Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off

CHAPTER 77

WHEN USING HUMOR IN YOUR MARKETING, BE SURE TO LAUGH AT YOURSELF

Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it.

—Cullen Hightower

Incorporating humor into your marketing is a great way to connect while telling a story. You should proceed with caution though!

Most good jokes run the risk of offending someone, yet humor is vital to your success as a leader and influencer. What's the solution?

I've heard it said on several occasions that there's only one type of humor that's always funny and always safe. Poking fun at yourself and your own shortcomings is the best way to use humor to add warmth and engage an audience on- or offline. Simply telling jokes only communicates that you found a good joke book recently. On the other hand, finding creative ways to poke fun at yourself tells people that you are human and that they can relate to you.

You've heard the old saying, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

I can change that up a bit for this brief chapter: “People don't care how much you know until they know you are willing to poke fun at yourself.”

Often on Facebook I post funny family stories or tales of failure on my part. One of the most commented-on posts I ever left on Facebook.com was about my adventure chasing the mail truck down our street in the middle of winter in my socks trying to hand our driver a Christmas card. Each time I'd get close behind her she pulled forward to another ...