Creating engaging content is the way to go, talk, write when you are putting ideas, campaigns and initiatives into messages in social media. Ok, but how to do that? Throughout our Content Engagement Epic Series we will discuss how to hook the audience in social media on a message when this platform is seemingly without the slightest trace of reason and predictability. You see, the social CAN be decoded for a richer experience through real time social media monitoring. Let’s see the awesome tricks of FUNDICTION to get the online hooked on your words!

The fundiction – are you being funny?

As we have written before, there is an awesome framework to dress up messages and foster stronger content engagement when it comes to our online presence and communication. In accordance with the Contentizer philosophy there are 12 hook factors that can effectively pull in readers. These hooks serve as candy for the eyes and FUN is definitely one of them. Plus, through real time social media monitoring we can actually measure its performance and value.

Are you being internationally funny?

LOL definitely knows NO boundaries. So, through social media monitoring we mapped up Europe to see where the continent is LOLling the most.

The kings of LOL

First, let’s check how the countries across Europe (+Russia) are “funning” all over social media. Germany, Poland and the above mentioned giant are in love with posting LOL contents based on the results of the last 365 days. The darker the blue gets, the more LOL mentions are registered online throughout the year.

The gender of LOLs

As far as these 20 some countries are concerned, the most feminine areas regarding funny online content stuff are gathered in central and northern Europe (the more purple the area gets, the more women are posting LOL contents). Montenegro and Lithuania are the feminine LOL side of Europe, while Bulgaria and Austria are kind of in the masculine zone.

The mustache that wrote (hi)story

So, it is time to monitor how the LOL approach is used to bring about a topic renaissance all over again in social media.

Let me pose a question.

What if a Hungarian politician who has an iconic mustache decides to get rid of it? Well, the internet goes wild. And real serious (therefore funny) researches land online about ’Where the mustache could have gone?’. The above mentioned Hungarian politician has actually just broke the Hungarian internet in January with this otherwise kind-of-a-normal decision to erase the mustache from his – and social media’s – life.

The result based on SentiOne: the highest peak ever in January, and more than 6000 online mentions during four days.
And then a cute 2nd check-in when the iconic mustache decided to appear again during his owner’s holiday. The comeback has made the news. Again.

This is funny.

The main characteristics of the FUN hook are:

• image centered (pics, gifs, memes)
• uses strong and overexaggerated adjectives (especially in the titles)
• creates momentary engagement, an urge to click & aims to bring an instant smile on your face, not long-lasting happiness
• it sells itself without practical content (honestly, what content-value or ground-breaking insight does a vanished mustache story hold? Not many… In addition, one can not read and absorb lots of info when laughing, can he?). So, this hook factor’s value is not based on the content
• this hook can be always relevant, regardless the topic
• it does not want to educate or convince, purely to entertain

Also, just think about another politician who has grabbed the internet by its eyes.
This phenomenon is Trump. The internet has turned him into a whole lot of more (or less) than just a politician. It has turned him into a social phenomenon. It sugarcoated him with the fun approach, which at the same time tends to leave a really bitter and outraging after taste.

Though, no one can deny that the ridiculousness he gained over social is quite entertaining and addictive (his handshake, his look, his woman alter ego on SNL).

Or let’s just wander away a bit towards topics that beside being relevant on a momentary basis (the OOO’s, like Xmass or Mother’s Day), have nothing more to offer really.
Or do they? Yes, they do.

• Hilarious Mother’s Day cards (note the overexaggerating adjective)
• 21 hilarious tweets about moms guaranteed to make you laugh (and again)
• Hilarious Royal Mother’s Day advert (and again. BAAAAM, click-magnet)

The Hungarian BestOf

So, purely just for fun, we have checked the most popular LOL mentions in social media for Hungary via SentiOne from the last year. Here comes the list:

1.

First one was posted by the most influental news portal in HUN that is inclined to be the boss of sarcasm. Especially when it comes to politics. This piece is about a HUN politician who – when was asked by the journalist that how come he was so awesome in getting amazingly rich in no time – claimed that he was most possibly smarter than Zuckerberg, given that his company realized more profit than Facebook during the same time period. Caption says: ‘LOL, so what does Zuckerberg have to say about this?’

2.

Yeah, we all do silly stuff. And it is really fun to ‘like and share’ on social media when we are not involved.

3.

“Never go fishing when drunk. You know what, never go fishing at all.” says the caption, and then visually proves its point. LOL.

4.

“Me trying to flirt during class.: So, which school do you go to?” Epic fail. Epic LOL. Social media loves these kind of memes.

So, as we can see, the LOL content is rather visual-based, sharable and viral. No long-lasting effect, just a momentary laugh. FUN is eternal. FUN is universal. There is always a fun angle to everything, it only depends on our empathy and sensitivity whether we decide to use it or not.

In case of the ‘America first’ phenomenon, the whole world decided to use it.

And Hungary was no different. It made the social media buzz with the hottest flame recently. This chart shows the mentions and interactions this topic generated.

Check out the LOL side of online life for yourself or any other fun topics and sign up for our free trial!

And after that……let us bring you a darker place. Full of irony, malevolent intentions and smirks. Let’s switch to the dark side and nurture our Dark Selves a bit. We dare you – in the next episode.