How To Identify & Engage Your Online Target Audience As A Comedian in 2020

Andy Nowcomefly
Nov 7 · 12 min read

This article isn’t for everyone, and neither are you.

Source: Pexels

It can be a tricky task for creative people like us to grasp all that it means to view our careers in the context of marketability.

Every so often, a book, YouTube video or article jumps out at you to offer some fresh perspective for how you can become more business-minded without drying up your well of creativity.

Hopefully, this article will be a trigger for you to have one of those empowering experiences.

My comedian friends, if you don’t know who your ideal online audience is, then you’re going to have a hard time finding them or even knowing what content to create. Fact.


Here are the main benefits of further defining your online target audience as a comedian:

  • It becomes easier to connect with those who “get you,”
  • You start to realise it’s okay to make content for people who are exactly like you,
  • Your personal brand starts to reveal itself,
  • Your natural niche as a creator and performer becomes crystal clear,
  • You find yourself becoming more certain of the comedic material you create in general — somehow it’s “even more true to you now,”
  • You realise you don’t have to wait to be on a big stage before you can experience distinction,
  • You stop fantasising about follower quantities and begin developing relationships with quality followers,
  • You become a more confident decision-maker in all matters of your comedy career,
  • You start to see the matrix of the entertainment business and better understand your market position within the industry, which enables you to better understand the perspective of the industry professionals you seek to partner with throughout your fruitful career.

You are reading this article because you want all of these things for yourself.

Correct?

Now we’ve made sure you’re in the right place, let’s get started.

Try this mental exercise:

Source: Pexels

Take a deep breath and pace yourself to make the most of this.

Imagine you are seated in a live audience. The MC on stage is doing a fantastic job — making sure everybody is having a great time.

You take a sip of your beverage as he continues: “Please give a very warm welcome for your next act…”

Oddly enough, the MC calls your name, but you stay seated while *another you* comes out on stage…

Sitting here in the audience, you watch yourself perform your entire set as an out-of-body experience.

While *the you* on stage enters their flow state, the second you (in the crowd) takes note of the audience members and their reactions to *your* performance.

The person seated to your left is loving every second!

…but the person to your right is so bored, they are rather rudely playing with their phone.

(Hang in there. I promise this is going somewhere positive).

Now, try this written exercise:

Source: Pexels

Describe that member of the audience who isn’t enjoying your performance.

No, the idea isn’t to make a creative insult. Just give that person a name, an age, a gender and any other relevant details that make them your most unsuitable audience member (but keep it realistic).

When your description is complete, you should be able to picture this bored person super clearly in your mind. This is a person who is just not interested in your comedy at all. They are not impressed by you, and that is fine.


Next, I want you to describe the most essential member of the audience: the person who is thoroughly enjoying *your* performance.

Also give this person a name, age, gender; any other details that help us to see the difference between the two. Keep it brief for now.

Let’s Reflect

Source: Pixabay

For our purposes today, let’s assume the first person you just described (who doesn’t like you or your comedy) is never going to be on your side. There is nothing you can do to win them over without sacrificing your authenticity, so forget about them.

The second person you described (who loves the pants off of you and your work) is your sole focus. It’s time to give them all of your attention.

We need to dig deeper into who this overjoyed individual really is. This person is now your online target audience avatar. Congratulations! You and this person are a match made in heaven. All you need to do next is create online content exclusively for that one person, ignoring everybody else.

What am I getting at?

‘Live show’ and ‘online’ are two very different stages. They each present unique awesomeness. Much of the latter stage is often left on the table.

One of the most pitch-perfect opportunities for comedians, when they harness the online stage, is this:

It is guaranteed that there are thousands upon thousands of people who fit your target audience profile perfectly.

They’re all within reach, and it’s time to build a relationship with them at home.

Source: Pexels

Your Perfect “I’d-Take-A-Bullet-For-You” Fan

We need to know as much as we can about this target audience avatar you have identified. It will help to answer a few more questions and dig a bit deeper.

If you want to see results (and you don’t trust that you’ll come back and do this exercise later), get your pen out again right now and have a go at answering these. You’ll thank yourself later.

  • What does your perfect fan do for work?
  • What town/city does your perfect fan live in?
  • Is your perfect fan single or in a relationship?
  • How sociable/friendly is your perfect fan?
  • Does your perfect fan live alone? With others? Who?
  • In a house? An apartment? On a farm?
  • Does your perfect fan drive a car?
  • Does your perfect fan use public transport?
  • Is your perfect fan conscious of their carbon footprint?
  • Does your perfect fan have a pet?
  • Does this person have a close relationship with their family?
  • Do they ever watch horror movies by choice?
  • Do they ever watch romcoms by choice?
  • Play sports?
  • Support any teams?
  • Like and/or dislike dogs and/or cats?
  • What is your perfect fan’s favourite beverage?
  • What’s their favourite cosmetic/grooming brand?
  • Is your perfect fan innocent and sweet?
  • Are they lazy?
  • Are they highly imaginative?
  • What are they optimistic about in life?
  • What are they pessimist about in life?
  • Is your perfect fan from a wealthy family?
  • Is your perfect fan a vegan?
  • How much does your perfect fan earn per year?
  • How much does your perfect fan weigh?
  • How often does your perfect fan exercise?
  • What do they think of wheatgrass shots?
  • Do they like spending time alone?
  • What’s their favourite thing to do when alone?
  • Is your perfect fan a musician?
  • What is their favourite band/artist?
  • What is their strongest trivia subject?
  • Where does your perfect fan shop for clothes most often?
  • What’s a TV show they love?
  • What’s their sexual orientation?
  • How often does your perfect fan bop the bishop? Joking… (But am I?)

Let’s Reflect

Source: Pexels

One of two rather interesting things should be noticeable from your answers to the above questions. Are you ready?

Either you have described a person you would love to spend a lot of time with (and know far too much about now), or…

You have described *yourself.*

See what just happened? 😁

So, How Do You Reach Your Perfect Fan?

The funny thing is, now that you’ve answered all of those questions above, the places they hang out and all of their interests should be glaringly obvious, if not identical to your own.

All the same, we don’t actually need to reach them per se. At this initial stage, a more useful mindset is: we need to attract them.

Source: Pixabay

The comedy content you release online is naturally magnetic to your ideal comedy fan — so long as the two following elements are in play:

1) they feel like you are speaking to them directly, and

2) your tone remains consistent.

Staying True To Your Perfect Fan

What would your perfect fan love to experience with you? That’s the mystifying question.

This is the part where we dream up a themed social media series that your perfect fan can look forward to engaging with each week.

I hope you haven’t forgotten your avatar’s name… Keep it at the front of your mind. There’s a reason for doing so.

As you come up with content ideas, I urge you to envision your entire prospective online audience as if they were just one person. This specific mindset will help you to stay focused and avoid diluting your voice.

Many of us have a habit of trying to satisfy as many people as possible in life, but that approach seldom results in an impactful expression. Nor does it result in trust.

Forget about every single person on the internet who isn’t perfect for you; who isn’t in alignment with the audience avatar we created earlier.


A Bit Of Inspiration

Let’s take a look at some examples of serial social media posting that serve as fitting inspiration for our purposes.

Bear in mind that some of these examples are of social media accounts that have been created purely for entertainment. That is certainly an option — to have an account that is 100% concept content. However, another option is to strike a balance between “personal account” and “comedic content account.” More on that in a later section.

As you explore these examples, try to think of each of them as specially suited to a different perfect fan.

Example 1: Why Mummy Drinks (aka Peter and Jane)

Source: Pixabay

The content of this creator has evolved over the years. The series started like this: a mum doing rough child-like drawings of her family in everyday situations accompanied by sarcastic adult language.

They used to post each “episode” on Facebook and still do now but without the drawings.

Check out an example of the pictures this creator used to post: http://peterandjaneblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/today-it-is-guy-fawkes-night.html

Nowadays, it’s mostly just photos of glasses of wine and her dogs with captions, but that’s another thing that her followers love her for. It’s not trying to be for everyone. Far from it. Take a look:

A glance at her Facebook page reveals the astounding success of this series. Bestselling books galore. Whether you want to write books or not, the level of success achieved by this account is the result of having a consistent tone and speaking directly to a particular type of person. https://www.facebook.com/peterandjaneandmummytoo/

From looking at these links (above), can you identify some of the characteristics of her “perfect fan”?

Something like a mother who enjoys wine, likes dogs, enjoys sarcastic humour, is entertained by her raggedy drawings and is partial to a stress relief outlet for blowing off steam about life as a mum. Bingo.

Example 2: Alan Bathtime

Source: Pixabay

This might not seem like the setting for a hit social media series…but Alan Bathtime has an engaged followership on the rise, which proves again that it’s not just about the ideas you have but how you execute them.

Example 3: Poundland Bandit

This is another very distinct voice that some people will love, while others find it distasteful. Nonetheless, it’s a successful series because it’s utterly unapologetic and speaks directly to a certain pair of ears with a consistent tone.

Last but not least…

Example 4: Peeje

This super talented graphic designer puts his photoshop skills to work by candidly inserting himself into real-life photos of celebrities. If you’re an awesome designer-comedian type, maybe take note of this one.

Sorry, Beyonce.

Behind The Scenes Of Your Social Media Series

So, we’ve taken a look at several accounts for inspiration.

Now, let’s take a look at how you might organise yourself when releasing your version.

Below is an example of a posting schedule for a “hybrid account” — i.e. part content account; part personal account.

I’ve used Instagram for my example, but this can technically be tailored to any platform.

Example of a hybrid Instagram account. (Source: Andy Nowcomefly)

This is just one of several possible arrangements for a hybrid account.

Alternatives include creating a single series that releases once per week or twice per week.

The point of creating this diagram (above) was to illuminate the nature of consistency for your scheduled series content when combined with a regular personal account.

Hybrid accounts are typically better for personal branding than all-concept accounts. In the context of the stand-up comedian’s trade, it means we can give your followers entertainment broadcasting and a backstage pass to the real you at the same time!

Getting Started

Initially, I recommend creating just one series that will go out on the same day of each week.

I could talk with you about this subject for days… We could get into how to choose the right series for you, how to organise yourself to save time, the best apps to use, more great places to look for inspiration, etc. Let me know if you want me to create a part two to this article.

For now, let’s just finish up with a few pointers for optimum results:

  • In terms of format, I recommend each series be made up of either video, still images with voice over, or still image with a contextual caption,
  • You’ll need to keep your episodes less than 60 seconds, so they’re short and punchy,
  • Each episode should have some kind of wow factor (otherwise, what’s the point?),
  • Each episode should be easily identifiable as part of its series at a glance,
  • You’ll need to post to a strict schedule (day + time), so it’s best to create a handful of episodes in advance then schedule ahead,
  • Try to settle on a series that utilises your existing skills instead of relying on somebody else for favours (if you’re using other people, pay them. A system built on favours is not a reliable system),
  • In terms of the content, you’ll need to be consistent without being too predictable. Think The Simpsons / your favourite TV series,
  • Pro tip: Each episode has to be enticing enough for your perfect fan to want to comment.

Warning: this is not a magic pill solution. A low ball effort will not get you any results. Nothing is guaranteed, but the more creative energy you invest, and the more directly you address your perfect fan (all the while remaining consistent); the more your perfect fan will thank you.

In the same way, I hope you’ve appreciated the creative energy I’ve put into writing this article. If I’ve done my job here, you’ll be able to tell that I had a lot of fun creating this. If you pick up on all of that, then perhaps you’re my perfect reader 🧐.

Taking Action

Have the courage to approach success in different ways from your peers…

Have the courage to double down on your voice…

Start opening new doors right now by becoming more proactive with your online presence strategy.

2020 is already here! That was fast!

In order to make this your year, it’s time to expand your thinking and harness your personal brand if you want to get ahead.

Your enthusiastic implementation of these strategies will mark a powerful move toward you taking your comedy career even more seriously and connecting with your rightful audience online so that you can experience all the amazing benefits of doing so:

  • An independent fanbase of die-hard followers,
  • Attention from comedy agents and talent managers,
  • Attention from comedy club bookers and festival organisers,
  • Attention from TV and film producers,
  • The list goes on.

I asked handfuls of comedians about their greatest struggles when it comes to online presence. Nearly all of them said “knowing how to do it right” and “finding the time.” If that’s you, hopefully this helps. Keep a lookout for my next article.

Andy Nowcomefly

Written by

I write articles to help comedians thrive online — empowering them to connect with their true fans and demonstrate their marketability to industry pros ✌

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