Trying to get more traction from your LinkedIn membership? Trying to connect more deeply to those you with whom you have managed to link?

Instead of sending them the same career updates or helpful letters that everyone ignores – well, we do – why not connect with them on a more powerful, personal manner.

How? Simply wish them ‘Happy Birthday’ on their birthday.

Birthdays become less important as we grow older and men place less value on our birthdays than do women but our own day is memorable.  Even though many of us would rather our day go by unnoticed we all appreciate when people do remember our special day – after all we never forget our own birthdays do we?

Research has shown that if we are reading information about another person and we notice that they have the same birthday as we do that we are four times more likely to take more time to learn about them and twenty-six times more likely to remember details about them. Studies has shown that job applicants with the same birthday as the interviewer are three times more likely to get interviewed and twice as likely to receive job offers.

As we get older our birthdays tend are smaller affairs with fewer cakes, presents and cards. Our children forget and even our spouses forget. It is possible for someone in their fifties to pass a birthday with no more than a handful of good wishes.

So, in a business context, when we take the time to recognize someone’s special day it is meaningful, remembered and lifts our relationship with that person even if just a little. It also points out that we are careful enough to have noticed someone’s birthday, organized enough to keep track, and thoughtful enough to send some positive wishes. All good things!

Remembering someone’s birthday in a business environment may not win the business on it own but just might move us a bit closer – and that is always good for us!

Now, here is the trick that almost nobody knows about and fewer still will actually do!

About forty percent of LinkedIn members will list their birthdays on their profiles – even if the information is not publicly visible. LinkedIn allows us, as connections, to download an array of information that we do not necessarily see visibly when we scan a connection’s profile.  Birthdays are one of these bits of information.

Joshua Lyman has written a great bit of free software that will download our connections, sift out all of birthdays and place them on whatever desktop calendar we happen to use.

Visit http://linkedinbirthdays.com/ it takes about three minutes and you will have at your finger tips all of the birthdays of all of your connections.

Then all you need to do is to set aside a couple of minutes a day to send a personal note wishing someone a great day. If they are contacts that you already have a strong relationship with then you can take them out to lunch or send flowers – whatever works!

Doing something nice for someone is very powerful! Try it!

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If you enjoyed this post you may want to read 101 LinkedIn Tips, Tricks & Strategies!

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