A business account that is never funny can feel stiff. One that tries too hard feels desperate. The middle is a person who has a sense of humour and some judgement.
Rules that keep it safe
- Laugh at yourself or the situation, not at customers, competitors or anyone with less power than you.
- Keep to the voice you already have. A joke in the wrong voice sounds as if someone else wrote it.
- Make it about something real: the Monday queue, the printer that broke, the email you keep getting.
- Check how it reads from another culture or language. Irony in particular does not travel.
When to stay serious
After bad news, in the middle of a complaint, around anything involving illness, loss or conflict. If the world is having a bad day, a joke can read as not noticing. Our article on posting during bad news covers it in more detail.
Test it
- 1Show it to one person who is not in on it.
- 2If they have to have it explained, it is not ready.
- 3If you hesitate over a word, take the word out.
Humour is not a campaign
A funny post once or twice a month is plenty. Make it a habit and it becomes a formula, and a formula stops being funny.
A joke that needs the reader to disagree with someone is not a joke; it is an argument. Leave it out.