Our personal branding attributes are reflected in even the smallest of things. What we say and do matters as much as how we say and do it. I am a people-person, and ‘friendly’ is one of the key attributes of my personal brand. So I never miss any opportunities to reach out to people and show that I care. One of the best ways of doing this is wishing people on their birthdays. After all its a once-a-year occasion! Birthday wishes are a great way of establishing and rejuvenating relationships. Most people, even though they might deny it, look forward to birthday wishes from their family and friends. And my experience has also shown that quite a few of them even remember who wished them and who didn’t.

Social media, especially Facebook, has expanded our circle of friends to include almost everybody we know, both personally and professionally. Due to various third party apps dedicated to birthdays, one is constantly reminded of upcoming birthdays, and is prompted to wish too. So it has almost become customary to wish birthday on these social networking platforms. Majority of the birthday wishes though are insipid, and seem more like an act under compulsion than out of genuine care. These birthday wishes are less than five words long and some absurd ones look like swear words (eg: MHROTD — stands for Many Happy Returns Of The Day).

So it is not very difficult to make your birthday wish stand out and make them more memorable. Needless to say, there are many benefits of being regular with birthday wishes and doing it right. One thing that works really well are birthday videos. I present to you below some of my favorite birthday videos from Youtube that I use frequently. All you need to do is copy the link of any video from below and ‘Attach’ it under the status update on the wall of those you intend to wish (see illustration above). Once you click the ‘Attach’ button, the video appears with its ‘title’ and the ‘description’. Change them if you please and your birthday wish is ready to be ‘Shared’.

	Three Astronauts Singing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kip-SZ9JQ90
	B’day Cake Blown Away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXdsXklG0cA
	Cute Kitten Singing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATOcN7C-xFk
	Gangsta Frog Singing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to06L22j7l0
	Cat Playing Violin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW6Wl643k_0
	Baby Bear Singing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0zqP9f085A
	Simple Animation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-YZy9ukaMk
	Funny Birthday Moments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tew6RuMGagM
	Dog Singing (for whoever watching) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOiMhkAzqI
	Dogs Barking (for ma’am) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXMiXhE1GKU
	Hippo Singing (for best friend) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuVW48yMrSc

For those amongst you who would like to create a more personalized birthday wish, either you could create a simple video of yourself or download the software from Custom Shorts and customize a funny birthday greeting featuring yourself. Click here to see an example of such a birthday video.

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1. The Anatomy of a Retweet

The ‘Lists’ feature that twitter recently launched got a widespread approval from the twitter community but its new ‘Retweet’ (RT) feature, still in the beta stage, is facing some stiff resistance. The bone of contention for most tweeps, including myself, is that Twitter won’t let you edit your retweets and actually forces you to retweet a message in its original form. Even though users will be allowed to manually retweet as they used to earlier, one is compelled to examine twitter’s intention behind this development.

While a RT is definitely an appreciation of good content it is also an acknowledgment of tweeps who find and share good content. More often than not it is a relationship building tool and a valuable way of discussing the tweet being shared. Any attempt to make the retweet predominantly content focused is going to remove the very important social element from the retweets. I understand that twitter is taking its mission of becoming a leading content search provider very seriously, but it should maintain the fine balance between content and social networking.

From how I see it, Twitter gave us 140 characters to express ourself and the freedom to do so as we deem fit. The fabulous twitter community took what was provided to them (a very simple communication platform) and made twitter what it is today (a leading social networking platoform with great viral potential). Now twitter can’t stake exclusive claim to the platform because it belongs to the tweeters as much as it does to the twitter team. They shouldn’t forget that every feature being used on twitter was organically developed by the twitter community and they deserve to be consulted before making any changes to it.

Ideally, twitter should have come up with a variant of RT and called it DRT (for Direct RT). This would have achieved both the objectives — providing a feature that will help it in the long run, and also giving tweeps a choice to retweet either the content or the tweeter they admire. I wish the third party app providers don’t make the same mistake and retain the RT as it exists right now, and provide the twitter retweet as an additional feature.

Ever since I joined twitter in Feb’2009, I have evolved a way of retweeting that I consider most logical and reader friendly, and one which has the highest chance of being noticed and getting retweeted further. The components of an ideal retweet, according to me, should be as follows:

Topic [Source — @Author] |  Link | RT @twitter-users <comment>

An example of a retweet based on the above format is:

Twitter Retweets: Thanks but No Thanks (PCMag — @LanceUlanoff) | http://bit.ly/4EShvE | RT @phaoloo @mlomb: Its not for me!

1. Topic — It is usually the heading of the article that is being tweeted (posted) but sometimes the user can create their own headline. To make any tweet interesting it is most important that the headline is shown upfront.

2. ( ) — Round brackets are often used to attribute the tweet to a source or its author.

3. Source — It is the website or the source of the information. I have noticed if the source is usually credible more people click on the links and chances of getting retweeted is higher.

4. Author — This is not required unless the author is a well known twitter user and by giving his name you achieve the puspose as mentioned in point 2. One of the two (source or author) is usually enough.

5. |  — Use the vertical line ‘|’ as a separator between the different components of a tweet

6. Link - The link leads the user to the actual article.

7. RT — Short form of retweet which shows that the tweet originated elsewhere and you are only reposting it.

8. Twitter Users - The originator of the tweet comes first followed by those who retweeted it.

9. : or < > — Add a comment either to the person who you are retweeting with a ‘:’ followed by your message or generally give your comment within < >. That way it becomes very clear if your comment is directed to the person you are retweeting or is a general comment to all.

Conclusion: With the pressure that Twitter team is facing from media and experts on twitter’s revenue model, it is quite obvious that users can expect to see business-driven changes in the time to come. Needless to say, that is what will help twitter sustain and grow. But having said that, my appeal to twitter is to retain its character of a community-owned social networking platform. That is what makes it different from its competition. Don’t just thrust changes down our throat, try to also understand why we do what we do.

 References:

1. Why Retweet works the way it does
2. Twitter Retweets: Thanks but No Thanks

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1. Make Your Facebook Birthday Wishes Stand Out

Mahatma Gandhi

I wanted and waited to launch my blog today, the 2^nd of October 2009. It marks the 140^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a man whose thoughts have had the most impact on my psyche. While most sages and saints who came before him preached non-violence, Gandhil will be remembered for having put it into action. The architect of the Indian nation is proof enough that non-violence is not just a form of struggle but can even be a way of life.

Such was his greatness that one of the greatest minds of all times, Einstein once remarked “Generations to come, will scarcely believe that such a one, as this, ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” If there is one sentence which can adequately describe this legendary figure, it is a quote by William Hazlitt “Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.” I dedicate my first blog post to the wisdom that this philosopher par excellence has shared with us by listing some of my favorite Gandhian quotes:

1. Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.
2. Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.
3. Hate the sin, love the sinner.
4. No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.
5. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
6. A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
7. An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.
8. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
9. In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.
10. Poverty is the worst form of violence.
11. You must be the change you want to see in the world.
12. Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.
13. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
14. A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.
15. An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.
16. God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.
17. I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
18. In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
19. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
20. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
21. They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
22. A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.
23. Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.
24. It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.
25. Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.
26. Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.
27. Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.
28. It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
29. First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.
30. I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.
31. One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s.
32. The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
33. A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

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