5 Things To Know About Facebook Birthday Postings (Plus Stats, Clocks and Links)

Another year rolls around and if you’re on Facebook — more than 500 million of us are, as active users— you’re bound to get a series of messages heralding the New Year that your birthday represents.

Does it touch your heartstrings? Or do you find the whole thing super silly and somewhat superficial? A spirited debate ensued recently over the very such thing and I was privy to the banter back and forth. Do you count the postings? Do you care? Do you answer the postings? Do you wish they would go away? Are you secretly uplifted that you have so many friends, virtual as they may be? (Does it get you down that you don’t?)

Post your comments below and let us know what you think.

In the meantime, in the spirit of my work as Brandon Patch editor forever connected to the community and to the Internet, I decided to give it a go and come up with five things to know about posting creative birthday greetings on Facebook (or elsewhere).

Of course, the newshound in me couldn’t overlook some salient points that such a search revealed, most notably that in a July 2010 report on Cancer Statistics and trends, it was determined that over a 16-year time period, some 767,000 cancer patients have lived on to celebrate another birthday. That’s good news to share as the gets underway in the Greater Brandon area.

I also revisited the “U.S. & World Population Clocks” page from the U.S. Census Bureau and determined that as of March 1 at roughly 1:45 p.m., the population of the United States was 310,912,306, representing 4.5 percent of planet earth’s population, registered at 6,903,359 souls.

And I took a look, too, at Facebook itself, with 34,754,219 “likes” as of this posting. Facebook in February celebrated its seventh anniversary, and a quick review is available at Mashable.com, with 7 Years of Facebook: A Retrospective.

But I digress.

The purpose here was to come up with some quick links to some cool ideas for standing out with your Facebook birthday greetings, so I leave you with these:

1. “7 Better Ways To With Someone Happy Birthday on Facebook” (including tips for a posting a photo on the intended’s wall, creating a “surprise birthday fan page” and sending virtual goods or a private message).
2. “7 More Creative Ways To Wish Someone Happy Birthday on Facebook” (including “throwing a virtual party,” making a birthday quiz for the honoree, creating a “birthday event” and posting a song).
3. Search for “Birthday Quotes” (and get 9.02 million results on Google alone).  From ThinkExist.com, this first entry, attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
4. A columnist for the Orlando Sentinel wrote about “Birthday Etiquette for Facebook Postings” and his “virtual birthday” experience that left him “wary of the diea of wishing ‘happy birthday’ to each of my 331 ‘friends’ on Facebook.” Seth Liss offered a series of tips for making a Facebook birthday greeting stand out, including recounting a memory (“it shows that you are taking time to cherish the person on their special day”), uploading a video (“of yourself singing”) and sharing hopes (“for the future”).
5.  Educate! Research and point out something about the birthday ritual itself, such as the origins of the “Happy Birthday” ditty (most recently sung for Brandon Patch by ). The simple song traces its roots to a Louisville, Ky., schoolhouse, where Mildred Hill came up with the tune and her younger sister, Patty, came up with the words. Originally entitled, “Good Morning to All,” it was published in 1893 as, “Good Morning to You.” The optional verse, “Happy Birthday to You” was published in 1924. For more, visit this report from The Telegraph.

In closing, the traditionalist in you might just want to send the traditional greeting card instead. Or bouquet of flowers, box of chocolates or some other gift, large or small. Browse the Brandon Patch directory of some 2,000 listings and shop locally.

And use Brandon Patch to commemorate a special birthday, as with the 88th birthday of , whose family is the namesake of Mulrennan Road and Mulrennan Middle School. Click on the “News” tab and scroll down to “Announcements.” After the page appears, click the “Announce it to everyone!” tab in the upper-right-hand corner and post your news.

As for me, I wish a very happy birthday to the person whose birthday today inspired me to write this posting. Indeed, it is my gift to him. Happy Birthday!