We know from our experience of creating content at VC that entertaining stuff gets noticed. Our robot videos are watched, shared and commented on more quickly and more often than straight blog posts.
“Likeability is a great asset for any business.”
So, for us, funny can be good. People like you if you make them laugh, and likeability is a great asset for any business. But does that mean you need to be a stand up comedian if you want people to read your content? Funny can be hard act to pull off, particularly if what you do is at the drier end of the spectrum.
Luckily, we don’t think so. If you analyse what makes the robots funny, it’s the humour of recognition. Websites that get it all wrong have frustrated all of us at one time or other, so it strikes a chord. It’s not joke telling that makes people smile, it’s the depiction of a niggly aspect of our shared world. (In silly voices, of course, they’re funny.) Share your client’s world if you want them to like you.
You don’t need to tell jokes to make people laugh. There are other ways of being entertaining, and surrounding your business with warm fuzzy likeability.
“Luckily, you don’t need to be a stand up comedian to be entertaining.”
Videos don’t have to be funny to entertain. They can be clever, thought provoking, quirky. Exciting, moving, pertinent. They can get a complex message across more quickly and with more impact than the written word alone. But how many times have you shared a video that showed someone just talking about how great their business is? At a guess, we’d say ‘never.’ The same rules of creating stuff that’s valuable to your clients apply to video as to any other content.
It’s creativity itself that is entertaining. Content that makes you see things from a different angle or makes you think, is a good thing to create for your business.
Good infographics aren’t funny, but they can be entertaining because they show you a new way of looking and understanding. Brilliant illustrations don’t make you laugh, but they can move you or make you see the world differently.
And people want to share great creative content with their friends, because it confers the feel-good factor on to them. Sharing the smile is a nice human thing to do.
Boring or bland blog posts have no momentum, but those with creative spark get shared.
Make me smile, make me laugh, make me think and I’ll remember you.
