Facebook Birthdays

Image via CrunchBase

I recently had a birthday and this birthday I decided to look at my Facebook Birthday wishes in a different context. We can view this as a Facebook Birthday Case Study. According to Mr. Zuckerberg’s playground (Facebook) I have around 660 some odd friends on Facebook throughout the country. That is pretty impressive considering I only talk to 10 people daily, usually. That 10 almost stays in constant rotation due to my OCD personality to network and meet new people. That was a tangent, the focus of this “case study” is to track how many people would say Happy Birthday on my birthday, what this means to me as a person or a Facebook user and as a small business owner.

We will start with my feelings as a person. Not to be too personal but I am on my second year into my third decade of life. It has been pretty nerve wracking this past year. Change of job, meaning loss of job and entering into the world of entrepreneurship. “Danger Will Robinson, Danger!” is the best way to describe my feelings about this endeavor.

This birthday I was going to change, this year I was going to be present in every moment of my life. This year I was going to engage every Facebook friend, well only those who engage me first, kidding. This year on my birthday I was going to launch my blog and take my event planning business to the next level. This birthday I was going to be a present to myself. After reading this last paragraph, there is plenty on my plate. LOL

My birthday rolls around and I turn on my Facebook alerts to my phone and I am ready, 660 or so emails here we go. The first 30 I was pumped, I was like oh yeah, you like me, you like me, you like me, then I was like who are you, but who cares you like me. At the end of my birthday evening exactly at midnight, I think I ended with 160 or so Happy Birthday comments on my wall. Now we do the math. Out of my 660 friends 160 of them posted Happy Birthday on my wall. Give or take that is 24% of friends said Happy Birthday, yeah! I felt good about this. It was a great feeling, but my mind wonders what is the average? I mean do I send a Facebook message to the 500 others who did not post and say, what the h…, I thought we were friends? Or do I take it for what it is worth, and say Facebook is a medium to track people at a distance and feel like you are still kept abreast of their lives through picture updates and sending them gifts through games. I mean is there Facebook etiquette? Should there be a disclaimer that says if you add me as a friend you better say Happy Birthday darnit or I will not help you build a darn thing in Cityville. You know, I do not know. I am just observing.

Once the Birthday posts all came in and it was time for the Thank You. I had said Thank You several times throughout that day. There was one Thank You I posted that got a fairly decent response. I posted something to the effect, “now only if I could get everyone one to send a dollar with that comment, I would be rich.” Well not rich, but I would have some money in my pocket. A few agreed with the comment, liked it and someone offered to mail a dollar, when in reality it would totally cost them more to mail that dollar instead of sending it through Paypal. I digress. What if we could do that? Let’s be honest, my 660 friends and I are a component of what makes Facebook worth billions. We all know now that plenty of our information is being sold, track, and used for marketing purposes. I mean come on Facebook is the Matrix, except we are not babies feeding on liquid humans with holes throughout our bodies connecting us to a main frame. Instead we are connected to Smart Phones, Panera Wifi (Loves me some Panera Wifi), Xfinity by Comcast, and however you are getting connected. Back to the point, the point is this would it be wrong to say for my birthday, can you Paypal me a dollar, will you like my business, could follow me on twitter, will you subscribe to my blog? Is that wrong?

The end result of my Case Study, is that not to maximize your Facebook friends for no reason, but maximize to change your world or others. I am always humbled when I read someone’s post on my wall, especially when I know we have not talked. It is always touching to know that you like something I am doing. Now, more than ever we should all take our Facebook Birthdays to the next level, ask for that help you need, spread some good news, or just follow through and try to wish all your friends Happy Birthday. It truly does make a difference.

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