If you follow brands like Wendy’s, Old Spice, Hamburger Helper, or even the company that makes Moon Pies for the sass and humour, you aren’t alone. Many brands are turning to humour, and audiences are eating it up.
By infusing your marketing content with humour, you can share your brand’s personality with the world, and get more people to engage with your content. On the other hand, there’s more to all of this than simply sharing funny content. Your humour should fit your brand, and it should appeal to your audience. As long as you avoid common pitfalls such as poorly timed humour, misunderstanding your audience member’s taste in humour, or copying other brands, using humor can really benefit your social media marketing. To get started try these seven techniques.
Find The Humor That Fits Your Persona
Imagine that you’ve been using an investment company for several years. You trust them because they have always portrayed themselves as being serious, experienced, concerned about your financial future, and trustworthy. Now, imagine that same brand on social media using the kind of edgy, sarcastic humour that you find on Saturday Night Live or Adult Swim. Wouldn’t that be off-putting
This is why brand alignment is key when you use humour in your SMM. If the humour you use isn’t a good fit, it will fall flat. Imagine your brand as a person sharing jokes or funny stories. If the humour doesn’t match, find a better fit.
Use Memes for Humorous and Memorable Effect
Jarred Banner, a marketing staffer at Resumes
Memes work because they’re relatable, and don’t require much processing to ‘get’. In addition to this, there are memes that appeal to any target audience. You can add memes to your marketing content by selecting one from any variety of meme building sites, or you can create your own from scratch.
Tell The Truth
They say what everyone is thinking. Comedians are often blunt, even a bit abrasive. Audiences love it because they are real and they are relatable. Find topics and situations that are relevant to your target audience, and that address their experiences. If these tie into your products and services, that’s even better.
One brand that does this very well is Charmin. They have taken a common experience such as noticing too late that someone forgot to replace the roll, and used it to create a steady stream of humorous content. Sometimes, they even engage in banter with other brands
Use Tools to Deliver Content That is Humorous and Worthwhile
Humorous marketing content uses great visuals, pro-level production values, and great writing. It’s not enough to be funny, you have to deliver top quality content. Fortunately, there are a variety of social media tools that you can use to maximize the impact of your humorous posts:
- Poster my Wall – Use templates to create graphics, videos, and other content for your social media feeds. Consider using themed templates for upcoming holidays and events.
- Flash essay – A great service that produces humorous content.
- Meet Edgar – Recycle your funny content when the time is right
- Online writers rating – Find editing and proofreading services that have been approved by industry reviewers.
- BuzzSumo – Make your funny marketing content go viral by hitting on the trending topics of the day.
Create a Quiz for Funny and Engaging Content
Humorous content sells. So does interactive content. Combine the two, and you can really create something that resonates with your audience. One way to do this is by creating hilarious quizzes for your target audience.
People love taking quizzes, and they love sharing the results. Try creating some Buzzfeed style quizzes to share on social media. You can make your audience laugh, and create some brand awareness.
Don’t forget to use a great graphic to share your quiz. Use a template to create something great in just a few minutes.
Call Out Your Competitors with Humour
When it comes to humour in social marketing, Wendy’s may be the most well-known. They’ve made their mark in large part due to their scathingly funny roasts of other brands and at times their own customers. Some of the most memorable involve their ongoing feud with Burger King.
Brands have been calling out one another through their marketing efforts since marketing existed. By adding humour to those efforts, you can really establish your dominance.
Add Humour to Your Emails to Engage and Re-Engage
While we claim that our decisions are based on facts, actually, emotions play a significant part when we have to compare alternatives. That’s why humour is so effective when it comes to marketing. On the screenshot below you can see how Essay Supply took a benefit from the popularity around an episode from “Rick and Morty”. Amanda Sparks, the digital marketing specialist, says: “This email campaign got several thousand shares within the first day of launching.”
Final Thoughts
Think of the content that you like or share on social media. Chances are, a good bit of it grabs your attention because it’s simply funny. The truth is, humor has universal appeal. Use it in the right way, and you’ll create great social media engagement.