Social media has an undeniable impact on all our lives, and very few of us can claim to be completely unaffected by its presence. With most people spending a good fraction of their waking hours on social media, brands have started leveraging the potential of such platforms in getting their marketing message across. Videos, images, and polls are some of the conventional measures adopted by brands in boosting customer engagement.
However, often the conventional methods do not suffice. For example, when a brand makes a startling revelation, launches a new product, has a huge sale, or posts on some breaking news, they can expect their followers to share the same. Expecting shares or engagement on everyday posts seems too far fetched for most brands. On the contrary, not posting unless something is starting to talk about would tarnish the brand familiarity and cause it to get to digital Oblivion.
The only way out of this situation is to come up with fun, meme-based content. Considering that memes are fun content, people want to tell their friends and family about it and tag and comment on the post. As a brand, this makes it easy for you to get the shares you always wanted. While the use of memes in marking may seem a little unconventional, here is how you can use the power of memes to expand your business.
Create A Sense of Community
These days, the best memes get viral within no time, and by the time you repurpose a meme, chances are that your v followers would have already seen it somewhere else. In such a situation, if you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to come up with memes that only your audience will truly comprehend.
By twisting popular memes to share inside jokes, you build a sense of community, and your followers will be inclined to like and comment on your post to tell you that they got the joke. This works in your favor by boosting engagement in a way you would like.
Do Not Share Every Meme
As a brand, you need to realize that just because a meme has gone viral does not mean that you need to repurpose it. While repurposing memes is an acceptable thing, you need to ensure that you stick to your brand’s posting schedule before making any decision. Also, ensure that the content of the meme is not in conflict with your company values and those who have faith in your organization do not feel let down by the content that you shared.
Alternate Memes with Other Content
Anyone who has used Invideo to create memes for marketing purposes knows that this is addictive, and creating a meme is just as fun as watching it. However, you need to hold your horses and ensure that the content that your brand posts are well-balanced.
Ideally, you should have a schedule wherein you post memes on a certain day of the week and product images, DIY videos, user-generated content on other days. Having a schedule and staying committed to it helps your viewers anticipate the entertaining content. It is a general human tendency to engage with content that one was looking forward to.
Encourage Followers to Tag Their Friends
The algorithm of most social media sites dictates that content that has good engagement is likely to appear in the feed of more people. While this does improve your reach, as a brand, you can accelerate the reach by encouraging your followers to tag their friends in your meme posts.
Considering that a person will be prompted to share a meme with someone who would find it relatable, the chances of the tagged person liking your content is higher. Such a person will then start following you, and in this way, you can leverage the sense of community that your followers have and use that to expand your brand.
Do Not Skip on The Caption
The fact that most meme templates have text does not give you the power of skipping to caption your meme posts. Captions are an essential part of any Instagram post, and memes are no different. In the case of a meme, the ideal situation will be when you grab the audience’s attention with the visual appeal of the meme and then use the caption to ensure that it resonates with the viewer.
Also, understand that writing meme captions may be a little different from conventional captions, as you need to take care to ensure that they are not too wordy. For here, they need to be long enough to foster viewer engagement and short enough for a person to see the caption without having to click and expand it.
Depending on the meme, your brand sentiments, and the user demographics of your brand, you may either choose to ask a question or make a statement that people will relate with and try selecting templates from here and start creating memes. Some brands also choose to make controversial statements that are bound to get people talking.
Be Responsive to the Engagement on Your Meme
Merely posting a great meme and encouraging your viewers to like, comment on it, or share it will not suffice. As a brand, you need to let your viewers know that you appreciate them taking time out of their busy schedule to engage with your post. Usually, it is the first few hours after posting a meme that one can expect maximum engagement.
Make yourself (or a member of your team) available to reply to comments to make your followers feel important. Also, remember that just because it is a lighthearted post, it does not mean that you cannot expect any negative criticism on it. Be prepared for derogatory comments and respond to them with the same promptness and politeness as you would do to a congratulatory comment.
If used efficiently, memes have the power to attract viewers and give you good visibility among your target audience. With the tips discussed in this article, you are now ready to rise to the challenge and use memes as a part of your digital marketing strategies.
