There are few better ways to connect with someone than laughing together. It’s something we all love to do, and it’s by far one of the best bonding experiences there is. Unless you’re some sort of humourless alien, in which case, this blog is not for you, E.T.
Social bonding is now pretty much completely online, blending seamlessly with marketing strategies in the modern world of business. Nowadays, pretty much every brand has an online presence, and talking directly to your audience has never been easier.
And guess what? Humour is still a powerful way to connect! If you’re looking to increase social media engagement through funny content (funny ‘haha’, not funny ‘weird’), then look no further.
Below, we’ve outlined a few things to consider – and some to avoid – to help get that funny bone working and increase engagement rates!
Firstly, do you know who you are?
Excuse the seemingly existential question. But, we can’t start icing and decorating before we’ve baked the cake. The foundations of your brand give you something to build on. You need to know what your brand voice is before you can refine it. Is it inspiring? Quirky? Serious?
How can you expect people to buy what you’re selling – literally and figuratively – if you don’t even know who you are as a brand?
Defining this for your brand will help you develop an authentic voice – and authenticity is the key. People can easily spot a fraud, and nothing will turn them off your brand faster than being insincere.
For more help on defining your brand voice, check out this blog post by our very own talented Riley.
Once you know exactly who you are as a brand, you can start to shape your social media presence accordingly, and determine how much humour you want to include.
Where are you now, and where do you want to go?
Every goal has to start somewhere, whether it’s climbing Mount Everest, becoming a global pizza-eating champion, or just creating more engaging social media posts. (Don’t worry, as difficult as it may seem, improving your social media engagement rates should be a little bit easier than climbing Everest.)
You can’t set a goal if you don’t know what you want to achieve, and defining what a ‘good’ engagement goal looks like can differ from business to business. You have to take all relevant context into account. How has the average social media engagement across your platforms been so far? How much would you like to increase it?
Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you’re aiming for, you’re ready to make a plan to make it happen. This is where setting a SMART goal can be useful. The SMART goal framework can help you narrow your focus to help you achieve your goal in a measurable, methodical way.
The benefits of a little humour in your social media content
Nowadays, plenty of companies and businesses use humour to boost engagement. It doesn’t matter what field you’re in; if you want to make humorous posts a part of your social media engagement strategy, it can be done.
Sure, some topics – or even whole industries like finance, healthcare, or law – may traditionally be more on the serious side. But there’s no reason you have to follow suit with your business if that isn’t true to your brand.
Injecting humour into your social media presence can be a great way to increase your likeability and relatability with your audience. Sharing witty insights, memes, or a silly joke that will make your followers smile is a surefire way to get them engaged.
Approaching your social media posts with genuine humour and personality humanises your brand. Most people would rather engage with a business that ‘gets’ them than follow a sterile, bland corporation.
Dos & don’ts to increase social media engagement
Do: Be consistent
As mentioned above, knowing your authentic voice as a brand is vital. Being consistent in the tone you use to speak to your audience encourages trust among your followers.
Do you crack jokes in one breath, but go deadpan in the next? If your followers don’t know what to expect from your brand and your content, they won’t feel confident working with you. The numbers don’t lie; 81% of people consider trust to be a deciding factor when purchasing from a brand.
If you establish your brand as one that doesn’t take things too seriously and communicates primarily through funny content and memes, it’s important to keep that tone consistent throughout your content and across all platforms.
Don’t: Shoehorn jokes into every post
While consistency is key, you can keep the same lighthearted tone across your social media channels without forcing a joke into every tweet, Instagram reel, or Facebook post.
Not every post needs a punchline or to be the most hilarious thing your audience sees that week. The goal is to create engaging, shareable content. Forcing too much humour will only deter people from your brand. Not only that, but it could potentially decrease your engagement metrics with your existing followers, too.
Do: Align your content with the right social media platform
While it may seem like an obvious tip, aligning the type of content you’re producing with your social media platforms is still a step that some brands overlook.
For example, a witty one-liner with a GIF attached will likely work better on X (formerly known as Twitter) than it will on Instagram.
But even on platforms like LinkedIn that are typically more formal, humour is still possible. It may just take the form of a few emojis or jokes sprinkled into slightly more restrained content than what you’d tweet or post on TikTok.
Tailoring each social media post to the different audiences on your various platforms can keep them relevant. And relevancy is one of the main drivers of social media engagement!
Don’t: Forget about your followers
It might seem easy to simply grab whichever memes are trending at the moment and work them into your social media strategy. But, there are people out there who are following you for a reason.
Yes, having a hilarious, relatable brand is likely one of those reasons, but don’t forget to provide them with real value.
If your brand has become more style than substance on social media, and your audience engagement is falling, it’s time to get back to your ‘why’. Go back to basics – get some feedback to find out what they care about, what they’re looking for, what problems they’re trying to solve, and put your energy into providing that value for them. The more you do this, the more successfully your content will strike the balance between funny and beneficial.
Don’t: Be offensive
Finally, above all else, don’t veer into offensive territory in an attempt to make a joke! Sure, humour is subjective, but you need to be aware of how your brand’s tone might come across to your audience. Not many things will tank social media engagement quite like a joke in ill-taste just to get a laugh at someone else’s expense, and maybe a couple of clicks.
Hopefully, this sounds like a no-brainer, as it’s never worth hurting a group of people for the sake of edgy humour.
One way to make sure you keep your humour in check is to avoid GROSS humour. This stands for Gender bashing, Racially insensitive content, Obscenity, Sexual innuendo, and Swearing. And if you’re drafting a tweet or an Instagram post, and you’re unsure how it sounds, run it past someone else first.
Final thoughts
Remember, brands – like people – have different senses of humour. What works for one person may not for another, and that’s ok! Not every post will be a hit and grab your audience’s attention. But if you keep your authenticity intact and listen to your audience, you should be able to boost social media engagement rates in no time.
Don’t give up at the first dip in social media engagement. Tracking your engagement metrics and focusing on everything mentioned above can help you find a posting style that works for your brand.
Using humour on social media can be a tricky line to walk sometimes, but with a mindful approach, it’s possible to get the balance right so that your content resonates with the right audience.
We can help – and that’s no joke!
If you need some help improving your social media strategy and creating engaging content, The Content Lab is here to help! Get in touch today and let us take the guesswork out of creating a social media strategy that works for you.
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