How To Add Memes To Your Social Media Strategy [2024]

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Updated: September 12th, 2024

Can Meme Marketing Be Effective?

Memes are becoming hugely popular and can be very effective for your content marketing strategy.

One of the biggest advantages of meme-based marketing is how shareable this type of content is. If you can create a meme that promotes your product/service in a funny, engaging way, you're likely to see some pretty amazing results.

Brands are grabbing this opportunity to reach more audiences and increase their sales.

In this post, we cover what you need to know about the use of memes in your digital marketing strategy. Keep reading to find out more.

Memes Key Takeaways

Choose memes that are still relevant and timely
Avoid inappropriate memes to stay away from negative controversy
Use memes to advertise new products and create brand engagement

What are memes, and why do they work?

Memes are a worldwide social phenomenon that resonates with people and attracts quick sharing on social media.

The use of memes in marketing is a great approach to create a buzz around your brand and grab more eyeballs. Like all forms of communication, memes evolve with those who use them.

Just like emojis and online comics, memes impart significantly more information and convey complex ideas of mood or emotion. Therefore, when used by brands in marketing, memes spread quickly, accelerating the speed of improving brand engagement.

In that sense, memes can be the brand's best social media marketing strategy.

To ensure effective marketing through memes, lookout to ensure that the memes are:

Relatable: They showcase a certain feeling that everyone can relate to.
Clever: Memes should be witty and give you the feeling of "I never thought of it like that before, but I probably should have."
Entertaining: This content should be fun, lighthearted, and intelligent.

Real World Examples of Brands That Use Memes In Marketing

Here are real examples of how brands use memes in marketing.

BarkBox, the dog subscription box company does an amazing job at posting hilarious and relatable memes to their social media accounts.

Oftentimes, they'll capitalize on a certain trend and add post photos of dogs with captions that speak from the dogs perspective:

Not only does this help increase overall engagement (shares, comments, and likes) but it also gives users a memorable laugh and smile - which may lead them to purchase a product or at the least, visit their website.

Totinos is another example of brands using memes to build brand awareness and generate brand engagement on social media.

During the inauguration of the US president, Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders was photographed sitting socially distant from the rest. The picture went viral and iterated into memes. Torinos was one of the brands that used the image to create an engaging meme.

embed:instagram

The meme was shared on social media and attracted reactions from social media users. This type of engagement is what makes a brand popular, and helps in generating more sales.

The Best Software For Making Memes

You can create memes using different software.

Filmora meme maker: A free meme generator supporting importing images, GIFs, and videos.
Wondershare PixStudio: Provides massive templates that you can use to create memes easily.
Quickmeme: Simple to use meme maker suitable for beginners.
Canva: A Easy-to-use online meme maker that you can use to add funny captions to images
Imgur: An image hosting platform with a meme creation tool.

Filmora

A free meme generator supporting importing images, GIF and Video

Pricing: Free
Twitter: @wondershare
Website: https://filmora.wondershare.com/

Businesses using Filmora:

Get Filmora ➜

Wondershare PixStudio

Provides massive templates that you can use to create memes easily

Pricing: Free
Twitter: @Wondershare
Website: https://ps.wondershare.com/

Get Wondershare PixStudio ➜

Quickmeme

Pricing: Free
Website: http://www.quickmeme.com/

Businesses using Quickmeme:

Get Quickmeme ➜

Canva

Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. You can use it to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos, and more.

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @canva
Website: https://www.canva.com/

Businesses using Canva:

980 successful businesses are using Canva ➜

Get Canva ➜

imgur

You’ll find the funniest, most informative, and inspiring images, memes, GIFs, and visual stories served up in an endless stream of bite-sized fun

Pricing: Free
Twitter: @imgur
Website: https://imgur.com/

Businesses using imgur:

Get imgur ➜

BarkBox, the dog subscription box company does an amazing job at posting hilarious and relatable memes to their social media accounts.

Often times, they'll capitalize on a certain trend and add post photos of dogs with captions that speak from the dogs perspective:

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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