class while pregnant and single watched by millions of viewers across the world? What started with a personal blog and led to being cast on MTV’s “16 and Pregnant,” is now a book; Ashley Salazar is sharing her story in a new memoir called Bittersweet Blessing which will be released January 24th. As a longtime Formspringer, we reached out to her to learn more about what her book is all about.

“I had always wanted to turn my blog into a published book and people all over started suggesting the idea. By writing this book I can share the hard truth on how it isn’t easy becoming pregnant at such a young age and how difficult dealing with physical and mental feelings can be when you haven’t even learned all about yourself yet,” Ashley said. “Hopefully people everywhere, especially young girls facing unplanned and teen pregnancies can see the reality and seriousness of [getting pregnant at a young age].”

The book takes readers back before MTV came into her life and forward to her life today as a college student. “Most of all, Bittersweet Blessing describes two sides of the spectrum, parenting and adoption, and how I had to face both,” she said.

During filming the show, she discovered Formspring and thought it was an interesting way to communicate and get to know others. Two years later she still uses it to reach out to people who are interested in her story.

“Direct communication with people has helped me get the word about my book, blog, and story out there in a more personal way. I can answer any questions about my story and especially questions about sex and contraception that they might be too afraid to ask! Most of all, it can be anonymous. What I love most about Formspring is being able to communicate with my followers on a more personal level and answer any questions that they might have had or been wondering about.”

Thanks to Ashley for sharing her story with Formspring! If you have questions about “16 & Pregnant”, Bittersweet Blessing or what Ashley is up to now, head to her Formspring page. Bittersweet Blessing is available anywhere books are sold online and major retail book stores. When you live through challenges like Ashley has, do you share your experience with others?

First, we’re adding a web notification alert to our top navigation bar. This alert will light up anytime someone smiles your response, responds to your question, or when there’s important news that’s directly relevant to you. When you click on a notification, it’ll take you directly to the corresponding response or content. We also keep a record of the last 100 notifications, so you can go back and review older notifications. If you like relying on emails to tell you about smiles or responses, you can continue to do so, but for those Formspringers that would rather find out what’s going on by signing in, you can now rely on the notification alert.

Second, we’ve updated the emails we send when you have questions waiting for a response. One of the most popular requests we get is to include the text of the question in the email we send you when there’s a new question in your inbox.  Moving forward, we’ll be doing just that.

In addition to including the text of the questions you receive in your email, we’ll also send you a daily summary of questions awaiting your response. Instead of getting notifications throughout the day, you’ll get one summary email that lists all the questions you’ve received in a 24 hour period. We know that when someone sends a question to you and only you, it’s one you’ll generally want to pay special attention to and respond right away. That’s why we’ll continue to send you an email if you receive a direct question.

The end result: Fewer emails combined with more content included in the emails we do send. We think that’s a winning combination.

Formspring is thrilled to be a sponsor and partner of The Great American NO BULL Challenge, a first-of-its-kind anti-bullying video contest and awards show. The Great American NO BULL Challenge gives teenagers the chance to compete for $25,000 in prizes and the opportunity to have their winning videos introduced to the world at the awards show. Following the contest, the NO BULL Teen Video Awards in July will shine the spotlight on teens from across the country who are standing up to cyberbullying.

How can Formspringers get involved and stand up to bullying? By filming their own video with a NO BULL theme (the makers of the first 150 videos submitted will receive a free goodie bag, too!). Videos can be uploaded on the NO BULL website and on the NO BULL Facebook page through March 14, 2012. If you have questions about creating a video, attending the awards show or anything else related to the NO BULL Challenge, you can ask them on the NO BULL Challenge Formspring. Once the contests ends, voting will then begin; 15 finalists will be the VIPs in attendance at the NO BULL Teen Video Awards show in San Francisco, July 21, 2012.

We can’t wait to see the videos that teens across the U.S. create to take a stand against bullying. As part of our partnership with the contest and awards show, we’ll be providing updates about submissions, finalists and other details, so stay tuned here and to our Formspring account for the latest info. May the best video win!

Remember that hilarious response you gave two months ago? The one that had tons of smiles on it?

If you’ve ever had trouble finding the most smiled-at responses to a question you’ve asked, or the best responses you or your friends have given in the past, then you can stop searching. Today we’re introducing a new feature that allows you to see your top smiled responses, check out top responses from other Formspringers, and even see the most smiled responses to a question you’ve asked multiple people at once.

To see the top-smiled responses to a question you or someone else has asked, click through to the “All Responses” page and click the “top smiled responses” option to see the most smiled responses instead of most recent ones. Similarly, click the “top smiled responses” option on your own profile or a friend’s Formspring page to see which responses made people smile the most.

If you’re interested in getting more smiles on your responses, one of the best things you can do is smile at responses you find interesting, funny or LOL-worthy. Let us know – what’s making you smile today?

Change up your style or create one: Fashion gurus Stephanie and Melissa of The Fashion Citizen shoot style videos corresponding to the time of year so you’re never out of style or out of budget. They also don’t sacrifice a lot of money for good looks.

Re-design your crib: Grace Bonney, founder of Design*Sponge, has a background in interior and home makeovers. She’s been featured on Good Morning America and The Martha Stewart Show. Why not snap a picture of your room and ask her for some tips?

Improve your photography: Capture 2012 in pictures! What’s a better way to remember places you visited, memorable food dishes or good times with friends than by snapping a picture? Talented photographers on Formspring who are happy to respond to questions from newbies include Jonas Peterson and Rosie Hardy.

Rosie Hardy takes risks with her images. What risks are you taking this year?

Increase your fitness and learn from the professionals: Houston Alexander has a background in Mixed Martial Arts and LA Fitness is a national sports club dedicated on educating people on nutrition and exercise.

Be positive: Share awesome responses on Formspring and get lots of smiles. This one is easy!

There’s nothing a question on Formspring loves more than getting an awesome response. These five questions should be feeling pretty good right now, as they got more responses than any other questions on Formspring this year:

#5: Who is the most important person in the world to you?

#4: What song is stuck in your head right now?

#3: Have you cried during a movie?

#2: What would you do if you won the lottery?

And the top most responded to question, with 434,643 responses is:

#1: What’s the first thing you check when you turn on your computer?
(Uh, duh, Formspring).

What questions would you like to see us asking in 2012?