If you happened to be watching HGTV on Fat Tuesday during a House Hunters marathon hosted by Michael Ian Black and thought to yourself “that guy is everywhere,” you are not alone. Black, who rose to fame in the ’90s on cult cable comedies like Viva Variety and The State, is suddenly a hot commodity and can be seen online in a new series of ads for Expedia, on television and on nearly every talk show. And it’s all because the comedian knows how to flawlessly work social media marketing.
To date, Michael Ian Black has nearly 2 million Twitter followers and he keeps the masses entertained by tweeting endlessly. During his Mardi Gras gig, Black played House Hunters bingo with Twitter followers, mocked drunken parade goers and even took time out to promote his soon-to-be-released book, You’re Not Doing it Right. Black takes the Twitter engagement a step further by regularly re-tweeting responses from his followers, something even B-list comedians don’t do. Black has carefully crafted himself as a pop culture commentator — and what better place to discuss that topic than social media?
The actor and author has submerged himself in social media since 2009 and can also be found on Tumblr and even MySpace. Now, his book is already having bang up pre-sales on Amazon and he’s chatting with the likes of Esquire magazine. Black has gone from being that guy from some ’90s shows to a real social media-made celebrity. And while we can’t all expect our tweets to land our brands on television, Black’s story is proof that social media marketing works when you mix hard work with humor, personality and one-on-one engagement.
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