So it’s no wonder when social media sites like Facebook and Twitter started sprouting up, I initially steered clear. Why would I want another way to spread my personal business around?

I was even more skeptical when social media started infiltrating the business world. However, I have to concede that I am now a convert.

Fast-forward a year or so from my mortified self to my entrepreneurial self, and the Mom Circle was suddenly my most useful business tool. My neighbor and I wanted to break into the lemonade stand business, but we lived in a cul-de-sac – great for scootering, horrible for lemonade stand publicity. The solution to getting ourselves recognized was the Mom Circle. We launched our business the same weekend my mom was holding a garage sale, and with just one word from my mom, suddenly we were known across all of town as reputable beverage-selling duo featured at a trusted business event. That was all it took. We made twelve whole dollars!

My lemonade stand taught me a simple, but genius, marketing rule: use your connections. And now I see that sites like Facebook and Twitter make connecting with people easier than ever. Even if I don’t like sharing the play-by-play of my personal life through social media sites, there is no more denying that they are extremely useful business tools. So I guess there really isn’t a reason to be afraid, and I want to share my newfound fearlessness. If you take the time to make social media sites work in the best interest of your business, they will only help you. Unfortunately, I can’t promise that your mom won’t ever embarrass you again.

Marcella Vieraitis is a new summer intern at ideaLaunch. She loves writing and editing, and is soaking up all there is to learn about the world of blogging, social media, and content marketing.

Let’s take a look at the funny pages:

Umm … that was weird and not exactly funny. Ok, next:

????

No, Jim Davis has not lost his mind. What you’ve just seen are examples from Garfield Minus Garfield, a very humorous site (and book) from Dan Walsh who removes all traces of the lasagna-loving cat from old Garfield comic strips. The result is a whole different perception of the sad and twisted life of Jon Arbuckle.

While Garfield Minus Garfield is all a big joke, sadly a lot of people seriously go about their content marketing in this way when it comes to SEO content. I’ve seen people looking to hire a writer who will just stuff a bunch of keywords into paragraphs with no real regard for the human element, the content. You may have come across these “articles” yourself in your searches. There’s nothing helpful or useful about them – just the same few keywords appearing in every sentence mingled with useless filler words. That style of SEO content brings no value to the audience and it won’t bring any revenue to you.

We completely get that keyword-rich content is important for improving your listing on search engine result pages. But if you are only writing for Google software, you’ve missed the boat. Content is for people. Write for their eyes and brains first.  Otherwise …

A sample from The Oatmeal

You might be incredibly gifted at business. You might know your customers better than they know themselves. You might have invented the greatest product since sliced iPod. But if your content marketing efforts and website are littered with spelling errors, people are sadly going to think you’re an idiot. Plus, incorrect spelling can affect your SEO success, and for a bunch of content optimization freaks like ourselves, that’s a real shame.

Typos happen to the best of us. Not knowing the difference between “there”, “their” and “they’re” isn’t acceptable in business writing.

While I would encourage nearly everyone to hire a writer or a content marketing agency if you want to make a real go of your business, correcting the top spelling offenders is worthwhile for all.

The hilarious but not-always PC people at  The Oatmeal have developed a web page (and poster!) that highlight the ten words people need to stop misspelling – complete with little tricks and tips (some ruder than others) on how to remember the proper spelling. These are:

• Lose vs. Loose
• Weird
• Their vs. There vs. They’re
• Your vs. You’re
• It’s vs. Its
• Definitely
• Effect vs. Affect
• Weather vs. Whether
• A lot
• Then vs. Than

See any that give you trouble now and again? Educate yourself and have a little laugh while you’re at it.

Dissecting 20 Years of Simpsons Lines: Image from Fox.

If you hope to market content through online articles, a blog, podcast or vlog – even SEO writing – one of the best ways to endear an audience is to entertain them with humor. If you’ve struggled with humor writing, the greatest advice we can give to you is to look at existing work that makes you laugh and find ways to use those methods in your content marketing.

So what are some writing techniques for humor?

Perhaps one of the best examples of comedic writing is The Simpsons. Last night, Fox aired its ode to our favorite dysfunctional family in a 20^th anniversary special (if you missed it, Americans can watch it on Hulu) – and it contained a ton of hilarious lines that have now become pop culture classics. Let’s take a look at a few memorable quotes from The Simpsons and understand the different types of humor writing that was employed.

Misdirection: Setting up the audience to believe you will say something standard, normal and expected, only to veer off in a different (and often ridiculous) direction.

• Homer: I’m normally not a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me, Superman.
• Homer: Son, when you participate in sporting events, it’s not whether you win or lose: it’s how drunk you get.
• Mr. Burns: What good is money if it can’t inspire terror in your fellow man?

Political Incorrectness: A tongue-in-cheek reference that is or is about something faux pas or taboo (often used cautiously and clearly in a joking manner).

• Milhouse: Look out, Itchy! He’s Irish!
• Superintendent Chalmers: “Thank the Lord”? That sounded like a prayer. A prayer in a public school. God has no place within these walls, just like facts don’t have a place within an organized religion.
• Homer: He didn’t give you gay, did he? Did he?!

The Awful Truth: Similar to political incorrectness, the awful truth is humor that speaks bluntly about an issue that most people wouldn’t admit out loud.

• Comic Book Guy: The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity…
• Homer: I’m going to the back seat of my car, with the woman I love, and I won’t be back for ten minutes!
• Homer: You don’t like your job, you don’t strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That’s the American way.

Self-deprecation: Making fun of oneself.

• Comic Book Guy: But, Aquaman, you cannot marry a woman without gills. You’re from two different worlds… Oh, I’ve wasted my life.
• Homer: I think the saddest day of my life was when I realized I could beat my Dad at most things, and Bart experienced that at the age of four.
• Moe: Well, I’m better than dirt. Well, most kinds of dirt. I mean not that fancy store-bought dirt. That stuffs loaded with nutrients. I… I can’t compete with that stuff.

Word Play: A goofy style of humor that relies on sentence structure, puns and dual-meanings, often to conflict or add to the context in which it’s being said.

• Homer: Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals…except the weasel.
• Ralph: Me fail English? That’s unpossible.
• Homer: I am so smart: S-M-R-T!

The Completely Ridiculous. Take something and suggest it will do the very opposite of what you think it will do. This is often done to make fun of different societal traits (like alarmism, efficiency) and well known slogans or mottos.

• Troy McClure: Don’t kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he’d eat you and everyone you care about!
• Homer: Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do?
• Homer: Old people don’t need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.

These are just a few examples of different types of humour writing. Find what appeals most to you and practice ways of weaving it into your content. It doesn’t need to be a non-stop laugh riot (after all, there’s probably some core information you need to communicate in your content marketing), but injecting a little humor can go a long way with an audience. Be sure to check out our additional writing tips to make the most of your marketing efforts.

Still not up to the task? Consider hiring a writer who has a knack for it.

SuperNews! on Current TV

On Thursday, a new season of Current TV’s SuperNews! will air. While not always suitable for work, SuperNews! has a knack for tackling the mundane things about the Interwebs and finding the hilarity in them. They mercilessly mock and parody Facebook habits, Twitter fans and even emoticon use. No social media is safe!

Watching SuperNews! probably won’t directly help you with your content marketing, but it can help you lighten up a little if you’ve been taking your Internet activity oh-so seriously. It can also be a source of inspiration if you’re hoping to add humor to your web content, even when the subject isn’t always the most obvious muse for comedy.

You may have already seen this SuperNews! clip, The Trouble With Twitters, but it is still a fun watch (and it is suitable for work, so go on ahead and take a little break):

The Stupidest Image From siliconANGLE.net

According to some poor souls, web content or content marketing requires a simple recipe: Take one part buzz-worthy subject matter, one part Google and one part ability to write in English. Voila, you have an article about social media (and probably for the low, low cost of $5 via a freelancing site).

Forget “everyone’s a critic.” Now, everyone’s an expert – and this hilarious tongue-in-cheek article from Kevin Nalty, “The Stupidest Article About Social Media Ever,” is a beautiful and entertaining parody that demonstrates this phenomenon to a tee. It’s almost spooky how accurately he nails the bad content that’s currently floating around out there.

It’s a fun read and an example of why companies and readers need to vet the writers they come across to make sure they’ve hired (or are reading work from) someone that actually understands the subject matter vs. someone who knows how to use a search engine.