Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had the perfect response to a grandmother who was just trying to get her granddaughters to 'date the nerd' in school - just in case he turns out to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.

'Even better would be to encourage them to *be* the nerd in their school so they can be the next successful inventor!' Zuckerberg gently corrected.

The post and reply became so popular that in one day it received over 25,000 likes and hundreds of comments.

Even hashtag #BetheNerd began circulating on Twitter.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg posted about his personal goal for 2016 - but it was a grandmother's innocent but old-fashioned comment about her granddaughters that got everyone's attention

Grandmother Darlene Hackemer Loretto (left) meant well when she told Mark Zuckerberg (right) she was encouraging her granddaughters to 'date the nerd' in school - little did she expect Zuck to answer her

The grandmother, Darlene Hackemer Loretto, had posted her comment on Zuckerberg's post describing his personal challenge for 2016 - building an advanced intelligence system to run his household.

Somewhat off-topic, Loretto commented: 'I keep telling my granddaughters to date the nerd in school, he may turn out to be a Mark Zuckerberg! Thanks for FB, I've reconnected with family and many old friends and classmates.'

That's when the multibillionaire, who is now the father of a baby daughter, Maxima, responded that instead of trying to set her daughters up with the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, she should instead encourage them to become that high tech gurus.