How Your Company’s Social-Media “Voice”Should be Like an Improvisational Comic (7Ways)

By Kevin H. Nalty, November 2009

Would you trust your social-media voice to an improv comic?

I recently told a few hundred Canadian marketersthat their social-media expert should be an improv comic, an insight that hit me during my all-night roadtrip to Toronto. Moments later, oneformer improv comic(from Freshed Baked Entertainment)confided at lunch that he's using his improv experience to help brandscreate entertaining content.This notion mostly went over well, and I pledged to write about it. I'm beginning here onWillVideoForFood.com andScribd(a good way to distribute and SEO-optimize your writing if you can'tafford PRWeb or PRNewswire). If you're a blogger or publisher,

I invite you to use part or all of this withattribution

... and hope to fancy it up for a magazine.I have four sources of inspiration for this concept:

•

ImprovEverywhere's Charlie Todd, who I'm connected to in an odd way that falls between friendand fan. It's a parasocial relationship, but since I've met him and he returns my phone calls or e-mails I'm allowing myself to call dub the "Causing a Scene" author a "

virtual colleague.

" I wasstruck with how well he does media, and I attribute that to his experience as both an improv comicand advanced teacher of the discipline. Todd, in fact, was who encouraged me to enroll in thewildly heralded UCB Theater in NYC.I'd later, sadly, become an

improv-school dropout

becauseI lost my financial excuse to visit NYC weekly and my dad died. But I'll do it again.

•

I did significant research to prepare for my Improv Comedy course, and learned a tremendousamoung in the early classes. My goal was not to become an improv comic, but understand howimprovisational skills might translate to my work and life. Like you, perhaps, I often default to"fighting the wind" (arguing the inevitable), which can be empowering but both exhausting and

unsustainable. So I hoped to learn new ways to "roll with life" or "go with the flow." One of myfavorite affirmations is "

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, thecourage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference

" (source). How many of life's "problems" would vanish if we gave ourselves that rare gift?

•

I've also had lengthy conversations withMelissa Katz, a former colleague at Johnson & Johnsonwho oversaw Centocor's public relations.She's a former improv comic, and helped me understandhow many of the tenants of improvisational comedy translate to corporate or public-relations.

•

Finally, David Algeris one of many improv-comics that crystalized the basic "rules" of improv comedy, and I hope to help you see how some of these rules apply to your social-media presence.I quote him simply because he ranked high on Google SEOs for "improv comedy rules," butthere's no shortage of wisdom on improvisational comedy.I'm quite sure there are dozens of other applicable rules I've left out (like being honest, a truism in both improv and social-media).So forgive me for being an improv-comic dropout, but trust that what I learned in my first portion of theclass will help you either find a good social-media expert or nurture one who is. I give you

"The SevenReasons Your Social-Media Expert Should Be an Improvisational Comic."

Yes, And.

A basic rule of improv comedyis "yes, and." A good improvisational comic never contradicts a fellow comic, and instead rolls with the direction his or her stage-mate casts. Thatmeans they're ready to drop their idea of where they WANT to take the sketch, and build on wherethe other team-members are heading. This, inunarguably, is true for social media. You may hopethat social-media will conform to your ideas for your brand or company, but you'd better be readyto roll with what comes your way.

Don't Block.

An improv sketch dies whenever one or more people "block" or change direction. If I say we're naked plumbers and you decide we're not, then we've lost our flow. Likewise, social-media experts are doomed if they contradict the voice of other participants. It's a conversationalmedium, and nobody wants to be contradicted.

Team Play.

Standup comics are one-man bands, but improv comics learn to be a part of anensemble. It's like the difference between a golf player and a basketball teammate. In corporations,the social-media expert rarely has completely free reign, and answers to executives, marketers andpublic-relations people. But he or she must also focus on the audience's needs, and balance theserequirements like a good plate-spinner.

Don't Ask Questions.

Alger,an improv-comic who teaches theMeisner techniqueand whose rules are worth a read, reminds us not to ask questions. In improv comedy, that puts the pressureon a teammate. The improv comic should already know the answer. While it's true that the social-media expert wants to listen to (and engage) the audience, he or she loses credentials if oftenasking others for answers.

Focus on "Now."

ReadingEckhart Tolle, I've often been reminded that the unchecked mind likesto live in the past and future (but the only "real" moment is right now). While gurus, futurists, andhistorians have their merit, the improv comic is acutely trained at the "here and now." Acorporation or brand blogger likewise needs to manage whatever strange circumstances arrive,within a loosely written script.

Apply a lot of process or structure on the social-media "voice" and you'll get something irrelevant to audiences and awkwardly detatched.

Change, Change, Change.

Alger writes this about change, "Improv is about character change.The characters in a scene must experience some type of change for the scene to be interesting.Characters need to go on journeys, be altered by revelations, experience the ramifications of theirchoices and be moved by emotional moments." How true this is in a rapidly moving social-mediaworld. If your social-media guru embraces change, your voice and behavior with crowds willappear fluid and consistent. Unfortunately many public-relations people have a plan and agendathat makes them fairly change adverse.

Put Audience First.

As marketers we are often "snipers" not "entertainers." We target people andinterrupt them with our message via ads. We tell them how our product will make them feel, and