Can Birthday Wishes teach you the importance of Digital and Social Media?

With the rapid and ongoing evolution of Social Media, people’s lives have become really digital and social. Here is an interesting example about Birthday Wishes on Social Media highlighting the importance and pervasiveness of Digital Media.

This article was not planned and just generated out of the Digital Eye of Pradeep Chopra, the CEO of Digital Vidya. On his 33rd birthday on May 11, 2010 when for the first time in his life he received more than 100 Birthday wishes. Thanks to Social Media, which made his Birth Date visible to a large number of his friends and associates – leading to incredible number of wishes through various mediums. The birthday wishes were as follows:

1. Email – 2

2. SMS – 9

3. Orkut – 10

4. Calls – 18

5. Facebook – 92

“Doesn’t it talk about the way world is going ‘Digital and Social’?” asked Pradeep while thanking all of this friends on Facebook. To the utter amazement a large number agreed to this one. “We trust you Pradeep to evangelize digital to the next level but you are right. Lots of phone calls must have made their way through the birth date information provided on Facebook,” said Arun Gupta, one of his friends.

Birthday wishes wall post

No wonder, Social Networking has replaced Email as the 4th most popular activity online. Interestingly, he received only 1 offline greeting and no online greeting this time. Digital not only increases the reach but also one can schedule automatic birthday wishes to all friends for the whole life using Facebook applications, e-greetings etc. “I see the distinction ‘Digital’ going away soon. It will (actually it is already) be so natural integral to our lives,” added Pradeep.

Even after four days, there were a significant number of birthday wishes. “That’s because FB is viral. Every statement is echoed far and wide,” said Manas Garg. More than 15 belated birthday wishes even after a week proves that ROI of Digital is really sustainable.

The Final analysis that came out of this fun experience of birthday wishes calculation made lot of ‘opportunities associated with Digital Medium’ so visible. They are as follows:

1. Digital offers sustainable ROI – even 4-5 days after the birthday Pradeep kept receiving wishes! This could only be possible after Social Media and never before on any of his previous birthdays.

2. Digital is anytime and anywhere – the birthday wishes came from all parts of the world and all time zones.

3. Digital is Measurable – can one get better visibility anywhere else?

4. Digital is Viral – never received even close to 100 wishes.

5. Digital complements other channels – as lots of calls, mails and sms’es received were influenced by Facebook messages. Hope this inspires you about Digital Media!

If you know about other similar interesting examples or if you can think of any other insights that you can derive through this article, we will love to hear from you.