When was the last time you looked up a business on Google and couldn’t see their hours of operation?
However long it was, it was too soon ago.
Imagine — the entire freaking world has already onlined itself into a cycle of screen dependency re: infrastructure, and here these clowns are just not even putting themselves out there. What, they’re too good to take your money and attention? Come on!
That’s exactly how anyone who’s ever looked up a comedian feels when they can’t find more merriment. Picture it. After a good night out with a drink minimum, an audience member loved your exact style of wit and turn of phrase so much that they worked through the martinis-and-cheese-sticks-haze to follow your social accounts…only to find that searching for you turns up nothing. And now no one at brunch tomorrow will even know who you are.
And hey, to any management reading? The scenario described above is your problem, too. Even if you did have the time to Stage Mom one single client around, filming their every move and creepily mouthing the words to their routines, without somewhere to put all that material, even the best of bits will end up dead as Discman. Do you know what 15% of $0 is?
You bet you do.
So now you have it drilled in that you need to keep up a social media presence in the first place, let’s look at how best to do that. If you’re not already deeply involved, it’s more work than you think, but soon it’ll be second nature. Don’t give yourself the red light before you start; get into it with these Must-Do’s.
This one’s pretty easy to figure out the ‘why’ of. Casting a broader net means drawing in a bigger audience, which means your chances of your own Netflix Special go up higher and faster, which means you can tell everyone you made it, and have enough money to send your doubters a quality photo of your butt to kiss.
Or support a charity you believe in — your call.
We’re big on Instagram around these parts, but you can’t ignore your opportunities on Bluesky, X, YouTube, TikTok, and whatever new platform pops up next. Juggling accounts and juggling them well can be challenging, but automation tools exist for a reason. Starting with Instagram, adding tools — then crossposting — and working your way up is your best bet. Ensure you’re getting the help you need to cover your bases, and it’ll be beyond basics in no time.
Extra tip: Even if you don’t get everything up and running right away, make sure you name-claim all of your accounts simultaneously, after you make sure your chosen social media moniker will be unique on each platform. It’s frustrating for new followers to have to figure out what your handle is in every place; you’ll lose followers over it.
The biggest scourge on social media (that doesn’t involve stories of unsolicited images that drive you into a fully-clothed shower) is the ubiquity of reposting. Whether it’s clout-chasing, fandom nerds, or sellers of cheaply made knockoffs, you can be sure the most popular ‘themed’ pages on the ‘gram are entirely unoriginal, uncredited, unbelievably lucrative stolen content valor.
A well-filmed portion of one of your sets can be seen, shared, and enjoyed by thousands. Unfortunately, when it’s “Comedy Rest Stop” getting the credit with stolen content so they can hawk lead-augmented pet toys to people who swipe through, none of that shine gets back to you.
There’s no putting the genie back in the lamp when it comes to reposts. It’s too hard to follow up with as far as legal action, and if you’re living your life right — you know, occasionally touching grass — it could be years before you even know your content got poached. So what can you do?
Stick your digital signature on every. Single. Thing. ALWAYS.
And we get it. You want your pretty, pretty face out there; a big ol’ bulky lump of text in front of your best work doesn’t fit the aesthetic. The temptation to put a subtle ‘Laughs McGee’ in the bottom corner is strong. But you have to resist.
Cropping is as easy as…well, cropping a video. It takes seconds to cut a name on the margins out, effectively cutting you out of the shine/growth/fat stacks you deserve, too. Why make it easy for people to pick your pockets? Does the stolen fanart T-shirt community mean that much to you?
Keep your handles visible in your videos, yes, even when it seems redundant to feature your @ on your page. The payoff when your material resonates enough to get people to keep checking you out can be huge — so don’t make it hard for people with the motivation and adulation you need in this business to help you succeed.
So now you have your best work posted regularly, you’re picking the best times to schedule your content, and you’ve got it together. What’s the move now? It’s back to that old saying, “Everything in moderation.”
But there’s a twist on it this time. We’re talking moderation in minimizing the stupid stuff that makes it onto your posts.
You know how sometimes the only comments you’ll get on posts are things like, “I lost my husband to a sentient house fire who seduced him away from me, but Doctor Kiwano cured him of his flamelust, and now we have 12 beautiful children with the powers of Elsa from Frozen.” ?
You’ve got to keep up with deleting them.
It’s the same thing with nonsensical political rants, commenter infighting, and any comments that don’t have to do with what you’ve posted — or just comments that increase the bad vibes in general. It’s not your responsibility to instantly rise to every single occasion when things get hairy, but you are going to have to break out the clippers and the wax regularly for maintenance’s sake.
And it’s not just keeping down the weird promos and bickering that you get out of checking your comments regularly. Compliments and positivity are great for morale and you’ll get more of them as your time in the space progresses and you grow. From a business standpoint, you’ll also see ‘When are you coming to MY favorite bar/city/country?’ comments and get insights on where you’ll be most welcome on future gigs.
Remember that awful stage when your least favorite acquaintance in school would mess with people, then call it a “social experiment”? Would you be surprised to know they were using the word ‘experiment’ wrong the whole time?
Who knew, right?
We did. And now so do you.
So when we say, ‘Use your social platform presence to experiment,’ we mean that you can’t just run around flinging material in the hopes that something sticks; your approach should be more strategic than that. But the work stands to benefit you in a way you can take to the bank.
Here’s what you’ll be walking through each time: the classic Scientific Method as it applies to your comedy on social media.
Observation/Question
This is your “What if I…” area and it can be whatever pops into your head, technically:
- ‘What if I went in a political direction?”
- “What if I recycled an outfit?”
- “What if I tried out that catchphrase I’ve been thinking about?”
- “What if I introduced props?”
And so on.
Pick up whatever you want, but remember that your goal is to enhance your presence and material. And if your pick works, you’ll do it for a while. Don’t give in to (or if you’re a manager, don’t demand) the idea of doing something you don’t want to do “Just for now to see if it works,” because if it does, that’s the direction your career is going in now.
Research Topic Area
What does a comedian need with research? Comedy is subjective, and if people laugh, they laugh! That’s the common thought process, anyway.
Unfortunately it is not that easy.
Like the best authors read, and the greatest actors watch movies, the best comics watch other talented comedians. You’re not required to glue yourself to hours of standup and face the impossible task of watching everyone before you can start your career in earnest. But research means you are looking for the beats that are overdone, where you can improve, and what tends to land with whom.
Hypothesis
This one’s pretty easy. Assuming you’re doing things to find what works for you — which you should be — your hypothesis is “Changing in this way is going to be good for my work.”
Test
It’s time to go and do the thing. Unleash your theory on the world, whether it’s on a stage, filmed and shared, or strictly an internet deal. That seems simple enough, which obviously means there’s more to it.
Testing isn’t just a one-off, either. If you bring out puppets and get booed off stage, you might never want to do it again. But there will always be factors to consider. Were you performing at a sports bar’s comedy night with regulars hostile to things on strings? Is your command of marionettes still in the ‘Wow, I suck at this’ stage? It might all mean that your instincts were right on the money, but something else was in the way. That’s why the next step is so crucial.
Analyze Data
There’s a reason why ‘Data Analyst’ is a whole job; you’ll see it clearest when you come to this part of the process.
This phase is where you’ll be tracking things like ‘How many people unfollowed after this post‘ or ‘How many organic comments did this get compared to other posts“. Those italics aren’t just there for fun, by the way. You need to knuckle down and compare whatever you’ve tried to whatever came before it. Continued analysis as you keep testing ensures you didn’t just hit a fluke — which would have you performing and posting the same content to diminishing returns.
Report Conclusions
Whether your comedy manager is reporting to you or you’re reporting to yourself, it’s still important to have somewhere where your wins and losses get recorded. Even if it’s a quick ‘Leave the kielbasa jokes out in Chicago venues’ somewhere, ensure your hard work gets rewarded by recording it. Future you will thank you.
Still trying to decide what to experiment with? We can help with that. Experiment with:
- Video length: do your clips get more engagement than your full-length sets? Is the last 30 seconds of the bit better than 90 with a setup?
- Persona A vs B: is aggression what works for you? Or is a gentle, self-effacing persona getting a better response?
- Scripted vs. off-the-cuff: not everyone’s great at crowd work. Some performers need more practice to find their flow with it while others avoid it entirely. See where you excel, and have the numbers to back up whatever direction you choose.
Now that you know how to get wrapped up in yourself in a productive way, what’s next for the aspiring comedian’s social media journey? Getting wrapped up in everyone else.
No, comment bombing Jim Gaffigan’s Instagram won’t get you where you want to be. That’s not what this is about.
Engaging with your comedic community is more than just follows and likes. Okay, that’s how you show engagement, but that’s not all there is. Are you showing love to comedians on your level, or just concentrating on big names? Are you giving unsolicited critiques in comment sections (do NOT do this), or are you being something other than the worst? Are you sourcing your duets properly, or will you be dragged to Reposter Hell when the final trumpet of The Comedocalypse sounds?
Get your name out there, yes, but genuine appreciation beyond the idea of follow-for-follow will only help you. It’s like if research and networking had a career-boosting baby, and they asked you to take money to raise it!
Do the right thing, raise that metaphorical baby, and get your career in comedy going in earnest. Spending time on social media is your job now; just make sure you’re doing it right with these steps and going past dropping hearts and farts.
That Netflix Special is waiting for you.
And if you need some help along the way, Manychat’s got you.