A Little Humor Goes Far

By Sanya Weathers

My favorite secret weapon when it comes to community management is humor. I assume it’s a secret, anyway, because so few people seem to know about it.

Community managers are at a disadvantage when it comes to communication, because it is assumed by the typical user that we exist solely to advance the interests of our company – and furthermore, that those interests are in direct opposition to the interests of the customer. As such, the things we say are taken with a grain of salt, and perceived as being less than fully authentic.

The usual reaction to this is to adopt a polished, professional tone, and an image that never has a bad day.

That might even be fine if the product never has a bad day. If you’ve got such a product under development, be sure and patent the process.

At any rate, with humor, you need to be aware that there are only two acceptable targets – yourself, and strawmen set up for comedic purposes. I don’t recommend teasing your actual customers, because even if they laugh, outsiders and lurkers can easily get the wrong idea, and your teasing when removed from its context will sound cruel.

Laughing at yourself is always acceptable, and it can enhance your reputation. The best example of this that I’ve seen in the last week came from Jet Blue, in the aftermath of “hit the slide”:

“Perhaps you heard a little story about one of our flight attendants? While we can’t discuss the details of what is an ongoing investigation, plenty of others have already formed opinions on the matter. Like, the entire Internet. (The reason we’re not commenting is that we respect the privacy of the individual. People can speak on their own behalf; we won’t do it for them.)” Read the whole post here.

Wry, clever, charming. Also clearly stating a company policy, reinforcing company values, and obliquely reassuring customers that they probably won’t see their own rogue attendant. It’s a brilliant post, and ought to be in a textbook somewhere. “We get the joke because we’re in on it” is always superior strategy to “we’re humorless, faceless drones concerned about liability” – but only assuming you’ve established a personality in advance.