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What Do You Meme?

What Do You Meme?

April 11, 2019 / Luke Samuel  >

If you have been active on social media lately, you’ve probably noticed a trend that everybody is taking part of. From big corporations to small businesses, and even your weird uncle Rob - memes are everywhere to be seen. 


Some of you might be asking yourself “what’s a meme, and why should I care?”, and we're here to answer those questions for you. Defined by Merriam-Webster as “an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture – often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning represented by the meme”.

With today's digital landscape, incorporating memes into your marketing strategy is proving to be highly successful in improving your brands online presence and identity, specifically when targeted towards Gen Y and Gen Z markets. 

Who are Gen Y & Z?

Gen Y, also known as millennials, are born between 1980 and 1994 - currently 25-39 years old. While the newest generation, Gen Z are born between 1995 and 2015 - currently between 4-24 years old. Differences between these generations exist, but their upbringing was so surrounded by fast-developing technology to the point where their tech-savvy skills are now second nature. 

We frequently see these Gen Y & Z users posting images, GIFs, or videos with a funny or relatable quote attached to reflect the visual content. More often than not, the power of the internet and networking/sharing tools takes control and these memes become yet another viral phenomenon. 

Things to keep in mind for Meme Marketing:

  • Know your brand – It is important to keep in mind the voice and identity of your brand. Do you lean towards the fun and humorous side, or the professional and traditional side of the scale?
  • Know your crowd – Arguably the number one rule in marketing is to know your audience. As memes are a recent boom in the social media landscape they often include content and references that only resonate with Gen Y & Z users.

Meme created by Sydney Design social depicting Mark Zuckerberg being overly calm about the Facebook crash

  • Play the trends - Sharing a trending meme or creating your own based on a trending meme or ‘meme format’ is a sure-fire way to grow your accounts engagements and follower numbers. It has been statistically proven that posts with images perform better, so why not show your audience that your brand is contemporary.
    • 74% of Social Media Marketers use visual assets in their marketing strategy compared to blogs (68%) and video (60%) – Social Media Examiner, 2016

Meme created by Sydney Design Social depicting Eggboy

  • Memes have become instantly recognisable, meaning that the smallest of glimpses can catch the eyes of your audience.
    • 37% of marketers stated that visual marketing was the most important form of content for their business, second only to blogging (38%) - Social Media Examiner, 2016
  • Cool and casual – You'll want to avoid spam. It is important to keep it cool and casual when incorporating memes into your content strategy. Constantly publishing meme after meme comes across as if a brand is trying too hard, and ultimately decreases the overall value and outcome of the strategy put in place.
  • Use caution – As we all know, political correctness is very important in today's society, and memes have been at the forefront of many controversial topics and moments for as long as they have been in existence. Misusing memes runs the risk of being perceived in a negative light and coming across as offensive. As with any and all digital marketing collateral, it is important to keep this in mind.
  • Keep it real – Originality always goes a long way and with that being said, you want to incorporate memes into your content strategy as opposed to substituting all of your content. Remember the golden rule: everything in moderation.

 

Want to learn more about utilising memes for your social media channels? We’re here to help (insert fanfare). Get in touch for a chat with one of our social media gurus today. 

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