Chances are that if you’re a living, breathing human adult, you’re aware of the infamous altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock that took place at the 2022 Academy Awards — AKA the “slap heard around the world”.  It’s absolutely everywhere. Even more than a week after the fact, it’s nearly impossible to watch tv, listen to the radio, or look at your social media without seeing something related to the incident.

Not surprisingly, internet users immediately capitalized on this opportunity to generate fresh meme content. Photos from the incident have been used to create countless memes spanning a multitude of topics – from common everyday annoyances, to politics, and even brand marketing content. If you’ve spent any amount of time on social media since the Oscars went down, your eyeballs have undoubtedly been assaulted by a barrage of these memes. No matter how you may personally feel about what happened, there are reasons behind why these memes instantly became so widely popular – as all the best viral memes do. Let’s look a bit closer and dig into why memes are such a powerful form of content, and how you can properly harness that power to effectively and professionally use memes as part of your brand’s social media advertising content.

wHaT iZ mEmE?

Memes have become increasingly popular over the past decade or so. There are 3 main reasons behind their popularity: memes are universal, memes are relatable, and memes are HILARIOUS. The best memes take important historical and pop culture moments, and turn them into humorous content that makes light of everyday situations we can all relate to. Just as social media has transformed into a powerful business tool, memes have transformed into an extremely effective form of advertising content. So why should you incorporate memes into your social media marketing?

Memes are familiar yet versatile

Viral memes have been widely circulated across social media platforms, which means that they will be easily recognizable, and your audiences will likely already be familiar with a meme before you use it as part of your ad content. Taking a popular, well-known meme and tweaking it to make it relevant to your brand, product, or event in a way that preserves the relatability and humor of the original meme is a clever and memorable way to connect to your audience.

Memes combine entertainment and promotion

People use social media for entertainment purposes. Constantly trying to sell to your audience without providing any entertainment value is a great way to cause your audience to disengage from your content, which ultimately damages your brand. Memes are beneficial because when done right, they provide entertainment with a hint of sales pitch. Communicating with your audience in this manner helps to build rapport and trust, while still promoting your brand.

Memes are free and easy to make

Compared to the high-quality, professional looking creative content that today’s social media climate demands, memes are an absolute breeze to create. In most cases you only need to place text on a photo, and you’re done.  Memes can easily be created with free, user friendly software such Canva* in a matter of minutes.  

No one expects a meme to be pretty. Sometimes the best memes are funny specifically because they are not!  

*BONUS – Get FearWorm’s FREE Canva Meme Template! 

Memes can easily convey a message using few words

The attention spans of social media users seem to be getting shorter and shorter all the time. Social media posts that contain a large amount of text are likely to be glossed over without actually being read by the viewer. Most memes rely primarily on images to get their point across, with very little text. This means that they can very quickly be read, processed, and understood before the viewer has time to lose interest, and therefore will leave a longer lasting impression.

Memes can save you money!

When used effectively, memes can often achieve greater organic reach and higher engagement than traditional promotional graphics. This ties back to the entertainment factor: Social media users will be more inclined to share and interact with content that is entertaining, rather than content that is only aimed at trying to sell them something.  This ultimately saves you money on social media ads, as posts with higher organic reach and engagement are served to more users without an increased ad budget!

DISCLAIMERS:

*Memes are not suitable for all brands and audiences. If your brand voice doesn’t already include humor or playfulness, then memes may not be an appropriate form of advertising.

*Some memes may be considered unprofessional or inappropriate for use in social media advertising. Carefully consider which memes may or may not be appropriate for your brand.

*Memes are only a small part of a balanced ad campaign and should not be used exclusively.

Get to meme-ing!

When executed thoughtfully and with purpose, the incorporation of memes into your brand’s social media marketing can be an extremely effective way to entertain and connect with your audience, while simultaneously promoting your brand’s products and services. If you want to try making your own memes but aren’t sure where to start, check out this list of some of the most popular memes of all time for inspiration.  Good luck, and happy meme-ing!