A Social Media Birthday

It's my birthday!

And this year, I've gotten birthday wishes from more folks than I can count. In addition to the usual suspects who are stuck seeing me every day -- my immediate friends and family -- lots of friends from Facebook were kind enough to extend birthday wishes. (And there were wishes from the Facebook application itself, as well as Borders and Wii Fit too. It's a brave new world!)

Would all of these people have remembered it was my birthday if Facebook hadn't prompted them with a reminder? Probably not. Even so, it's a lovely gesture and nice to know that someone has taken a moment out of his or her busy day to send me a greeting.

Peter Shankman (@skydiver) mentioned this recently at one of his speaking engagements, but if you're on Facebook, you can easily use the birthday notifications as a daily marketing tool. Take a few moments each morning to send a birthday greeting to a client or colleague. You'd be surprised at how far something so easy and thoughtful -- and free -- can go toward generating goodwill.