Chief Mentor: Birthday Wishes and Social Media

By Pradeep Chopra

When I turned 33 on May 11 last year, I used the statistics on the birthday wishes I received through various platforms – from phone calls to Facebook –  to look at the advantages of digital marketing in my blog post "Can Birthday Wishes teach you the importance of Digital and Social Media?"

This year, I gathered even more data – from a total of 395 birthday wishes compared to last year's 134.  I received the first birthday wish on May 10 at 4:21 pm via Facebook, from one of my former classmates in the U.S. Other birthday wishes started trickling through from 00.04 am on Twitter. The flow of wishes especially across social media platforms continued until days after my birthday.

Here is a breakdown of the birthday wishes I received in 2010 and in 2011:

The above comparison mirrors the recent surge of social media in India more broadly. I drew out what I think have been the key trends in the industry in India, based on the birthday wishes I received.

1.    Facebook has the lead: From 92 wishes in 2010 to 332 wishes – and countin [...]

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