This week is How to Make Money with Social Media Week and we’ve had stellar guest posts from some of the world’s leading authorities and authors.

On Monday, we featured a post from Ian Cleary. On Tuesday, we had a post from Martin Shervington. On Wednesday, our post was from Lon Safko. And today, our guest post is from Phyllis Khare, who is co-founder of Social Media Manager School, Founder of TimeBliss.ME, author of Social Media eLearning Kit for Dummies and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies, 1st and 2nd Editions.

Phyllis has written a post on how to make your business stand out from all the other businesses out there. It has some great tips and insights on how you can turn your social media campaign into revenue for your business.

Ready to dive in? Great. Here goes:

In a world where social media marketing is full of data, analytics, graphs, and ROI, it’s good to see some people just don’t take it too seriously – at least not while in front of an audience.

Andrea Vahl is one of the up-and-coming comedians who posts on Facebook for clients during the day, and then jokes about juggling her work with being a work-at-home social media marketing mom at the bars at night.

She’s not the only one to come out from behind the screen and stand up in IRL: In the UK, Amy Harrison is using her Content Marketing Stripped YouTube channel to combine these disparate data sets. Martin Shervington, based in Wales, combines Google+ training and comedy as well (imagine that).

There are several wannabe comedians in the social media field here in the US, too. These best-selling authors and trainers are known mainly for their deep insights into online marketing, but secretly they’re rehearsing for their big comedy debut at the next industry conference in San Diego or New York. An example is this video from author Brian Carter.

Andrea’s personal story of going from a home-based wine tasting business to social media author and speaker has one more interesting twist: “Grandma Mary – Social Media Edutainer.” The cranky yet pep-talking Grandma Mary has interviewed luminaries such as Guy Kawasaki and Scott Monty, and chased down people in public places all over the world for her Twitter Street Walking episodes.

To get a sample of Grandma Mary, click the image below.

Grandma Mary is an alter-ego character Andrea developed in improv before her foray into social media management. When she was looking to set herself apart from the online marketing training crowd, Andrea used Grandma Mary to create Facebook tutorials on YouTube. It was these training videos that landed Andrea her book deal with Wiley Press, along with me, her now business-buddy and Grandma Mary super-fan.

Andrea recently pitched a show to NBC Comedy Playground with the premise of a “work-at-home mom/blogger, who has to deal with the combined pressures of being a mom, working, and having the always-on life of social media.”  You can see part of her pitch video here.

A lot of her personal experience was built into that pitch, as well as the experience of fellow work-at-home professional social media managers she trains. Andrea and I train people through our online course “Social Media Manager School.” This is where Andrea hears their stories and is able to incorporate them into her comedy routines – with permission, of course.

The current configuration of showing tweets as images or a scrolling bar during a TV show seems old-school compared to the integration of the social media experience directly into the script of the show, or on stage at your local bar.

When you can get a full crowd laugh when mentioning the time wasted on a Facebook quiz to find out what country you should live in, social media humor has arrived mainstream. The growing popularity and viewership of The Shorty Awards is only the start of this deeper integration of social and traditional media.

Action Steps for You:

  • Analyze the Data: Studies show that companies and organizations with a strong personality outperform organizations that blend in. (For proof of this, just check out GeekSquad or the Dos Equis beer commercials).
  • Do a Self-Evaluation: Ask yourself if there’s an opportunity for you to kick your brand’s personality up a notch.
  • Test Your Way to Success: If you’re concerned about adding humor or more personality to your brand, run a test among your prospects and customers.
  • Get Reliable Data: Remember, the larger the test, the more accurate the data. Small, 6 to 8 person focus groups can give you directional data (that’s semi-reliable), but in order to get statistically-valid data, you should do research with a minimum of 100 prospects and/or customers.

About the Author: Phyllis Khare is co-founder of Social Media Manager School, and author of Social Media eLearning Kit for Dummies and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies, 1st and 2nd Editions.

Featured comedian Andrea Vahl is one of the authors of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Editions, is also co-founder SocialMediaManagerSchool.