Add Humor to Your Social Media Brand Voice

A 2021 study confirms that 57% of working-age consumers prefer humorous advertising relating to a company’s brand presence. While 66% of older consumers want entertaining advertising.

Using humor can help you to humanize your brand. This means that when consumers interact with your brand they will equate it as less of a business and more of a particular person who speaks for the brand.

Your brand voice can do a lot to influence and grow your customer base, but you may be uncertain where to start. In this guide, we’ll give you tips for how you can add humor to your brand voice.

Interested in learning more about improving your brand presence? Then keep reading for more information.

How Can Humor on Social Media Benefit Your Brand Voice?

You only get a small window of opportunity to make an impression on your consumer base, around 7 seconds. Especially when your potential customers are scrolling aimlessly through their social media feeds.

Adverts on social media need to be able to grab the attention of the scrollers and engage with them. True engagement can create a high ROI.

If you only have 7 seconds to create a lasting impression on someone, think about how your brand voice can best achieve this. Think about your brand’s social media presence and voice. How are you communicating with your consumers and what kind of persona are you creating for your business?

Marianne LaFrance, a Yale University psychology professor, said that 90% of a first impression is based on appearance, posture, facial expressions, but especially tone of voice.

Your brand voice can do more for your brand presence than post boosting and vanity metrics. Likes, comments, follows, and shares will not exclusively drive revenue and create results. So, companies that claim you can buy followers and likes are not legitimate and should be avoided at all costs.

You want your posts to inspire action and help your business become a memorable brand and humor can help you achieve this. When it comes to adding humor to your brand voice, there are some tips you should follow first.

Workshop Your Material First

In this era of instant posting, you want to be careful about taking to social media too quickly to jump on a breaking pop culture bandwagon trend. An example of this is the recent and now infamous Will Smith Oscars slap of comedian Chris Rock.

While many took to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to make fun of the ordeal and create social media memes, others were greatly upset by this incident and called it grossly unprofessional on Will’s part. It got some laughs but overall was viewed as in poor taste.

Maintaining cultural relevance is fine, but you should try your material on others or brainstorm several ideas before posting. While it may be tempting to jump on every happening, it’s in your company’s best interests to think it through first. Failure to do so could create a serious backlash for your brand.

Make Sure Your Brand Voice Matches Your Brand

Before you attempt to adapt your brand for humor, make certain that your brand voice’s humor is organic and not forced. Also, do not keep changing your humor like it’s Open Mic Night at a comedy club.

Larger fast-food chains like Taco Bell and Wendy’s have garnered a large following with their sassy and roast-like style criticizing other brands. Marie Callender’s also took the side of snark during the infamous Sharon’s burnt pie incident of November 2021 with a whole ad campaign centered around it.

But this approach isn’t for everyone, it should be appropriate to what your business sells. For instance, if you are a small business owner with a bakery, you’ll want to opt for bakery-themed puns, such as “Bready or Knot: Here We Come!” or “Pretty Fly for a Rye Guy.”

Stay Relevant and Relatable

It’s important that your humor touches on the relatable parts of everyday life and doesn’t veer into iffy territory. Keep up with how language and abbreviations are used on social media. Research current trends, popular hashtags, social media memes, and emoji meanings and their uses.

You don’t want your attempts at humor to bomb because you’re using old, outdated terminology. Sure, touch upon nostalgia, but do so without sounding too much like an adult trying to fit in at the Cool Kids’ table.

On the other hand, brands that can laugh at themselves may be seen as more approachable.

Keep It Clean

As much as you may want to go blue with your humor on social media, avoid using profanity if you can. Foul language may put many consumers off your brand. Remember, everyone can see what you post on the internet.

If your company sells adult products such as boxer shorts or marital aids, adult humor can come into play. However, a clever approach is the use of innuendos to get the point across in a cheeky manner without resorting to outright profanity.

No matter how funny you are, always be professional when responding to consumers.

Engagement Is Key

Your small business social media page may be regularly posting witty and relatable content. But unless you interact with those who comment and post on your pages and profiles, you’re missing the primary reason for posting, customer engagement.

Don’t dangle your bait out there, just to reel it in before you’ve gotten a bite. Brands that engage with their customers grow their social media brand voice.

Ensure your responses are in line with your brand’s humor while still maintaining a level of professionalism.

Use Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is one of the top social media marketing strategies. Your viral marketing campaign should be short and sweet, but somehow memorable, like a rhyming slogan.

Add something quotable that people will be saying or sharing to their social media feeds and incorporate witty and pun-filled hashtags.

Know Your Audience

Know your core or desired demographic group so you can tailor your posts to reach them with targeted ads. Targeted ads utilize your brand voice and aim them at consumers with certain interests, profiles, and similar brand preferences.

Targeted ads have a high engagement factor and ROI. They are a better investment than boosted posts, which are expensive and not as effective with their reach and engagement.

Let Us Help You Find Your Brand Voice

Your brand voice speaks volumes about your brand presence. If you are looking to up your advertising game but don’t know where to start, Drive Social Media can guide you.

We can help you create or update your brand voice to suit your personality and standards. Drive Social Media is the #1 paid social media agency.

We have been featured in AdWeek, Inc.500, and Harvard Business Review, just to name a few. We have the solutions you need to boost advertising dollars and your ROI with our digital marketing solutions.