One of the great things about the explosion of social media has been that it’s created a lot of new opportunities for comedians to get exposure (and paying work) that were never out there before. But, there’s really no place that talks about these new opportunities because most people working in the traditional comedy business (managers, agents, comedy clubs, bookers) tend to ignore their existence. As a result, it’s often up to individual comedians to seek out connections with people and companies that can provide them with new opportunities on their own.

One example of this that I wanted to mention today is viral or social media agencies. This is a very broad term, but essentially I’m talking about companies that work with brands and advertisers to create digital marketing campaigns. These campaigns are usually driven by content, and that content is often times meant to be funny because funny stuff tends to go viral. As a result, lots of these viral agencies are always looking to hire comedians to work on their campaigns as writers, and performers.

One example of this in action is a recent campaign from the Los Angeles-based agency Famous Interactive. They recently launched My 4Square Alibi, an entertaining viral campaign designed to showcase what they can do for brands. It’s a cool and fun campaign centered around allowing people to “check in” to fake 4square locations, but what’s really worth noting for me is the role that comedians played in its creation.

While the site was the brainchild of Famous social media strategist Sonya Cifuentes-Hiss, comedians Mike Holmes and Dan Bialek teamed up with copywriter Andrew Menendez to write all the copy for the website and the scripts for the testimonials.

Additionally, a slew of Los Angeles comedians were tapped to portray various funny characters in the viral videos that were produced to promote the site. Bil Dwyer, Frank Conniff, Brady Novak, Andrew DeWitt, Barry Rothbart, Shannon Hatch, Heather Thomson, Mike Burns, Raj Desai, Lizzy Cooperman, Mike Holmes and Dan Bialek all appeared in videos as part of the promotion. They also got themselves on the radar of the agency that can provide them with additional work and exposure on future campaigns.

Here’s a couple examples of the finished videos:

This is a whole new element to the comedy industry that most comedians haven’t figured out exists yet. There’s hundreds of viral marketing agencies out there and all of them are potential sources of work and exposure for you if you can get on their radar. All you have to do is track them down and let them know what you can do.

You never know, you might find yourself in the next viral video smash.

Looking for more? Check out some of my other money making tips for comedians.