How to Use Memes To Transform Your Marketing Strategy

At least two-thirds of Millennials and Gen Z regularly share memes on social media. The only content that is more likely to be shared is infographics and travel photos. Visual media are the most important form of communication today. Surveys show that 55% of 13-35 year olds send memes weekly and at least 30% exchange memes daily. Almost a quarter of respondents said they send memes several times a day.

The question most marketers ask is, “How can I create viral memes?”

If your content can include these five elements, your chances of going viral are much higher.

Related: How to Use Memes to Get More Attention Online

1. Post to your audience

You don’t necessarily have to treat meme generation as a marketing campaign. Often the best memes are created organically, just waiting to be developed. Any media event can become a popular meme, even news that seems mundane like President Biden falling off a bicycle. They’re harmless messages interpreted in hundreds of humorous ways.

Still, it would be best if you had an idea of ​​who this content will appeal to when you create it. It’s impossible to predict if a meme will go viral because its popularity depends on other people’s whims. With that in mind, it helps to create content that people in your niche feel emotionally connected to. That’s the best indicator of how successful your meme will be. A good example is dating app OkCupid, which shares relevant memes widely used to increase engagement on their social media.

2. Think creatively

The best memes take recognizable content (stills from a movie, images from a major news event, etc.) and give them a new twist that evokes a reaction from people.

In the United States, memes about politics, political figureheads, and inflation remain popular. These are topics of constant discussion, so memes naturally follow. These themes are particularly “memeable” because there are so many ways to add humor to situations that aren’t humorous.

The flexibility of the mind is the greatest meme-generating tool you have. The meme formats that persist often arise from a new perspective on a film, news story, or media event. For example, Netflix created an Instagram page, Netflix is ​​a joke, where their customers share memes, and that helps the company get more audience.

Related: “Bird Box”: Overcoming barriers in the streaming world through marketing through memes

3. A real sense of humor

The universal love of memes stems from the fact that we humans love to laugh. In today’s society, many people use memes to connect with friends or strangers over something light-hearted as a temporary escape from stress. Trending reports indicate that 38% of Millennials and Gen Z follow social media accounts dedicated to memes.

Memes should combine online trends with simple, funny text. Humor is subjective, so you might not always be right, but memes don’t work without a sense of humor. You have to be able to embrace absurdity and laugh at yourself or a situation to generate memes that other people like.

There’s even a neural network called GPT-3 that can use AI and machine learning to generate relevant, funny memes based on just a few words. There are entire meme accounts that create and post content this way.

Related: This is how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing influencer marketing

4. A relatable feeling

Memes have become an important means of communication thanks to their relatable nature. The right meme has the unique ability to convey a tremendous amount of meaning within a simple image. Yes, memes are used in part as comic relief, but 36 percent of Millennials and Gen Z use them to express feelings, and 28 percent use them when they can’t find the right words to express themselves.

This proves that a viral meme is a relatable one. In most cases, it’s important to remember that a person is looking for themselves in a meme. They want to see something recognizable in the mood conveyed. Gucci was one of the first fashion brands to collaborate with meme makers on Instagram to promote the watch collection.

See also: How to Harness the Power of Internet Memes for Your Business

5. Realistic Expectations

You don’t need a huge budget, complicated photo editors, or deep pop culture digs to create a viral meme. However, you must understand that creating viral content is always a gamble.

A meme stays popular until it is no longer popular. The popularity of memes usually rises and falls sharply. One thing will be trending everywhere until suddenly something new pops up and the old meme is now largely obsolete.

The spirit of a meme is to evoke feelings of all kinds in a relatable, often humorous way. Not everything will be an instant hit, and nothing will last forever.

Where will meme culture go from here?

Memes have entered our lives quietly, and they’re now even more meaningful than emojis because they can convey more nuanced feelings. Everyone from the US President to Elon Musk is now a part of meme culture (in both cases they share and appear in memes).

Anyone can now create a meme about anything. Many people can make money by creating memes and gaining a following on Instagram or Facebook. The only problem with these platforms is how the algorithms work. They depend on factors like the number of followers and the “age” of your account.

If your brand account is new, your content may not be featured or recommended to others, making growing your account the primary focus rather than creating good content.

YouTube and TikTok have more transparent monetization systems that depend on views, allowing smaller brands to benefit more by creating exciting and fun content. Other platforms like Yepp share the ad revenue, helping users to easily create memes and monetize their content.

In the future, we can assume that memes will become more firmly anchored in our communication. With the rise of topics like Web3 and digital ownership, memes may become more common in the NFT and Metaverse space. At the moment, the meme potential is almost limitless.