Meme Tips: Start Doing These!

The question you might be having is: How can businesses use memes for their brands?

The answer is: carefully.

You don't want to appear like that uncool dad using slang terms in his attempt to stay "hip." You want to appear like using memes is completely natural for you, or that you at least recognize the irony of a company creating posts that young adults and teenagers usually make.

So keep reading to figure out how you can do that!

Tips On What To Do When Using Memes

1. Research Who Your Target Audience Is

This is at the top of the list because it's the most important. What you want to avoid doing is reposting any meme you see on the Internet. Different people like different memes - and while it might seem like a viral meme is liked by everyone, it most likely isn't.

Research your target audience. Discover their gender, their race, their nationality, their background, their age - and discover what type of meme content they consume. For example, an older audience might enjoy the Grumpy Cat meme (look this one up, it's so adorable), but a younger audience might see this meme as too old school to be funny.

2. Be Unique

When you're using memes in your content, there are two things you can do: the first is that you can build on already existing memes; and the second is that you can create your own! Both might sound intimidating, but they can actually be incredibly fun to create and share.

The first involves you locating a meme and reimagining it by maybe relating it to your own business or experience as a person. For example, if you see an image that's being used as a meme: add your own text to it. That's what we mean when we say "build on the meme" - give people a reason to see this image or video again.

You can also choose to create your own meme! Memes all start somewhere before they become viral, so don't feel like you're alone in doing this. To create a meme, we recommend finding a photo, screenshot, video, or GIF that you can add more content to in a funny and entertaining way.

3. Stay On Top Of New Trends

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Using memes also involves staying on top of new trends. Memes don't last forever, so you definitely don't want to use one that stopped being popular five years ago.

To stay on top of trends, you have to use social media. Don't research popular memes anywhere else! You'll find them naturally on whatever platform you're using - trust us, they're everywhere. It's best to find popular memes from the source rather than on a "Popular Memes" article because you don't know whether they are citing memes that are only popular with Gen Z or only popular with Boomers.

4. Remember Your Brand Personality

This tip is especially important if you haven't used memes in your content before. As we've stated before, your meme usage has to appear natural. Posting a meme will already surprise your audience - but posting a meme that portrays a message completely different than your usual message will be extremely jarring.

So it's important to remember that everything you post represents your brand, and that it should help you with your brand's mission or vision.

If you're wondering how you can achieve this, here's our advice: just be as relatable as possible. When you build or create a meme, think about how you can connect it to your business. And if there is a popular meme that can in no way be related to your business, just avoid using it. For example: a community-oriented business shouldn't begin using an edgy meme. Their audience might enjoy these edgy memes from other accounts, but they also enjoy and expect the community-oriented business's wholesome content.

5. Don't Be Afraid To Repost Other Memes

We've talked about user-generated content before - and the same rules apply for user-generated memes. You can repost these memes if you also cite the original creator (in fact, we encourage you to do this). Not only does it keep your content from being stale, but it can also be exciting for your audience to see that you engage with and like their content.

Think about it: everyone likes it when their friends laugh at their jokes! It makes us feel nice - the same feeling your audience will have when you share their memes.

6. Make Sure You Include The Traits Of A Good Meme

• Easily Recreated - memes go viral when people can build on them with their own content, so you want to make sure that you create and use memes that other people can reimagine. If your meme is too complicated, or takes too much skill to create, then it most likely won't succeed.

• Easily Consumed - you also don't want people to think too hard when they see your meme. Why? Because no one likes a joke that confuses them. They want to immediately feel humor! So keep your joke simple.

• Your Audience Will Relate To It - memes need to be relatable. As we described in our last blog post, that's why they have stayed so popular over the years. People like feeling like their emotions and experiences are valid.

• It's Funny - the most important trait is that it's funny. Try to make people laugh!

Need More Guidance?

If you need more guidance on content creation, feel free to schedule an appointment with Founder Jamie Cocco.

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