Last night I went to see Cornish comedian Johnny Cowling perform at a hotel in Falmouth.
He’s known locally for his Cornish jokes, risque humour and singing, and he’s best known “up north” (ahem) in London for warming up the audiences for Dancing on Ice and Take Me Out on ITV.
As well as being very funny, he is also a master at knowing his audience and connecting with them.
Here are some lessons in building a loyal online following, the Johnny Cowling way:
Start gently & maintain momentum
Johnny opened the show with typical fanfare and a big entrance. We knew he’d arrived.
But his act started fairly informally, inviting requests from the audience and telling a few one-liners.
By end of the gig he was in full flow, working the room, getting the audience up dancing, and generally giving us all a fantastic evening’s entertainment, all from a gentle start.
When you first set-up your social media accounts, the temptation is to go crazy for the first couple of days, posting updates every hour, videos, links to blog posts, twenty tweets a day….
And then you lose interest and the Facebook page or LinkedIn account lies dormant.
Be like Johnny – build up to a level you feel comfortable with, whether that’s two tweets a day, one post a week, and stick with it.
This way, your audience know what to expect and you become a reliable resource.
Engage with your audience
By the end of last night I knew Johnny was married, I knew where he lived, how many kids he has, where he goes on holiday, and where he shops.
He shared a bit of himself and that helped the audience build up a picture of who was talking to them.
Try doing the same online – of course be careful about identity theft and don’t send a tweet that includes your PIN number, but don’t be afraid to tell others what you’re up to, what you can see from your window, how your desk is looking, what you did at the weekend.
If you can relate it back to what you do, then brilliant, but social media is social. Be sociable and open up a bit about yourself. People buy from people, so by showing your human side, you increase the likelihood of people doing business with you.
Include others
This wasn’t such a great part of the night for my husband, who happened to be sitting in the front row when he got pulled up to join Johnny in singing “Love me tender” by Elvis Presley….
But the audience loved it.
In terms of social media, think what other bloggers, Facebook groups, Tweeters you could share with your online audience.
Sharing content from other people is a great way of keeping your posts varied, interesting and fresh.
It’s also a good way of doing business – if you do another business a favour by drawing attention to their social media platforms, then they will often do the same for you.
My poor husband wasn’t able to return the favour to Johnny in quite the same way, but he was still smiling about it his moment of fame morning.
Personalise the content
Johnny’s act was peppered with unscripted conversations, where he reacted to someone in the audience, or started chatting to an unfortunate as they sheepishly made their way to the loo.
These ad hoc parts of the gig got big laughs.
If you have a social media plan (and you should have) don’t be afraid to digress to include other timely content. Look at what’s going on in the news and in your industry and comment on it.
Being reactive to breaking news is a major benefit of social media that many don’t make the most of – get ahead of your competitors and respond swiftly.
Give more than you take
Last night’s event was in aid of the The Carnon Carers, a group of lovely people who provide companionship and kindness to others in the community who need it.
They volunteer their services all year round, and last night helped raise money for their annual Christmas bash.
Johnny gave his time for free, he performed for almost three hours, singing, dancing, telling jokes, even drawing the raffle and the audience gave generously and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Try and think of social media as a way to give back.
Being on social media isn’t about broadcasting. It isn’t about telling people about your products. It isn’t about boasting or sales pitches.
It’s about helping others out with what you know, adding value, and being sure that people have a reason to read what you’re sharing.
If you’ve read this far, I hope you feel it was worth it.
Our night out in Falmouth was certainly worth it, and I’ll never hear “Love me tender” and not see Johnny Cowling serenading my husband on the dance floor!
What are your golden rules of social media? Let us in on them in the comments below.
What comes under adding value on social media?
Hi Surath – adding value could be something like sharing a link to an interesting article that your customers would find helpful – anything that helps them out. Social media offers a place where you can be useful and interesting by solving your customers’ problems.
Think of it like a sales assistant giving advice – if you went into a local florist, they may be able to offer advice on which flowers to use for different occasions. Or they could tell you a few tricks of the trade to help your flowers last longer. This is the sort of thing you could do via social media – hope that helps – have fun with it!