Today’s world is all about branding. Whether you are a large company, or a struggling blogger looking for an audience, one of the first things you hear from others is you need to build your brand. Well if you have a Facebook page, and I will assume you do if you are reading this, then I am going to share with you a secret of mine. You can build your brand while being nice to people. The secret is Facebook birthdays.
I have had a personal Facebook page for several years now, and a Facebook page for my website, RacingAroundJersey.com, for about a year. Like many, I didn’t pay much attention to the birthday notifications, both on my page, and in my email, unless they were for someone who I consider a close friend, not just a Facebook friend. Then another tip I had read about, for building a brand, struck a chord with me.
This particular suggestion dealt with adding the name of your company, or website, to your email signature as a link. This way anyone who receives your email also receives a link to your company or work. I thought, why couldn’t I do this with my Facebook birthday wishes.
While it is true I couldn’t put a link in the Happy Birthday messages, I could send them from my site rather than myself personally. Gone were the days of “Happy Birthday Dude”, and “Hope you have a Great Birthday!” I replaced those generic well wishes with one that worked at building my brand while still carrying a nice greeting. Every day I go to my Facebook page, click on the Birthdays section and send the same greeting to each person. “Happy Birthday from RacingAroundJersey.com”.
The true value of this comes once the birthday message gets posted on each person’s Timeline. Not only does the birthday boy or girl see the name of my website, but so do his or her friends. My brand gets a mention on more pages than I could ever hope to go to in a week. let alone one day. Even if only a small fraction of those people decide to check out my site I still benefit.
My brand also builds a personal type of relationship, which could easily be the difference between someone clicking on one of my articles over another. My experience shows me Facebook users are more likely to trust a link from a site they are familiar with than someone who seems to only use the site for self-promotion.
So if you are looking to build your brand, and make people feel good at the same time, don’t forget to say “Happy Birthday” on Facebook. Don’t be surprised, however, if it’s you receiving all the presents in a brand that is not only more recognizable, but also seen as caring. Doesn’t get much better than that.
