Sending Holiday Greetings Online

Whether it's to be green or simply because of time constraints, traditional holiday cards are not as popular as they used to be. Instead, people are keeping in touch with--and sending online holiday greetings to--everyone from the kid they knew in kindergarten to co-workers on social networking websites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. It's a great way of sending goodwill, and it's also the simplest way that appears sometimes to be done without much thought.

First of all, it's important that you address each person individually with a customized message. A status update that simply says, "Merry Christmas, All" won't make anybody feel particularly wished upon. Instead, send personalized messages to each person. If you think that there may be anything in the message that's sensitive or is best kept private, make sure to send the message privately. Even if you don't have the person's email, all of the social networking websites have the option for privates messaging.

If you're going to turn to online methods of sending holiday greetings, at least make sure that you put equal amount of energy and attention to each greeting that you would place into a paper card. Mention children, pets and family members by name. Call upon happy memories that the two of you share in your greeting as an affirmation of the relationship that you have. Because Internet greetings can seem cold and even temporary (it's easy to save paper cards forever, but internet greetings often get deleted off changing systems and usernames.) It takes extra energy to seem as genuine as you are in cyberspace.

Create a dialogue in your holiday greeting if you want to further stay in touch with the person. Sending a holiday card is a way to reach out and hug someone with your words. The internet greeting offers those on the receiving end to respond in a much easier way. Not everybody thinks buying and sending holiday cards is for them. You'll likely receive more responses from online greetings, and you can use your original greeting as a way of receiving a more clear and lengthy response that will invite more dialogue.

Email holiday greetings are different than social networking holiday greetings. With email, you have the option of mass emailing a generic Christmas marriage. Don't do that. It's best to send nothing than to send a cyber card that looks like spam. Simply don't do it. Even if you're sending the message to all as "bcc," that's always a no go.

As great as cyberspace greetings may be, something to remember when sending email or social networking Christmas greetings is that you should never use it as an excuse to promote yourself or your business or project. Christmas greetings are off limits. The only exception to this would be if you are simply a business sending your customers greetings. It's then appropriate to mention the business, but it should be done in a way of gratitude and offerings for freebies or gifts. Otherwise, never promote on a Christmas card, whether online or otherwise.