Recently, I realized that with my Facebook app, I could send 60 second voice messages to others rather than having to type out things. That’s quite convenient, actually, and I am learning to use it more. However, I also thought of another use for it, and that’s for birthday greetings!

I have started singing Happy Birthday to my friends (and family, which I’ll include in “friend”) using this feature to send to them for their birthdays, instead of simply writing Happy Birthday on their walls, maybe with a few other words.

But nobody will see my birthday greetings!

Sure, my greetings aren’t visible to the world on their walls, but really, most of their friends would not see most of the birthday greetings on their wall. You’d only see notifications of others’ birthday posts if they are a common friend to you and your birthday friend… unless you go trolling their wall. But let’s not go there. 🙂

Of course, the idea behind singing your friend a birthday tune isn’t for public approval. It’s for your friend’s approval. I know not everybody can appreciate a little serenade by a friend, but really, for the extra effort you’re putting in, they should! Or maybe they shouldn’t be your friend! 🙂

What if you can’t sing?

Who really cares! If you’re making the effort, your friend will likely overlook (overhear?) your lack of singing ability. It’ll be a good laugh, at least! And maybe even source for money if you ever become famous!

What song/s should you sing?

Any song you want, really, but preferably something that could have meaning between you and your friend.

The easiest one, by far, is the traditional Happy Birthday one if you’re singing it in English. Pick the equivalent one in a non-English language if you’ll be singing in another language.

If you’re choosing the Happy Birthday song, though, you can always try to spice it up a bit. Do it in some music style like jazz, country, swing, rap, etc. Add your own accompaniment with a lead in intro, maybe an outtro, a beat, scatting, whatever you can think of or imagine to make it funner and have a laugh. Rehearsing or not will be up to you.

It’ll be good for you, too!

Your friend will generally not only love the idea you sent them a birthday serenade, but you will, too! You know how fun it is to just stop and sing a song, don’t you? Now imagine doing that on most days of the year, if you’re got some average number of Facebook friends and are able to sing it to most of them.

Talk about a pick-me-up to your day to do this, never mind to your friend’s day… and then the echo of them being surprised and getting back to you for it!

Should you advertise you’ll be doing this?

Hell no! You don’t need to be blowing your own horn on this one. Some of your friends might not say anything to anyone else, but the occasional one will broadcast it on a status update! That will sound infinitely better than you chirping about it!

Besides, saying you’ll be doing it will not only ruin the surprise for a lot of people, it’ll also place expectations on you that you won’t be able to live up to every time. Just do it whenever you can or feel up to it. It shouldn’t be an automatic standard, though I think the more often you do it the better, cause it is a lot of fun. Making it a standard or expectation would take the fun out of it. Maybe save it for some of your closer friends, or friends in different circles who might not have heard you had done this for others, or many others.

Have fun!

That’s the whole idea, from beginning, through the middle, to the end.