Memetic Monday: Memes can be found everywhere online. From funny videos and memes that go viral to powerful tools for marketing and social influence, they have a place in marketing and influence strategies alike. But creating and spreading viral memes to reach millions of people and generate revenue can be daunting task – here we share tips and tricks on how you can master the art of memetic marketing.
What is a Meme?
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A meme is a unit of cultural information that spreads from person to person through various media forms – such as images, videos, texts or sounds. Biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term meme in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, where he compared memes to genes as replicators of cultural evolution.
Memes can be any form of media that people find amusing, interesting, or relevant – such as jokes, quotes, slogans, characters, symbols or trends – which people find amusing, interesting or relevant. Memes can also be used to express opinions, emotions, values or identities and are widely popular today – some examples being:
- Grumpy Cat and Doge: Two emoticons used to express dissatisfaction, sarcasm or irony respectively.
- Doge: is a photo of Shiba Inu dogs with comic sans text that conveys surprise, confusion or excitement emojis that are used as visual aids.
- Success Kid: An image of a toddler pumping their fist as a means of acknowledging achievements, victories or good fortune.
- Rickrolling: A form of internet trolling whereby an otherwise irrelevant link redirects to Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up”.
Why are Memes Effective?
Memes are powerful tools because they’re easy to create, consume, and share – not to mention tap into psychological and social forces that influence human behavior, such as:
- Humor: Memes can make people laugh, which can ease stress, improve mood and increase likability.
- Curiosity: Memes can spark people’s curiosity which encourages learning, exploration and discovery.
- Emotion: Memes can evoke emotional responses in people, impacting their attitudes, decisions and actions.
- Identity: cit On another level, memes reflect people’s values, beliefs and preferences which enhances their sense of identity, belonging and loyalty.
- Social Proof: Memes can provide social proof, showing people what others are doing, thinking, or feeling in order to influence their behaviors, conformities and persuasion strategies.
How to Create Viral Memes?
Generating viral memes may not be an exact science, but there are some guidelines you can follow to increase the odds of success:
- Recognize Your Audience: To start off right, it is crucial that you understand who it is you’re targeting, their interests, concerns and what motivates them. Tools like Google Trends, Reddit Twitter or Facebook can be helpful when conducting market research in your niche – search popular topics, keywords hashtags influencers etc on these networks to gather this data.
- Be Original: To stand out from the competition and draw people’s attention to yourself and your work, the second step should be creating something original and unusual that stands out. Tools such as Photoshop, GIMP, Canva or Meme Generator can help you do this quickly and easily by creating images, videos or texts to complement existing pieces – or remixing existing ones with an original flair.
- Create Relevant Memes: As part of step three, ensure your meme is timely, topical or relatable for its audience. Use tools like Google Alerts, BuzzSumo or Feedly to stay abreast of recent industry-related events or trends in your niche or industry.
- Be Funny: For an engaging meme experience, add humor or irony into it with tools such as Joke Generator, Pun Generator or Sarcasm Generator to create memorable, shareable memes.
- Keep It Simple: As part of Step 5, ensure your meme is clear, concise, and easily understood by using tools such as Hemingway Editor, Grammarly or CoSchedule to verify spelling, grammar, readability or headline quality for your meme.
How to Spread Viral Memes?
Uningenious memes may only get so far; to really succeed at virality requires spreading them to the appropriate audiences at the appropriate times and in an effective way. Here are some tips for doing that:
- Select Platforms: Your first step should be selecting the most appropriate platforms to distribute memes based on your goals, audience and content. Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or Snapchat may be suitable platforms; Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn Medium might work better for textual memes. Other possible choices could include Reddit Quora Pinterest Tumblr etc for mixed memes.
- Optimize Your Content: As part of step two, the second tip involves customizing memes for each platform by taking into account their algorithms, formats and features. Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite or Sprout Social allow you to schedule, post or manage memes across different social media accounts while Canva Lumen or Headliner enable you to resize, edit or convert memes for specific platforms.
- Engage Your Audience: Engaging Your Audience is the third tip in creating memes that resonate with viewers by responding to comments, questions, or feedback; encouraging people to like, share or tag others; using Mention, Brand or Social Mention for monitoring mentions, engagement or sentiment analysis on memes.
- Partner With Others: As part of your fourth tip, partner with other meme creators, influencers or brands who can help expand the reach and relevance of your memes. Tools like BuzzStream, NinjaOutreach or Upfluence can help find, contact or manage collaboration opportunities; FameBit AspireIQ Tribe can create or participate in sponsored meme campaigns for you.
- Test and Learn: As the fifth tip suggests, experiment with various memes, platforms, strategies or tactics and evaluate their performance or impact in terms of traffic, conversions or revenues from memes using tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights or YouTube Analytics.
Conclusion
Memes aren’t simply humorous pictures or videos; they are a powerful form of communication, expression and marketing. By following the tips in this article you can craft and spread viral memes that engage your target audience while providing entertainment or education – as well as fun and profit for you.
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