How to Properly Use Humor in Social Media

Getting your business’ message across while creating engagement with your social media efforts can be a challenge, to say the least. Often, using humor in social media is a great way to bridge that gap but it isn’t always easy and there are pitfalls to avoid along the way. Here are five tips to help crack some smiles the right way with social media.

1. Don’t Be Offensive

This may seem a fairly obvious, but when using humor in social media campaigns for your business it doesn’t pay to take chances with offending your audience. In fact, if you ever find yourself wondering, even for a second, “Could this be construed as offensive?” then go ahead and assume the answer is yes and move on. While many of us, myself included, believe we live in an ultra-sensitive world, way too prone to getting its feathers ruffled over some silly joke, your business’ social media is not the appropriate forum to challenge this particular social convention.

2. Keep it Simple

Originally, I had tip #2 as “Keep It Simple, Stupid,” but then I re-read tip #1 and reconsidered. But seriously, do keep it simple when using humor in social media. In fact, laughs are great, but often times a simple smile is enough to be engaging. Unless they’re exclusively on Google+, chances are your audience is being barraged from all sides with posts upon posts in their feeds. Very few people are going to pay attention to a post that takes more than a few words to get to the punch line. Really, the punch line should be the only line. Think one-liners, funny quotes or a witty caption to a funny picture for a quick laugh (or smile). Also, be careful with sarcasm, which can be difficult to detect through the written word and may end up making your post seem confusing or idiotic rather than funny.

3. Never Damage Your Brand for the Sake of a Laugh

Using humor in social media is great, but you should be doing it to enhance your brand, not damage it. Make sure that your funny message is consistent with your brand’s message at all times. Consider this recent Domino’s Pizza commercial:

First of all, it’s really not THAT funny to begin with, but what’s the message? “Here at Domino’s, our employees are so inept at talking on the phone, so you should use our awesome new online ordering system.” I’m pretty sure Domino’s hasn’t stopped taking orders over the phone altogether, so why put it out there themselves that they’re terrible at it?!

This is a pretty egregious example, but be careful you don’t do your brand a disservice just for chuckles.

4. Do a Beta Test Before Posting

Even the funniest of us have our off moments and what we’re sure is hilarious may fall flat from time to time. Whenever possible, run that hilarious idea by a few people you trust to tell you if you’ve got a swing and a miss on your hands. It’s much better to hear crickets from a few friends or colleagues than to have a not-so-funny post blasted to all your social media followers.

5. Piggy Back off Current Trends

If you’re finding original funny ideas are hard to come by, sometimes the best material is already out there and just waiting to be taken advantage of. References and parodies to trending humor are always great fodder for a funny social media post.

Let’s all get in our way back machines to good old 2013 and remember when the Harlem Shake video went viral. This spawned countless parodies, including one from the University of Georgia Swim Team that got over 37 million views on YouTube.

Keep an eye out for viral videos or any big trend that your business could put their own quirky spin for some really funny and effective way to use humor in your social media.

Again, humor certainly has its place in marketing, and social media in particular. It can be a fun and fresh way to connect with your audience and garner attention toward and engagement with your brand. But it also needs to be handled tastefully and strategically for optimal results.

Let us know what you think about using humor in social media and use the comments section below to talk about any positive, or not so positive, reactions you’ve had to and feel free to link any examples you’d like to share…