Are you here to learn how best to boost your social media marketing efforts with memes? Well, you’ve come to the right place.
In a time when many consumers scroll past ads and salsey content whenever they can, marketing with humour and familiar media can help effectively engage hard-to-reach consumers.
Memes are super simple and they’re probably all over your personal social feeds, but are you using them to boost your business’s online presence? If not, then let’s show you how – wave goodbye to low engagement and a disengaged following and say heya to more brand loyalty and awareness.
First, let’s explain a bit more about why memes work
Memes are often satirical and are designed to be relatable to the masses. People like memes. They take seconds to read, they’re (usually) funny and they’re easily shared – the perfect recipe for social media success!
So, why should businesses use memes on social?
There are so many benefits of using memes for businesses, including:
- Memes are free – all you need is a little imagination, an idea of what your audience likes & how they’re thinking/feeling and a sprinkle of humour!
- They humanise your brand – memes offer a unique opportunity for brands and businesses to show off their personality.
- Memes increase engagement – Memes are one of the easiest forms of content to take in – very important when you consider that your audience is probably drowning in information on their newsfeeds. They’re also perfect for an audience which is short on time – a reader may scroll past a long-winded post, but nine times out of ten, they’ll stop to check out a meme. Memes are also super easy to share – people get a good laugh and want to forward it to all of their friends.
- Piggyback on what’s popular – The best part about memes is you can simply take something that is already gaining traction and piggyback on its popularity. With memes, there is no such thing as plagiarism.
How to use memes
When it comes to actually creating memes all you need is an image editor and animation maker tool such as PixTeller.
HOW to use them is a little bit more of an art form. Here are some tips:
Avoid mistakes by understanding memes – knowing your memes will help you create relatable and witty content and prevent your campaign or content drive from backfiring.
Understand how to weave memes into your social media feeds – whether you react to recent news or tune into a cultural phenomenon – use memes as reactively as possible to stay relevant – by using your means to piggyback on popular content and trends, you’ll be able to make the most of your efforts.
Don’t be too literal – you don’t always have to create brand-related memes. You can create memes that simply entertain and relate to your audience. In fact, shoe-horning a meme into your brand can often feel forced. Sometimes it’s better to let the meme speak for itself.
Be original – earlier we told you to ride on the back of trends, but it’s important that the memes you create have some originality. Even if you’re using a popular meme image, your message should be unique and related to your audience or business/brand. Steer clear of repurposing someone else’s joke for your following. It just won’t work.
Here are a few examples to get your creative juices flowing
The Viral group
Take this meme from The Viral Group, which features an adorable little girl trying sprouts for the first time. The Viral Group made their meme ‘viral’, with a simple, yet effective caption; “How’s the January diet going?”
The meme was successful because not only was it hilarious, but the team at TVG understood that come the end of January, most people have well and truly fallen off the diet wagon and are struggling to keep their new year’s resolutions.
Gucci
Although Gucci has built its brand around sophistication and grace, that didn’t stop it from rolling out the memes for its #TFWGucci campaign.
#TFWGucci, which is a short version of “That Feeling When Gucci,” was a campaign designed to market its new line of watches.
Gucci brilliantly used memes that ranged from absurd to hilarious to shatter all preconceptions about its brand and show their target audience that they could be hip.
Netflix
Netflix is always pushing out memes on its socials. One of my all-time faves was its birdbox meme – partly because it’s me to a tee!
Due to the flood of memes around the release of the Netflix film, those who hadn’t yet tuned in felt compelled to watch through fear of missing out.
A word of caution before we go
In order to avoid a misjudged meme backfiring on you, consider the following:
Keep it simple – a good meme shouldn’t need an explanation.
Be careful what you joke about – steer clear of anything remotely offensive. A meme that you think is hilarious could be wildly offensive to someone else, so if in doubt, share it between a few friends or colleague before you unleash it on the internet.
Don’t plaster your brand all over it – as we said, people really hate ads and will do almost anything to avoid them. Keep your branding to a minimum and your memes will fly!
That’s all folks
Memes offer a great opportunity for brands and businesses to grow their socials and engagement stats as well as connect with their audiences on a deeper level. And, yes, they do have limited life-spans, they’ll still help boost interactions and reach no end!
If your brand or business is in need of some social media marketing support, get in touch.