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.

WHY Xtra: 5 Websites We Love

Here's this week's WHY Xtra, kids:

5 Websites We Love

1. WhoLinksToMe.com. Check out what websites link to yours. C’mon, you know you want to…
2. HelpAReporterOut.com. Sign up and social media meister Peter Shankman emails you 3 times a day with all kinds of queries from a variety of reporters looking for expert sources. Great free marketing tool.
3. Google.com/analytics. Free web analytics to help you improve your site and increase marketing ROI. We check ours first thing every morning.
4. Hulu.com. You can watch your favorite TV shows anytime, anywhere. We try to limit our A-Team and Incredible Hulk viewings to lunchtime.
5. Twitter.com. Many businesses are coming up with all kinds of ways to harness Twitter’s bite-size messages into effective marketing platforms. Join the flock, and follow us at twitter.com/whysgirl.