Crap. Mom’s halfway across the country, and (once again) you’ve forgotten to mail a Mother’s Day card on time. That’s OK: This year, you can share your love and appreciation for dear ol’ mom with a heartfelt, custom message on Facebook. It’s better than nothing, right?
There are four different ways you can celebrate mom on Facebook this year. First, you can send her a virtual card. In the coming days, you may see a News Feed message wishing you a Happy Mother’s Day. You can tap that message to send a card to a loved one. If you’re on mobile, you can also personalize it by adding a photo. You can choose for the card to post as a public message on their timeline, or as a private chat message.
Alternatively you can snap a picture of yourself in the app and decorate it with a fresh Mother’s Day-themed mask or frame. You can also choose a new reaction, “thankful,” instead of the usual six reactions—Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, or Angry—when Liking posts on Sunday. The “thankful” reaction will be indicated by a flower. When you tap it, you’ll see a screen animation wrap around the post.
You can also use Facebook to donate to a cause on your mom’s behalf. (Although you could just as easily donate directly to an organization rather than using Facebook as the middleman.) If your mother is politically minded, you could try the American Civil Liberties Union or one of these eight similar organizations. If she enjoys the outdoors, you could try the National Parks Service or the World Wildlife Fund. And if she’s always giving more to others, you could donate to Meals on Wheels, which delivers meals to low-income, elderly Americans.
Instagram is also getting in on the Mother’s Day game. In Instagram Stories, you can choose from a handful of mom-centric stickers to decorate your photos and videos with.
Mother’s Day is, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most popular days for sharing on social. Last year on Facebook, Mother’s Day drove more posts in a single day than any other topic. People shared more than 105.4 million posts. With these increased calls to action (and ways to share your love), we’d be surprised if Sunday didn’t drum up even more Mother’s Day shares this year.
