Posts Tagged ‘comedy’
Does Your USP Stand For Useless Self-Promotion?
It’s a common stand-up comedy cliche when a comic does improvised “crowd work” from the stage:
“Sir, what do you do for for a living?”
Whether it be a doctor, accountant, construction worker, mail clerk and so forth… virtually 100% of the time, the answer I’d receive back is easily identifiable, both by myself and the audience. We can very simply put a picture in our collective heads on what this person does as an occupation, his day-to-day tasks on a general level and why others pay him to do it.
After a couple of hackneyed jokes poking fun at the public assumptions based on his chosen line of work, I’d typically ask the audience member follow-up questions to dive deeper into details: (obviously, so I can have more ammunition to create witty comebacks at his expense!)
“What makes you different from other people in your profession? Why the hell should I hire you? What can you do for me?”
At this point, I usually get a stammer or even just a blank stare as the audience member really has no clue how to answer. This shows how often individuals tend to identify more with the stereotype or caricature of their occupation than looking inwards at what makes their story unique amongst the sea of others in their line of work.
Occasionally, I’ll get an answer, but usually in the measurement of how successful they are:
“I work for the #1 peanut butter distributer in the world.”
“I know the pulse of the home furnishings industry more than anyone else.”
“I graduated from the most prestigious culinary school in the country.”
Invariably, my retort back to this is – what the &%$#! does that matter to me?
A unique selling proposition should be focused on the benefits of those being sold, not on the self-promotion of your own individual qualifications. Sure, they may indeed be quite one-of-a-kind, but it doesn’t resonate with the needs of a potential customer.
In addition, your USP must also be easily understood by the lowest common denominator. Sure, those in your industry may know the meaning of the buzzwords & jargon you throw into your elevator pitch… but those who actually will be paying you for your product/services typically are not familiar with it whatsoever. You don’t need to sound smarter than you are or try to impress your peers – just find the simplest way of describing what it is you do and how it satisfies someone’s needs.
I’m a stand-up comic. I make drunk people laugh.
Are You Waiting For Your One Big Break? Better Get A Comfortable Chair!
Nathan Hangen is remarkable for coming up with some of the most quotable lines in the points he makes. One of his recent gems:
Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking you’re just one great article away from fame.
This is the exact type of mentality I see all the time in the comedy industry (as well as my previous experience in the music industry) where people just are waiting for the “big break”. Waiting for that one show, that one time, that one “right place at the right time” moment where an influential big-time producer or agent “discovers” them – and it all comes together in one fell swoop.
So they work on their act continuously and improve their performance as much as they can. They get on stage over and over and over again. Now, this is obviously a worthwhile investment of time in some extent… but too many times I see brilliant performers that should be household names working the same crappy one-nighter gigs in the middle of nowhere. For years. Forever.
Wondering why it hasn’t happened yet.
Getting jaded that less talented individuals are succeeding and they’re not.
Blaming everyone else but themselves.
Always starting out their sentences with “If only” and pointing to external sources.
Convincing themselves that great content will always be found on it’s own.
A screenwriter can write a script, send it out unsolicited to studio executives and film agents, move on to his next project and no matter how brilliant his work is, he easily can end up going absolutely nowhere. No one will ever find out about the Academy Award winning masterpiece as it’s shuffled in with a thousand others piling up on someone’s desk.
Yes, I agree that talent will ultimately decide whether or not his script will be picked up for production once seen, but if no effort is being made by him to actually get it considered, then what can he possibly expect to come out of it barring a complete fluke miracle?
At some point, even a little amount of “marketing” needs to be done. Some way to show his brilliance to those strangers who can help his career and make his work stand out from the crowd. Through utilizing contacts, connections, exposure, press, whatever it takes to increase the chances of great content being found.
Competing against a 100+ scripts being sent to movie studios daily to be read and considered, it’s as simple as finding a way just to get his work to the top of the pile.
Sometimes that’s all it takes… but also takes a load of time, energy & work to accomplish.
Are you just pumping out blog posts waiting for the “right place, right time” moment?
Or are you doing to something to get your blog to the top of other’s piles?
Defining Status of Targets In Your Blog Editorials: A Case Study of Allyn Hane
December 29th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Jordan Cooper | View Comments
I just recently came across Blogger Illustrated run by “Master Of My Own Domain” video blogger Allyn Hane. Tying into the subject I discussed in an earlier post about feuds and personal attacks, his most recent video When A-List Turns To A-Hole addresses the issue of blog commenting and regular interaction with readers – including Allyn’s “outrageous” take that highly successful bloggers are “douchebags” and “fuckfaces”.
The centerpiece of his “hilariously shocking” rant focuses around David Risley and his recent video post When Comments Begin To HURT Your Blogging Success. Putting the actual issue aside, I think Allyn’s post and blog makes for a great case study (because everyone loves case studies, right?) into the field of comedy, entertainment and editorial commentary.
Why is defining the status of targets in your opinionated editorials important?
Obviously, Allyn Hane doesn’t appear to take any of this into account before recording the verbal vomit that spews from his mouth. From what I gather and perceive, his opinions are completely lost when he does nothing more than cheap shock shtick that appeals to 8th graders and those people who need to put someone else down in order to make themselves feel high and mighty.
It’s horribly unfunny. It has virtually no wit whatsoever. Allyn comes across as arrogant, full of himself, a frat-boy type who boasts about his alcohol tolerance, how great his ‘bitchin’ ride is with its new rims and generally someone who just wants attention in this blogging space to make up for the lack of it in the “real world”. (a term he uses often on his blog)
As examples in this “case study”, check out some of his past videos:
This video is where Allyn calls Problogger.com a “gay ass forum” and calls the content on ProBlogger nothing more that “bullshit fluff”. He then makes fun of a “noob” girl’s guest post there (yet says he’s not attacking her in any way) as well as one by Leo Babauta at Zen Habits – minimizing Ally’s own valid SEO viewpoints by reducing it to nearly two minutes of a horrible Indian accent in mockery of the writer’s ethnicity.
This video is where Allyn spends an inordinate amount of time making fun of commenters on another person’s blog using horribly unfunny impressions of foreign accents. He then rants on those that complain about getting MMO offers in their e-mail by communicating his message by way of a deaf, retarded person. Of course, before ending it with “quit your f’ing bitching, you dumbass!”
Now, back to Allyn’s most recent post where he calls out David Risley as well as any A-list blogger for not interacting with their readers regularly enough. He backs up a similar sentiment made by Sire at Wassup Blog on the subject and says that conversing with your potential customers is paramount – unlike Risley’s claim that interacting too much can actually hurt your business by lacking the time to create compelling content.
…building a business means building customers. REALIZE THIS: someone who takes time to comment on your “social” blog is giving you what we call a “buying sign” …meaning they are on the verge of making a purchase, all you have to do is add in a feature and a benefit (like replying to a comment on the blog) and then CLOSE!
- Allyn Hane
Taking Allyn’s viewpoint into account, I’d now like to present you with brand new edition of…
Practice What You Preach: When Hypocrisy Attacks!
In this episode, I go on the road and visit Allyn Hane’s outposts in the social media landscape. I take a look at how he conducts himself when it comes to interacting with his community, readers, followers, friends, fans and potential customers of his business endeavors.
Nearly 1500 followers @allynpaul has got there. I’m sure it would be highly beneficial to connect with these potential customers, but apparently Allyn has failed to do so. Only one @reply this past month and it’s pretty much based around a hashtag seemingly created to self-promote his beer business. The rest of Allyn’s messages are mostly self-centered in nature – either to push a new piece of content or just to talk about himself. I’m sure his 1,467 “potential customers” must really appreciate the constant lack of interaction!
Nevermind the fact Allyn’s @BigBeerBlog only has 64 followers, it’s still probably important that he connects with these “customers” on a deeper level. Hmmm… 9 tweets in nearly 4 months… and they’re virtually all pushing his own content. Oh, wait! There’s an @reply in there somewhere… it’s a late reply thanking someone for a retweet. I’m sure it was just because Allyn was concentrating more of his interactions on another platform…
I guess I was wrong. At least Allyn apologized for not conversing with his “customers” for a good whole month. Plus he shared a recommendation for a Make Money Online blogger… even though half his blog posts seem to scream “don’t listen to any of those internet marketers!”
It’s nice to see that Allyn has apologized yet again for not being responsive enough at replying to comments on his Facebook fan wall. It’s because he didn’t know how to actually find them! That makes sense… a blogger who rants about internet marketing in the landscape of social media and how it’s imperative to connect with your customers doesn’t have a clue how to do so. Nothing new here.
That’s ok, Allyn. I’m sure you were just busy working on content for your niche sites that are actually bringing in money as a business. Wait a minute… isn’t that exactly what David Risley is doing? Spending more time creating media & materials for interested customers instead of focusing on replying to comments and interacting regularly with his reader community… you know, working on the tangible assets that actually bring cash in to support the family!
I must admit though, Allyn is very good at responding to comments on his own blog. Apparently, communicating with potential “customers” only applies when they come to him. We all know that social media is all about me, me, me, right? To give him some credit, I’ve also seen him around on occasion commenting on other’s blogs… but I’m not sure how genuine they are since this SEO-proponent self to a cult-like degree actively boasts that he’s “just building backlinks, it’s the shiz!”.
To further bring out the hypocrisy in Allyn’s behavior and his recent post… he doesn’t mention that David Risley though, used Backtype to find another blogger’s post that brought up his namesake and then went there (to his “potential customers”) and got involved with the conversation. Not for backlinks. Not to pitch anything or talk about himself incessantly, but to do exactly what Allyn claims he doesn’t do – interact with the community.
Unfortunately, Allyn probably doesn’t have much experience with this since apparently no one is talking about him anywhere anyways. Maybe that’s why he needs to resort to blatantly obvious link baiting post titles and calling everyone more successful than him a “fuckface” or a “douchebag” – or making up for his own lack of talent by using immature frat-boy humor and “shock” tactics to get people to pay attention to him at all costs.
What can we all learn from this case study of Allyn Hane?
First and foremost, as I’ve said recently about how the small fry always loses – you really have to do your due diligence before slinging mud at people.
But back to the main point, you must be able to define who or what the target is and weigh that into your considerations on how to approach a piece of editorial content. Your opinion and message can be considerably skewed and taken much differently than intended solely on how you’re perceived in the presentation of it. What you think of as “funny” or “outrageous” may be thought of by readers as anywhere from offensive to completely abusive.
A-list bloggers can definitely be fair game as being targets “above” the audience, but if you’re going with a “man of the people” approach, you can’t also make fun of those who reside “below” or at the line. You must consider your relative status in comparison to the subjects at hand as well as your relative status to the audience. The direction in which the target lies in the scope of your viewpoint will determine the most effective way of getting your point across. Without keeping this in mind, it’s possible that a very interesting idea that can open up great discussion will be lost in between your poor attempts to “spice things up” or shock others.
And I think Allyn Hane definitely has some valid opinions that I happen to agree with in some capacity. I just wish he’d try to grow up with his taste in humor, either by focusing on the joke itself and making it more clever, sarcastic or subtle… or at least stop making the butt of all of his “jokes” people that are looked at below the level of him and the audience.
Are you taking the status of your targets into account before you write an opinionated editorial or humor piece?