Comedians show the way in social media

By David Eedle |

At first it may not seem obvious, but comedians are amongst the best exponents of social media. However, when you take a minute the reasons are obvious – a) great comedians are great communicators; b) they’re funny. Two attributes that ensure the content they create is compelling.

Adam Hills is a much loved Australian comedian, who is well known through his popular television music quiz show Spicks and Specks, and his long presence on the standup comedy circuit. I’m kicking myself we missed his recent season at the Melbourne Comedy Festival – we had tickets but were unfortunately double-booked and couldn’t make the show so gave the tickets to a friend instead.

Take a look at Adam’s blog during April 2010. One tactic he uses is to take a photo of an audience member during a performance, and Tweet it out asking for caption suggestions – instant feedback to provide more grist for the mill through the show. Adam often singles out audience members and incorporates them into his show, for example, assembling a group on stage representing accents of the world.

Stephen Fry is the geek’s dream comedian, a man who loves technology and can be funny about it as well.

One evening he picked out a guy named Chris Hughes, and “promised to make him as famous as I possibly could by the end of the Festival”. Chris agreed, providing the exercise could be turned into a fundraiser for a particular charity he supports. Read through the blog posts and you’ll see how they raised almost $15,000, and the whole affair culminated in a public strip tease – the film of which is also on Adam’s blog.

It’s a wonderful story, spanning a couple of weeks, various media channels, and attracting significant attention during a period in Melbourne that is saturated with comedians looking for publicity.

Another comedian whose social media adventures I follow, and am desperately jealous of, is Dave Gorman. We saw Googlewhack Adventure in Melbourne when he toured Australia, funniest show I’d seen in years. He’s a regular blogger and Tweeter, and regularly posts terrific photos taken on his travels around the world. I particularly enjoy the ‘Webcam’ and ‘Error’ tabs on his web site.

And a few more I love and follow:

Arj Barker regularly Tweets out great pictures from his shows and on tour locations

Rob Brydon happily responds to fans Tweets

Stephen Fry is the geek’s dream comedian, a man who loves technology and can be funny about it as well. I had fun attending a virtual Twitter party Stephen ran last week. He has a gorgeous web site and blog as well. And even his own iPad application – that’s how geeky he is.

I fell in love with Tim Minchin when I won a DVD of his show at a trivia night fundraiser for Chunky Move dance company. Not a great web site, but he’s a prolific and engaging Tweeter.

These guys know how to work an audience, and Twitter and other social media channels simply provide extensions to that. Sure, they have an ulterior motive, in one way or another this is how they earn their living. They need audiences – whether at their shows, buying DVDs etc – in order to eat. But their tactic is exactly as always recommended for social media. Don’t treat Twitter, Facebook and other channels as a straightforward advertising medium, down which you ram endless sales promotions.

Oh sure, you’ll sell the odd widget, or eBook, or weight loss pill, or blogging success program. But it’s a tenuous and probably shortlived relationship you’ll generate with the customer.

Instead look at how the Dave Gorman’s and Stephen Fry’s of this world create online personae that their potential audiences and customers genuinely enjoy engaging with.

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