The technical definition of a meme as a “unit of cultural information that can be transferred from one individual to another,” is perhaps too dry. It hides the fact that these images created by integrating a familiar image with a funny message are not only hilarious but also can be packaged perfectly to go viral with a brand message that’s hard to ignore. With billions of posts published per day on the leading social media networks, the main challenge for marketers is producing memes that have standout value and are seriously funny. According to Entrepreneur, images are processed some 60,000 times faster than text, which makes memes the perfect vehicle for boosting brand awareness. A few smart tips for creating highly-engaging memes:

Keep in Mind Your Target Audience

Even though humour as a marketing tactic is quite popular, you need to keep in mind the profile and sensitivities of your target audience. Since understanding the humour of memes is typically dependent on the culture of the audiences, it is important to ensure that your target audience understands what the meme is commenting on. This makes it vital for marketers to thoroughly understand the personas of their potential buyers and also the different kinds of media consumed by them to avoid creating and sharing irrelevant memes, out of fashion, or simply offensive. Memes that cater to the interests and concerns of the target audience invariably tend to perform better, according to Meme Scout, a leading online resource for trending memes.

Conduct Thorough Research

While identifying memes that have already achieved popularity is essential for customizing them to promote your brand, you should be careful to learn what the origin of the meme is to avoid unintended controversy. You should not base your selection only on the number of shares a particular meme has got. Accessing meme database sites like Know Your Meme to get the background information and relevance of memes can save you from potential social media embarrassment that may be hard to live down. It is better to be safe than get into a situation that can damage your brand reputation.

Choose a Meme That Is Trending

The online audience is ever hungry for fresh memes, which is why using something that has been around for a long time may not get the kind of attention you are yearning for. Rather, you should try and spot images that are gaining traction on social media so that you can overlay them and use them as a vehicle for your brand message. Getting onboard with memes that are going viral means that your creation has a better chance of gaining the visibility you are targeting. According to people in the know, Reddit is one of the best places for discovering trending memes.

Conclusion

It is well-proven that using humour can be very effective for opening up a dialogue and when used properly, it can create a unique bond between two parties making it possible for further engagement for commercial purposes. However, finding the proper balance between a quick laugh and offensive content can be a difficult task so you need to keep your wits about you.