{"id":5570,"date":"2013-04-03T13:13:44","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T02:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/?p=5570"},"modified":"2013-04-03T13:13:44","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T02:13:44","slug":"april-fool-communicate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2013\/04\/april-fool-communicate\/","title":{"rendered":"What does April Fool communicate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you see Virgin’s glass floored planes<\/a> announcement on Monday?<\/p>\n

\"Court<\/a>
\nIn short, they joined the April Fools Day spirit and announced a plane that would allow you to watch the passing ground as you flew. Spectacular views\u00a0maybe, scary probably!<\/p>\n

A number of other companies also ran some jokes on the day, and it got me thinking about the message<\/a> behind such jokes.<\/p>\n

What does it say?<\/h1>\n

Running a public joke like that can obviously be taken a number of ways, but I think most people appreciate it as long as it remains appropriate.<\/p>\n

Making a joke shows the company can be fun and don’t take themselves too seriously. It may make it seem more approachable and flexible, too.<\/p>\n

It could send a message of being too frivolous\u00a0or flippant, but\u00a0I think that comes back to keeping the joke appropriate – to the business\u00a0brand<\/a> as well as generally appropriate for the public.<\/p>\n

Is it a good business tool?<\/h1>\n

I think it can be good for a number of reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. making people smile and feel good generates warmth towards your brand<\/li>\n
  2. getting into the spirit of a particular day or event shows community involvement and can also build good feelings towards the business<\/li>\n
  3. if it’s well done, people will share the story so the business gets lots of publicity. How many Facebook and Twitter mentions did you see of company April Fools jokes this week?<\/li>\n
  4. it can be fun for the staff and thus build morale and staff retention<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Of course, these benefits need to be weighed against the cost of running such a joke. It may not\u00a0cost a lot of money to Photoshop an image or put a message on a website, but there is a cost in time to plan a joke so it works and goes live at the right time.<\/p>\n

    Speaking of timing, remember that April Fools jokes should only be run before midday on 1 April. That can get tricky with a global audience such as on social media.<\/p>\n

    So what do you think – do you enjoy such jokes?<\/p>\n

    How does it impact on your view of the business behind the joke?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Did you see Virgin’s glass floored planes announcement on Monday? In short, they joined the April Fools Day spirit and announced a plane that would allow you to watch the passing ground as you flew. Spectacular views\u00a0maybe, scary probably! A number of other companies also ran some jokes on the day, and it got me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[1614,86,1615,691],"class_list":["post-5570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-info-tools","tag-april-fool","tag-business","tag-joke","tag-message"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t