“MERRY CHRISTMAS MOVIE HOUSE!”
Every year around Christmas time I watch the American classic It’s a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Mike, aren’t you Jewish? Isn’t that a Christmas movie? Okay, you’re right on both counts, still what makes this the timeless film it has become is the universal appeal of it’s theme, overcoming the darkest adversity because of faith and friends, and the fact that for a long time the darn thing was being aired on all local television stations for free.
You see when the film debuted in 1946 it was considered a box office flop. High production costs and stiff competition on the silver screen kept it from being truly successful, and then it failed to secure any of the five Oscars it had been nominated for. Not much is written about the film’s history until 1974 when a clerical error by National Telefilm Associates prevented the film’s copyright from being renewed. The film became a Christmas staple on hundreds of local television stations during the 1980′s most likely due to the copyright confusion and the debate that the film was now in the public domain, i.e., they didn’t have to pay anyone to air it. I’m not going to get into the legal nuances of how in 1993 the new copyright holder relied on a 1990 Supreme Court ruling Stewert v. Abend to renew it’s copyright claim. The point of this post is to illustrate how a clerical error made a Christmas classic, because a great film was being shown for free to lots and lots of people; and all those people fell in love with it.
In social media, you have a similar dynamic. You never really know when something is timely or not, so you’ve always got to put your best stuff out there. Sometimes you charge for it, sometimes you give it away. Part of being successful in the social media game is knowing when to do which. Of course, “remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings!, Love, Clarence.”