First of all, memes? In marketing?

Pulled straight from Wikipedia, the definition for a meme is “a concept that spreads from person to person via the Internet.” Pre-internet, this meant things like regional sayings, fashion, and architecture. Today it’s a picture of a cat who can’t spell, a popular cartoon or a silly image that has been spread around and evolved to become an infinitely replicable piece of concept. Like the little guy on the right: we have all seen the Success Kid permeate our social media feeds, and at times it made us even stop and smile.

Now how does this kid, or a cat that taught itself to write help you in luring that elusive client into buying your product? Simple: you use memes to connect with them. Memes are easy to consume, they’re shareable, familiar and funny. They really make a person feel like they are “in” on something, and that can be used by a digital marketer. From a B2B standpoint, an industry joke can grab a reader’s attention, and create a positive image of your brand.  So here are five simple tips that will help you use these social phenomenons to their full marketing potential.

1.      Know your target audience.

Is your audience internet savvy? If they’ll recognise a meme, share away. You can use word or image-based memes, or even share a video that is relevant. If they’re not, reconsider the meme strategy, focusing on other methods of digital marketing, or at least use memes that can be funny without being known.

2.      Make sure you are familiar with memes.

The number one rule of using memes is that you have to know what you’re talking about. There is nothing worse than using a meme incorrectly, and then being ridiculed by the potential clients. If you already know memes, that’s great, if not, do your research!

3.      Use word memes as a part of your post.

You can include ALL THE WORD MEMES in your social media posts, and for those who understand will feel like they’re “in” on a joke, and those who don’t wont looks twice.

4.      Use existing memes to your benefit, if you can’t, create new one.

Memes are at their best when they’re applied and adapted to your cause. Applying a meme to your company may not be enough, a better technique would be to use the meme to announce a contest, create a Twitter #hashtag or even make your own video and attempt to go viral!

5.       It may sound cheesy, but don’t forget to have fun!

If you are enjoying making memes, you’ll make more and better quality content. You will in turn be rewarded with reader loyalty and those sweet, sweet internet points (karma, likes, retweets).

So at the end of the day, a meme is what good marketing should be. Its funny, it can be a purple cow, its memorable and ridiculously contagious. When it comes to digital marketing, what else could you want?

Bonus Memes! 
Here are four of my favourite memes gathered from the four corners of the internet.