Today is my 31st birthday and the batches of grey are becoming more prevalent. Before you wish me a very happy birthday why not think about who else has a birthday today?

In fact is today a special day of any of your clients?

More importantly how do you know?

Do you have a kick ass database which is contantly reminding you that past cleints are having an anniversary or their little baby you shot a couple of years ago is just about to start school?

Does your database know if your past clients have just changed jobs and probably need a photographer?

Does your database know when something special has happened to your clients friends, so much that they feel the need to ‘comment’?

Can you guess where I’m going with this?

Back to the topic of birthday’s …… Happy Birthday for tomorrow to Kevin Mullins who I know likes to occasionally drop by this way once and a while!

Nothing like good old Facebook to stalk your clients (or in this case readers)!

Facebook isn’t really so much a tool for stalking (though I guess it can be). But what Facebook can offer you, that your database software can’t, is real time updates on clients that are happy to be your friends.

Profile changes like ‘In a Relationship’ to ‘Engaged’ might be very handy for the wedding photographer for example. I’m not saying turn up at their door with a bundle of sample albums and a price list, but perhaps a simple ‘congratulations’ might suffice.

That said, before you sent out a 5 year anniversary card I might be worth checking that their relationship status hasn’t changed to ‘It’s complicated’. Now that’s something your studio database isn’t going to know!