Memes – the General Concept

According to Wikipedia, a meme is an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.

Memes take place in many different forms such as these.

• Jingles – like “I’m lovin’ it!” and “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.”

• Clothing styles – like bell bottom jeans and skinny jeans

• Fads – like hula hoops and flash mobs

•  Catch-phrases – like “Git-R-Done” and “YOLO”

Richard Dawkins, a evolutionary biologist, compared memes to genes. Some are better at replicating themselves than others.

Memes that are the easiest to remember and most likely to be copied, go viral and last the longest.

Memes that are forgettable or are hard to copy, are likely to fade away.

Memes in Internet Culture

These days, when someone refers to a meme, they are usually talking about viral images like these.

 

Memes like these grab your attention, put a smile on your face and make you want to share them with your friends.

There are a few things you can do to make it more likely that your meme will go viral.

1. Get to the point – people should relate to your meme within a second or two.

2. Make it funny – a big percentage of viral images use humor to get their point across.

3. Start sharing – place your meme people will see in like Facebook groups and blogs.

Memes in Marketing

If you are a marketer, memes are a great way to promote your site or brand.

For example, the pet food delivery company PetFlow posts an animal meme or image every day like this one.

 

Because of their viral nature, these images reach their target market quickly as they are shared on social media sites.

You can do this same thing for your brand by tapping into the interests of your audience in a humorous way.

Of course, if you are using memes as a marketer, you will want to brand both the image and the description with your URL.

You can do this easily with a meme creator like MemeCrusher.com.