This fun side story from the California Independent Film Festival Association, held earlier this month in Orinda, CA, is making its way through Facebook, offering us a lesson in online sharing of stories:
Margaret O’Brien, in the San Francisco East Bay for the special screening of Meet Me in St. Louis stopped into Futures Explored’s Nifty Thrift Store in Lafayette, CA, to shake hands, shop and offer an autographed picture of herself with Meet Me in Saint Louis star Judy Garland.
The Nifty Shop is one of the Futures Explored consumer-operated retail businesses. For over 35 years, the Nifty Thrifty Shop has served as a “living classroom” for participants in Futures Explored adult vocational programs.
It might have stopped there – a nice visit from a famous actor – but a Futures Explored employee posted about it online, and people have begun to share.
Why? Likely, some are sharing because they like Nifty Thrift. Others will share because they remember Margaret O’Brien. Still others will share because it’s just fun or because they like the Film Festival.
It doesn’t matter. What matters is that this is a story that has many options for resonating with people, and that makes it easier to share.
The lesson: If you want people to know about something, talk about it online.
The lesson, part 2: It’s a good idea to share it differently across different networks if it means that makes it even more interesting to more people.
For me, that included Facebook, this blog and LinkedIn. But in each case, I shared it a little differently.
When you have a story you find interesting, don’t just link and go. Consider: Who needs to know about it and how can you present it best so that they’ll actually read it.
Side note: I wish I had been able to see Margaret O’Brien in person, either at the film festival, the Nifty Thrift or where ever else she popped in during her stay here. I would have loved to hear the stories she tells. Just finding the ones in the Youtube video below made me smile. In it, O’Brien’s prefaces the clip of her doing the Cake Walk song from Meet Me in St. Louis, with stories about her friendship with Judy and how Margaret ended up owning the straw hat used in the Cake Walk dance.
