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.

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For me, this case study began when online writer Linda Crim (aka Miss Dazy) posted this on Facebook this morning: “Jeanne Robertson is now on. (11:20 cst Wed.) I have it on, go to http://www.fbrn.us/ Then click on Healthy Now.”

But if you follow the trail before and after that post, you’ll see that what began as  a shout-out for Jeanne Robertson’s online radio interview took several Facebook steps before it reached me. Let’s break those down.

If you’re looking to reach new audiences, you don’t necessarily have to follow these exact steps. Use them as inspiration, though. Read through the case study and think: If I want others to learn about what I do — or attend one of my events — what steps should I take now to help make that happen? Your solution may differ in details, but what I know is that it will likely incorporate the following Facebook best practices:

#1 Create a Platform for Your Voice on Facebook

#2 Build Connections

#3 Authentically Engage “Fans” but Don’t Just Talk about Yourself

#4 Post Relevant Content in a Timely Manner

Today’s Facebook Mini-case actually starts a few years back…

STEP #1: It starts with North Carolina native Jeanne Robertson bringing her brand of humor online by starting a Facebook Page. Well — it actually starts with Robertson’s unique brand of humor and how she morphed it into a well-loved brand, but let’s start when that arrives on Facebook.

STEP #2: Robertson is a very popular entertainer, which earned her Facebook Fans, but I’m guessing that its her willingness to engage with fans that has helped her Facebook Fan base grow to over to 13,369 as of this writing, with a statistics of 722 “talking about this,” which is a good level of engagement.

STEP #3: Crim had liked Robertson’s Facebook Page some time ago. Crim is an online writer (aka MissDazy) and a devoted fan of Robertson, including dedicating one of her blogs to Jeanne Fun and is active on Robertson’s Facebook Page, too. In social media parlance, we call Crim a “brand advocate.” Given the Jeanne Fun blog, you could even argue that “brand evangelist” is the right term. Jeanne Robertson has her Facebook settings open enough to allow others to talk, too, and that encourages such influencers.

STEP #4: Someone close to me – my mother – is also a Robertson fan. At some point, the two connected with one another on Facebook and then Crim reached out to connect with me on Facebook, too. I’ve never met Crim in person, but since she was already connected to my mother, I agreed.

All those steps just set a stage…

What happened next is how those steps translated into my tuning into today’s show with very little additional effort on the part others.

STEP #5: Best Practice Facebook Use is to NOT always about yourself, and Robertson clearly knows that.  The show is pre-recorded by a day and during the interview, Robertson asked more about this relatively new (2 year old) online talk show, announcing as she asked those questions, she would post to her many Facebook Fans to help Healthy Now, Healthy Later gain audience share. She did that yesterday by Liking the Healthy Now Facebook Page and then commenting directly on their post about the interview. The result – that information spread to her fans, too.

STEP #6: Robertson is a humorist and her brand came through today as she found a fun way to re-post directly to her fans just prior to the event, knowing that anyone who read the post in time would likely be able to also immediately listen to the broadcast since they were online anyway. (Better than expecting them earlier today and then expecting them to remember to log on at the right time.

This morning’s shout-out came as she boarded a flight at the Atlanta airport:

“Hey, everybody. I’m in Atlanta airport right now and also right now on Cara’s show I posted about y’day -see info below to listen to Cara Jarad and Bryan … And yours truly. “Healthy Now” Fun! Two places same time. Is this wonderful world or what,” Robertson posted.

STEP #7: That post caught Crim’s eye as she worked on her iPad, and she LIKED the post, added a comment and pushed it out to her network.

STEP #8: Because I happened to be on… I saw it and clicked. Why? Not for the reason you might think. I like Robertson’s brand of entertainment, but I really clicked over because I wanted to see how the talk show worked, but at the same time I got a clearer picture of Robertson (all positive!) and an introduction to someone else’s content platform – the radio show.

Skip any of the steps, and I likely wouldn’t have known that Healthy Now, Healthy Later existed… or taken the time to both listen in (while watching the related LiveStream broadcast — more on that in another post), which lead to a final step:

STEP #9: I Thanked Crim on her Facebook wall for posting about it in the first place.

STEP #10: A side benefit for Jeanne Robertson… I just joined her Fan Page and I noted to myself to look closer at a book she mentioned on her interview – about including humor in presentations, something that would be useful for me professionally.

Perhaps we can subtitle the study:

10 Steps to becoming Jeanne Robertson Facebook Fan #13,369

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There’s an interesting infograph and article posted today on Mashable about HR use of Facebook in recruiting. The data is from HireRabbit.com.

The Infograph looks at the statistics from the HR side – the ways HR professionals increasingly look beyond LinkedIn to use Facebook, too, for recruiting.

Let’s flip the message:  What does this data mean for job seekers, people hoping to survive the next internal reorganization or maybe looking to move within a company?

Knowing How to Navigate Online is a Critical Job Skill

Here’s how I interpret the infograph: It’s a heads up for everyone who is still turning a blind eye to online tools — Stay Current on How to Use Online Tools!

When it comes to Facebook, it’s not going to be enough to just log on:

(1) Facebook isn’t just a personal platform for you. It’s a job search tool, too.  A way for you to learn and make (and share!) connections. Taken to the next step, it’s a chance to show your interest in a company and learn more about that company by paying attention to the ways they are trying to create engagement online, the things the company shares and how they generally behave online.

(2) Facebook is a personal branding you, too. How you look on Facebook matters. That starts with uploading an appropriate profile picture because these are always public. In addition, update your professional experience on your profile, adjusting your privacy settings so others who aren’t your Friends can see it, too.

(3) Personal Experience with social tools is a good thing generally – companies are looking for people who have an online presence, too.

(4) NOT having experience online can be a bad thing. Companies increasingly need people in all departments who are as comfortable online as they are at their desk.

Bottom line: Take time to learn how to use social media. Future Paychecks may depend on it.

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