Mr. Funnyman: 3 Key Ways Stephen Colbert Wins at Copywriting
In a “why so serious” world, we desperately need people who bring laughter to our lives and Stephen Colbert is one of those humorous champions! Along with people like Jon Stewart and John Oliver, Colbert has created an amazing network of satire news that both informs audiences of major news stories while mocking major media establishments.
For those who don’t know, Colbert is the host of The Colbert Report where he discusses everything from current events to nerd rage about various films. His achievements include being a political satirist, a mega, well-informed nerd, and comedy show writer. He even showed up in one of the installments of The Hobbit since he is a major fan of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings.
Come 2015, we will all get to watch Colbert without a major cable package when he takes over for Letterman on the Late Show. Colbert is quite an expert at copywriting and I am sure you can learn a thing or two from the comedian. Let’s take a look at a few awesome things that are sure to inspire you!
1. He’s a Social Media Powerhouse
With 7.19 million Twitter followers, Stephen Colbert constantly proves that he knows how to use social media. He is an absolute powerhouse and many won’t deny that when he tweets, all of his followers re-tweet. He uses social media to inform followers about who will be on his show, which helps remind people when to tune in. He also uses it to connect with his fans and to prove just how funny he can be. Whether it is a joke he unnecessarily breaks up into three posts or a sarcastic remark about the latest news story, he proves that being funny and active on social media is both easy and successful.
What can you learn from Stephen Colbert’s winning social media strategy? Here are a few takeaways you can use:
- Work on cultivating a following on Twitter and other social sites. Your postings will only work if you have a following, and you can only grow larger if you encourage your following to share. You can this by encouraging people to follow your social sites via your website, blog, or email campaigns, as well as business cards.
- Always stay with the trends. Something that makes Colbert easy to re-tweet is that he is always focusing on things that are currently trendy. This is a great way to build and maintain a following and get more engagement on social media.
- Create entertaining content for your followers. I will focus on this a bit more later on in the post, but we all know that Colbert wins at content because he is such an amazing entertainer both on and off screen!
2. He Focuses on Building a Loyal Fan Base
Everyone knows that Colbert has a rather large and loyal fan base, but he had to create and maintain it. How does he do this? He works to create a loyal fan base by constantly engaging with his fans and making fun activities for everyone. In the end, he is able to gain help from this base when it comes to charitable organizations and other fundraisers. He continues to build on this base and work to maintain it each and every day with social media and through his show.
This is a great example of how important it is to build your customer base and make sure it is a loyal one as well. While you won’t have the draw that Colbert does, you can do things like engage with clients on social media and send out emails in other campaigns. You can ask for clients to fill out surveys to help make your business better and offer incentives for helping out.
In fact, offering freebies just for a customer being your customer is a great idea and can make anyone feel appreciated. By doing something like this, you are creating a greater chance of boosting your revenue and also having a great base when you want to raise funds for various charities during the holiday season.
3. He Uses Humor with Copywriting in the Best Way Possible
The most obvious thing that Stephen Colbert does with copywriting is he uses humor in the best way. Humor is something many people enjoy, and when used correctly, it can really help boost content. The majority of Colbert’s content is humor based, but he knows how to use it for various trends and knows when and how to deliver the right punch line.
You don’t have to be Colbert to use humor in your content though and you don’t have to go to his level with it. You can use sarcasm, silly jokes, or whatever type of humor you feel is appropriate for your content, the time, and your clients. A few tips when using humor in content are:
- Avoid offending your client base. Sure, some of Colbert’s humor can be offensive to different people when it comes to politics, but he does a good job of staying away from incredibly offensive jokes.
- Make sure the humor fits your brand. You don’t want to get too off base with your humor. Make sure it matches your brand and your already-established voice.
- Make your jokes very obvious for the audience. The written word can make it very difficult for people to know just what you’re saying and many times people can misunderstand. This can cause a lot of problems that you want to avoid so make sure everyone knows you are joking.
- Hire someone who is funny. This will make sure your jokes come across well and that they truly are funny!
In Closing, Make Them Laugh, Make Them Laugh, Make Them Laugh!
Whether you need a laugh or want to learn a few more marketing tricks from the comedic genius, Colbert is a great resource! Tune into his show if you have Comedy Central or follow his various social media sites to keep up-to-date. With each new video and show comes more inspiration for humorous content, things to share on social media, and great ideas that you can use in your content. What are some things you’ve learned from the brilliant mind of Stephen Colbert? Let us know!
Photo credit: Forbes.com