Increase blog reader interest with parody

If you’re like me, most of your blog posts are serious—that’s s-e-r-i-o-u-s. For some reason, known only by the Gods and Google, blog writers believe their writing styles must be as solemn as a funeral dirge.

But what if you could write in an entertaining, purposeful way while still achieving your goals, whether it’s convincing readers to take your advice, subscribe to your RSS feed or learn something from you? You can with parody.

What is parody?

The dictionary defines parody as humorous exaggeration for comic effect. The word comes from the late 16th century Latin/Greek meaning “burlesque poem.” A few synonyms are satire, lampoon, caricature, imitation, mockery and spoof. I tend to like the first definition with a slight twist: “humorous exaggeration to make a point.”

Parody is writing about subjects, people and ideas imaginatively, doused with a cup of humor and at least three ounces of the absurd, to persuade or influence readers to take action.

Effective parody should lower people’s guard, make them chuckle and prepare their minds for your message. Parody is not just being funny. It’s making your point by engaging peoples’ minds. Effective parody causes people to identify with you and your ideas, products or services.

Parody examples

Let me give two examples: the first using a “news release” technique, the second a “list with comments” style. Both are excellent ways to use parody in a way that catches your readers off-guard. They don’t know what hit them until they’re well into your post.

• The News Release Style

The first blog post example is called “American Niche Association Announces Formation & New Online Service,” written for MarketingBeyond in April of 2009.

At the time I was reading about affiliate marketing and blogging from experts who kept reminding everyone to “find your niche”—that’s “nish” if you live in the U.S. and “neesh” if you dwell elsewhere in the world. I finally tired of the constant badgering by the “experts” that having a marketing niche was next to cleanliness.

As you’ll see from reading the post, it’s written like a news release. In fact, it says “news release” at the top of the post with a contact name—“Mary DaNiche.”

I chose Bob Parson’s of GoDaddy fame as the head of the newly-formed “American Niche Association” (ANA) because he’s well known for his advertising and promotional antics in the ecommerce field. If anyone might start the strange organization I proposed, it was Parsons.

Readers probably find the first couple of paragraphs plausible. When they learn about the new organization and its website—“Get-Your-Niche.com”—some readers might start figuring out what I’m doing, but I quickly take care of skeptics in the fourth paragraph with references to eBay, Amazon, etc.

By the fifth paragraph where I write about what “Mary DaNiche” said, all readers with IQ’s above 50 “get it.” The examples of niches and related products then become the fun part of the piece while driving home my message about going overboard on niche marketing.

Tongue-and-cheek continues to the bitter end. When readers click on “Get-Your Niche.com”, voila, they end up on the home page of MobileBeyond, my mobile blog.

• The List with Comments Parody Style

Last year when mobile phone makers were releasing a lot of new phones, I became interested in the names of the handsets. For years, handset manufacturers mostly used model numbers (LG-XXXX) for their phones. With the emergence of smart phones, however, marketers started getting creative.

So I wrote: “Personalizing Mobile Phone Brands: Barrage, Droid, Entice or Escapade?”

After mentioning how handset manufacturers had changed their branding and quoting Shakespeare in the first few paragraphs, I listed dozens of new mobile phones by carrier, then made a humorous comment about each in parentheses. As readers become engaged by my comments, they get the point.

One of my favorites is T-Mobile’s “HTC Dash” with its customized Twitter app restricted to 10 characters—the “Twit-10.”

Be careful with parody

Use parody when you want to persuade or convince your readers to do something, change their minds or just have fun. But be careful, especially if you’re writing about religious, health or political issues. Your parody post could backfire on you.

For example, I would never use parody in posts about the dangers of smoking or your opinion about someone’s religious or political beliefs. While they’re exceptions–such as former V.P. contender Sara Palin who ran with Senator John McCain in the last U.S. Presidential election—in most cases you’ll want to avoid the possibility of offending your audience.

Otherwise, parody writing can be a powerful tool in your arsenal of writing styles.

A guest post by Brian Prows, a blogger and podcaster in California, who writes several blogs, including MobileBeyond and IM-Mobile, which focus on mobile technology and mobile marketing. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by Pink Sherbet.

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Post written by Marko Saric on February 2, 2010 in Blog Writing