I try to use humor occasionally in our material, not only to liven it up, but to make us more personal and to give insight into how working with us will be (competent but fun). Moreover, I think that when it’s in limited amounts and surrounded by more serious content, it actually lends credence to the rest of the content - it shows that we aren’t just bs artists, but that we truly know what we’re talking about and are confident enough in what we’re saying to have a little fun.

It’s easy, however, to overdo it. When a post or article is all “fun” and contains no serious content, the humor loses its impact and fails to deliver a message (we can write funny things is only a message if you’re trying to sell writing - we have something to say but don’t take ourselves too seriously is a message we can use).

We also need to be vigilant about the length of the content. If a humorous bit is too long, it crosses the line from light-hearted to inappropriate (like a dirty joke taken too far).

Although humor has value in itself, it’s value in a corporate context is when it’s furthering the company’s message or brand. Without that, it’s inappropriate.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Blog, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.