Having been a former mascot, I can tell you one of the biggest and best skills you can have is improv. There’s nothing like thinking on your feet to take advantage of a situation. Time and time again, I would sweep women off their feet with a short ballroom dance, playfully intercept a pass being thrown, and don’t get me started on using props from around the tailgate site. That’s probably what helped me get into social media in the first place. It was a new and unexpected medium to interact with people and see their views, hear their thoughts, and learn from their experiences.
And driving home after an audition on Sunday with a local improv troupe, I contemplated just how similar the two really are. And when it really comes down to it, what I’ve been doing with social media is nothing more than improv. Here are a few improv “guidelines” that I’ve bent a bit show you what I mean:
1) Don’t Deny (Ask Why) – One of the key reasons why improv works is momentum. The continuous moving forward of the scene by actions and words. By denying your partner(s) what they ask, this can stop the momentum short and kill a skit. The same can be said with social media. By not attending to comments, regular posts (guilty as charged), and just getting out there and participating regularly, you’re denying your audience. One of the things that I do when I get stuck in improv is I ask why. The same can go for you and your community. Make sure to include calls to action at the end of your blogposts, ask Twitter questions posed to you in real life, and get out there and play with the new networks to help find and interact with your audience.
2) You don’t have to be funny – Shocking I know. Yes, this is an actual improv guideline. It may be taught differently, but the key concept is the same. It’s not about you, it’s about your audience. It’s not about you, it’s about your partners. It’s not about you, it’s about your content. You don’t have to be concerned about saying the right things. In improv, sometimes it’s better to just say something to move the story along than to find something funny. I know that on Twitter, I try and do this by saying something to multiple people, where I see a connection. The connection maybe form a tweet I saw days ago or a conversation I had a few minutes ago, offline. The people may or may not be connected on Twitter, but that’s part of why I do it. Move the conversation forward to help the discussion and contribute to the communal feeling of sharing perspectives.
5) Guide the story – In improv, you’re setup with a (usually ridiculous) scene. And a “scene” is nothing more than a fancy way of saying “story”. When I’m improving, you can usually see me close my eyes several times during the performance. Why? Because I’m imagining the story unfolding in my mind. Usually just the next few lines at most, just enough to understand where the story wants to go. When interacting with your community, no matter what you do, always remember what your story is. Ask yourself with every interaction, does this tell my story? Does this forward the plot of the story? Will my community find that value that I’ve set out for them from seeing this? When you’re doing that, you’re telling your story. And believe it or not, there is someone out there who wants to hear that story.
So my question to you is how are you exemplifying these rules in what you’re doing online? Please feel free to answer any and all of these questions in the comments:
1) How are you keeping the momentum going with your online efforts?
2) What things are you doing to make your online efforts about your community?
3) How are you telling your story?
