OK this post may sound like thinly veiled self-gratification, but that’s not the point.

To be honest, after I turned 30 I rather forget the birthdays…. After all they ARE a reminder that I get older. Apparently older is wiser so that’s gotta be good….

But, seriously… A viral birthday?

Well, let’s pick the ‘campaign’ apart as there are a lot of learnings here…

The first learning is time zone spread…

My birthday starts at 5:37 pm the DAY BEFORE. The first post rolls in. It continues overnight in a trickle including a post at 3 am (I was fast asleep)

My first posting is 7:18 am

I have a business posting at midday (yes, birthdays aren’t exempt from work)

By the time I get to sit and read all the well wishings it’s 6 pm. Campaign has now run for 24 hours. It’s time to step up the speed for a bit…

So far 38 people have posted on my wall.

I now start posting the thank-you’s. Because I include people’s names (like I type “Thank you @Dianne Perry”) this of course shows up on that person’s wall, so by 6:15 pm I had posted to 38 walls.

On top of that I ‘liked’ each and every one of those posts.

Now, this is where the fun really starts…. Because I do these postings my friends who may not have noticed (not that I expected they would) start posting. Because they saw it either on my wall or on their friends wall, as part of the respective person’s news-stream.

So by 10 pm another 15 had posted greetings (Sweet!). At 10 pm I was back in front of the screen (after a lovely dinner out with Ruby). I posted more thank-you’s

And by the next morning 9 am another 17…

My thank-you’s the next morning started getting nested comments where people commented on my thank you or amongst themselves..

The ‘Campaign’ has now run for about 40 hours. But the last two greetings came in 2, respectively 3 days later, a typical ‘long tail’.

So by the end of the week one silly day ended up being responsible for over 70 posts and over 25 thank you posts, comments etc. WOW!

So, the important question is… how can YOU apply this to your next Facebook campaign? Let me hear your best suggestion! Type away in the comments below…

Mike

8 am… not quite awake yet!