If You’re Not Having Fun, They’re Not Having Fun: How to Bring Joy and Variation into Content Creation

By Shanny Schmidt

In a previous role, on the way to a pitch for a major brand with my marketing team, I was listening to a clip of Tiffany Haddish. We were already feeling pretty defeated, because we knew we were up against the biggest agencies (that likely already had this multi-million dollar account in the bag). But Haddish mentioned that when she met Richard Pryor, he told her to just go out on stage and have a good time — because if she wasn’t having fun, her audience wasn’t going to either.

That was revelatory to me! I told my team, “Since we’re up against the biggest, let’s stand out and liven up the typical boring board room and just have fun pitching. This is our moment to shine and enjoy it.” And the stress just kind of melted off of us. We walked in and had such a blast doing the pitch; we made it playful, personal, and emotional (and, of course, had a killer campaign idea). We made the people in the boardroom laugh and smile, and there was an energy in the air because of it. When we walked out, we were proud to have given it our best shot. Three days later, we found out we had won the contract.

Since then, “When you’re having fun, they’re having fun” has turned into a new personal motto. Whenever I write or create content for WideFoc.us clients, I try to really enjoy it. A dose of playfulness makes our work sparkle, and it’s contagious — our clients’ audiences (and our own team) feel it too. As a social media and community manager at WideFoc.us, I know content isn’t just about KPIs, planning, and algorithms (though those are all essential). It’s also about storytelling, feeding curiosity, and respecting target audiences by actually providing takeaways that engage them. And that rolls over best with joyful content.

Why Fun Matters More Than You Think

Creating social content can be fast-paced, exciting, and creatively fulfilling. But when content calendars stack up, reporting meetings pile on, and trend fatigue sets in, it can be tempting to lose that spark. Even the most passionate social media pros can burn out.

But here's the thing: Joy isn't optional. It's an actual tool to cultivate and channel.

When you're energized and creatively engaged, your audience notices. This study from Science shows that having fun isn’t just beneficial — it’s essential for sustaining creative work. Playing and discovering new things that make us happy keeps us sharp, more present, and deepens the connection to our “why.”

You can see and feel it in content if you look. Joyful posts resonate. They’re more likely to be shared, commented on, and remembered. Your audience can tell you’re energized! 

Let’s Bring the Spark Back

So, how do you protect your creativity, build variation, and add play to your work routine? Here are some strategies I use:

1. Make Self-Care Part of the Workflow 

Social media is 24/7, but you don’t have to be. Take intentional breaks. Hydrate! Build in time to rest, think, and recharge. I know, I know — it’s “just let me add this one change to this Reel” or “if I just find the right audio real quick, then I can wrap this up.” And then: SpongeBob narrator voice “4 hours later…” But we’re creatives, and we need a lot of downtime to think, observe, process, and brainstorm. 

This Good Housekeeping list of self-care ideas can help inspire easy but impactful resets that don’t require much effort, but still tell your mind and body that you care for them. And in turn,  your mind and body will care for you when you’re under a tight deadline.

2. Shake Up Your Environment 

Change where you work. Your surrounding atmosphere matters and contributes to the overall vibe. To mix it up, curate a new playlist. Try “The Ultimate Work From Home Playlist” from our WideFoc.us crew to get your creative juices flowing. Like our team, it’s hilarious, a little delulu, and entirely random. 

You can also try something as simple as lighting a scented candle. It’s a small change that can work wonders in signaling an energy shift. Sensory triggers perk up creativity and make your content creation process feel less like a chore and more like a gleeful ritual.

3. Try Something Weird 

Test out a new approach — or even something wackadoodle you like — and see if it makes it through edits and client approval. Remember how on the TV show Project Runway, the judges emphasize not being boring? They often eliminate designers with a perfectly tailored but stale design over someone who was brave enough to go for it, even if the construction is a bit off. 

Our own CEO Eric Elkins always says, “We’d much prefer toning down your writing a bit than having to punch it up.”

Try writing a caption in a bizarre tone, or take on a personality or character and write it in the client’s voice. Stick to the brand voice, of course, but expand the idea of what that could be.  What if that brand voice had a guest spot from a teenage valley girl who is totes excited about a product, and she’s elevator-pitching it to her new friends who are Japanese wrestlers? Even if the idea flops, it stretches your creative muscle, which is so important to an artistic eco-system. According to research published in the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed Central, novelty is directly tied to motivation and dopamine. In plain English, that means joy really is good for our brains. 

4. Infuse Your Copy With Personality 

Add puns, pop culture, or real emotion into your posts and captions. Feel it. Write how your clients’ customers talk. Be authentic. When you're not afraid to just go for it, your content becomes relatable and scroll-stopping. It might be cringe sometimes, but you’ll never know if you don’t try. (And trust a copy editor to help you refine it.)

However, I would advise you not to marry every idea, even if you’re passionate about it. Be flexible enough to part with concepts that don’t quite work, and/or allow them to be transformed. It’s not always easy — I know I often get really stoked about some ideas, and then feel bummed when everyone else doesn’t feel the same way. Still, I keep trying new things, and I know that little by little (muahaha), I’m convincing our team and our clients to bravely try fresh ideas because of the fangirl excitement that I bring into my content. 

5. Reconnect With Community 

Sometimes the magic is in the comments section. No, really! Those people are passionate and full of energy. Spend time replying to comments and interactions like you would if someone was talking to you at a party. At WideFoc.us, we often use Stories or Q&As to have real conversations with clients’ engaged audiences.

Whenever it’s allowed, I love doing a Stories Q&A, where I match responses with a correlating but unhinged visual. This makes the person who answered feel seen and celebrated. It’s kind of like a personalized online caricature drawing. It also makes others curious to find out what theirs would be if they engaged, making them more likely to respond to the Q&A. 

6. Give Yourself Room to Play 

Creativity and imagination thrive with playtime. Some of the most creative workplaces I’ve seen have “think tanks,” and “game rooms” where employees can play with LEGOs or a few rounds of Mario Kart to get their creative juices flowing better. The reason a company would spend so much money on such nice perks is because they understand what creatives need in order to have amazing ideas. If you work from home, create your own stations of play as your own creative perk. 

Let yourself brainstorm silly ideas. Write down a list of nouns from a client (product names, current campaigns, etc) and then write down a list of cray-cray verbs, randomly pairing the lists. Make a meme just for funsies about the brand. Write a caption you know will never get posted. Oftentimes, I’ll go back to these random phrases or ideas later, and it will ignite a twist or approach to content like a delightfully unexpected spice in a stew. 

Why It Works (For You and the Brand)

When you bring fun and variety into your work, it shows. Engagement goes up. Audience relationships deepen. And the brand’s content starts to actually feel alive.

At WideFoc.us, we work with brands to infuse delight, authenticity, and creativity into every campaign and organic post. We don’t just post and pray — we craft content that resonates because we actually enjoy making it. We don't post it if it isn’t something we would enjoy while scrolling. We’re serious — look at this list we made of some of our favorite trends, and some that didn’t quite make the cut.

Creative downtime isn’t fluff or a waste of time. Instead, it’s the gas in our tank we need to keep going and help us get to our destination.

If your content calendar feels like a grind, consider this your permission slip to play. Reclaim your creative energy. Protect your spark. And most importantly: have fun. Because when you’re having fun, they’re having fun. 

Cheerfully caffeinated and creatively driven, Senior Community Manager Shanny Schmidt is a social media strategist, content creator, community builder, and storyteller — with a meme or Reel always at the ready.