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ozarkwebdesign · 5 years

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How to Make Memes for Your Business and Use Them Effectively

I mean, really, who doesn’t love a good meme? After all, most people use social media for entertainment. B2C marketers (business-to-customer) and business owners will do well to remember this and use their social media channels accordingly. And to that end, a good meme definitely offers fun and laughs. In fact, memes are one of the most likely forms of social media elements (along with funny videos) to go viral. And why not? They integrate and lend themselves extremely well to just about every social media platform. And the concise nature of expressive pictures associated with brief text makes them ideal for the incredibly fast-feeding frenzy that is social media today.

They are a big part of the fun on social media, and we all like to participate. Therefore, any digital marketing company worth its salt will always be asking how to generate viral memes to help engage people and drive more traffic.

So if you’re wanting a fun and creative way to engage and connect with people then maybe you should explore how to create and leverage memes for your social media marketing. And this guide will provide you with several practical tips on how to use memes more effectively.

Table of Contents:

How to Use Memes Effectively

Curate Memes for Your Keywords

Inspiration for Memes

Re-Purpose an Existing Meme

What about Copyright Infringement?

Inspirational and Motivational Memes

How to Make a Meme

Branding Your Memes

Memes Can Dramatically Improve Social Signals for Your Brand

The Key Takeaway

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How to Use Memes Effectively

Memes should reflect the voice and tone of your business.

Let’s start with this. As a business, it’s best not to overuse memes. For some of my customers, I’ll use one per week. Others will use less, depending on the tone and voice of the business itself. Of course, you do realize that your business creates its own voice and tone, right? For example, my tendency is to try to offer insight and some humor. And that’s based upon who I am as a person and what my career has looked like. I’ve been a presenter and instructor through most of my adult life and I value humor, so I intentionally shape my social media and blogging around those traits. Some will like it, some will not. The same goes for you. Your voice and personality should resonate throughout your social channels and your blog. Anyway, on to our subject!

Your humor and your values should resonate in your memes. Some memes offer content that is inappropriate for a business–any business! Others may not be inappropriate from a social or ethical perspective, but they may not fit your business. It’s best to find those that are best suited for your voice and values.

Curate Memes for Your Keywords

I curate the vast majority of my memes. I simply run a Google search on the keyword for which I want to find a meme, then I add a qualifier like “meme”, “jokes”, or “humor”. So the search may look like this, “social media marketing memes” or “blogging jokes”. Occasionally this turns up other sources that may inspire me to create my own meme. More on that in a moment.

On some social media business accounts that I manage, I will occasionally just tell a joke that my search turns up and see if people respond. In fact, a joke told with no picture attached, often gets some of the best interactions on a page. And on Facebook, this is pure gold. So don’t be afraid to tell a joke or share a funny story, and sometimes without a picture. This may seem counterintuitive since everything in social media is so picture and video-based. And you will undoubtedly read some writers who say you should always use graphics. However, I have found that the occasional simple post with no graphics, written in a personal way, garners some of the best results on a page. Just remember to use this practice in moderation, simply because social media is image and video-centric.

Inspiration for Memes

If you have ever wondered how to make niche memes, here’s an example. As mentioned above, sometimes I find inspiration for a meme while curating or reading jokes. Just this morning, inspiration came another way. (DISCLAIMER: In the following example I am not advocating any political position on gun legislation. It is simply an instance of inspiration, so please do not take offense.) I was reading through my Facebook feed and one of my friends, a military veteran, wrote a post about guns and how he doesn’t believe guns are good or bad. When I read that, I heard in my mind for some creative and bizarre reason (since that’s what my mind is like) the words of the old song by Dave Mason, “We Just Disagree.” This is what ran through my mind: “There ain’t no good guns. There ain’t no bad guns. There’s only you and me and we just disagree.” Boom, baby! That’s meme fodder, right there. And that’s how inspiration works. So when you get, just go with it. At the end of your creative process, try to evaluate honestly whether it’s good or not-so-much.

This is an example of creating a niche meme that will get a lot of shares.

So what did I do next? What’s the process? Well, first I thought of who might best represent this sentiment in a meme? I thought of the military (like my friend). Nope. Not quite right. Perhaps someone older who would fit the age of the song reference. Yes, good idea. Maybe a gunslinger hero? Bingo. Tough guy? Definitely. Maybe a likable cowboy? Hmm…Sam Elliott? Touchdown! There have been lots of memes created with actor Sam Elliott in them. So I looked for a meme template by searching,“Sam Elliott blank memes”. I found the following pic and added the words, and I now have an original meme with a hot topic that will be very shareable.

And even though it doesn’t really fit my brand well, I will still use it just because it does have the potential to get shared. In fact, I’ve already decided how I’ll use it in a way that fits my business type. I will use it in a series of posts about creating memes that link back to this article. So you see, even though a meme may not exactly fit your brand, you can sometimes use them in a creative way and get some good social signals from it. (More about social signals later in the post…)

Re-purpose an Existing Meme

This funny pic was one that I came across in my Facebook feed. I had recently watched a video about clarity in marketing and it occurred to me that the picture in this was perfect for that theme. And as an added bonus, there was no copyright displayed, plus, there was plenty of negative space at the bottom so I was able to simply add the phrase, “Be clear in your marketing”.

This example is from a very common meme that I have seen quite a bit. However, I now have a roofer whose social media I manage, so I saw this from a different perspective. I recently wrote a blog article about soffit and fascia for him, so when I saw this meme, guess what caught my attention? Right. Browsing through all those roofing images and pictures of fascia suddenly paid off in a different way.

So you can sometimes see a meme or funny picture from a different perspective and re-purpose and reframe it to that new point of view. And it this case, the different perspective is what actually creates the humor. BTW, it’s also good to include the new keywords in the title. The title and description of this image use the words “fascia board” and “meme”.

Share it on the right social media channel, but put your own spin on it.

Another good practice is to simply share existing memes and put your own spin on it in your comments. The massively popular grumpy cat meme has offered me several such opportunities. The one that says, “Had fun once. Hated it.” has given me a lot to work with. For example, add a comment like, “Warning: This is my mode every Monday” or “every morning before coffee.” These things personalize the existing meme and add your voice to it. This is why it is a very good practice to comment on nearly anything you share, even if it’s only a simple “LOL” or “So true” comment. And if you can’t come up with a salient comment to add, just use something simple and then add an emoji or gif.

Another note of importance here is that every meme you use may not fit every social media channel. For example, what works well on Facebook sometimes won’t work nearly as well on LinkedIn due to the vast difference in those two channels. So consider the SM channel and whether the meme fits in with the ambiance.

But what about copyright infringement?

Great question! Strictly speaking, you can assume that any meme that is popular has been copyrighted. So if you don’t find it in a Creative Commons search or website, or if it isn’t public domain, then you had better realize that you don’t own the right to freely share it. But, that being said, with literally millions of memes being created and shared on a daily basis, sharing on social media is a bit of a different critter. If you stick with the most popular memes, licensed meme generating software sites, or simply sharing and commenting, the preponderance of anecdotal evidence (millions of memes created and shared daily) tells us that we really need not worry. Here is a helpful article from Northeastern University that explores the legalities and disposition in which courts view memes.

Inspirational and Motivational Memes

Brainy Quote offers a good source of intelligent inspirational and motivational quotes. This pic was from their Top Ten list. (Click the image to visit the website.)

Both of these genres can be helpful in your social media content curation and planning. Some of the businesses I work with will specifically request more motivational or inspirational posts, while others lean more toward current events or humor. I personally advocate a blend of all of these. Here are a good experiment and analysis. Simply observe your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feed for two or three days and take note of the memes that gain the most traction and popularity among your friends. Rule out any that come from pages that you follow, and simply observe what your friends (or followers) share. This will give you an anecdotal sampling of what is resonating with what kinds of people.

Now consider, what demographics are you targeting in your social media? If you don’t have many that fit this avatar in your personal Facebook feed, then join a group where these folks hang out. You will be able to observe them there. This can help you determine what mix or style of meme content you want to post on your social media. And remember, just because you may like your memes funny, that doesn’t necessarily mean that that is what appeals best to everyone else. Be open to using motivational or inspirational memes since they are very popular. And conversely, if you tend to gravitate toward the more serious memes, don’t be afraid to lighten it up and use some joke memes. I guarantee that some of your readers will appreciate it.

How to Make a Meme

An example of a meme to provoke conversation on social media.

Perhaps the easiest way to make your own memes is to use an online meme generator such as imgflip.com or makeameme.org. There are free versions of various sites where you can browse the images and create your text very simply. These will typically be watermarked or branded by the software. To create versions of these without watermarks, which I recommend, you can usually get a paid “pro” version of the more popular meme generators which is very inexpensive. I just paid $2.95 for one month in imageflip and made this meme. Plus, if you’re concerned about copyrights, this may be the best avenue for you.

For those who are more DIYers, rather than using an online meme maker you may prefer to use your own editing software (I highly recommend Affinity Photo) or online graphics sites like Canva.com are the usual choices.

Branding Your Memes

It’s a good practice to brand a meme that you have created so long as you intend to use it as a promotional feature. It’s akin to wearing a tee-shirt with your company name or sporting a window cling with your business name in your car. I do it on business-relevant memes or on memes that I create that I think may have a chance of going viral. Even so, I don’t brand most of the existing popular memes I use, mainly because everyone knows that’s a “rip-off” and in my humble opinion it cheapens the feel of your brand and has a bit of a greasy uber-salesman vibe to it.

When you do brand, the standard practice is to place your logo and/or name (I personally prefer the printed name version of my logo) somewhere on the meme with some transparency so it is not glaring and detracting from the overall effect. It has become more common of late to place your brand somewhere inside the image rather than at the extreme bottom. This way, it’s not as easy for others to rip-off…um, excuse me…borrow your meme and replace your logo with theirs.

Are you missing out on your social media's potential for outreach? Get professional social media management now.

Let's Get Started!

Memes can dramatically improve Social Signals for your brand.

Many people who aren’t involved with SEO tactics are unfamiliar with social signals. In short, they are all the interactions and link follows you get from social channels. These all eventually drip out to all the various search engines as signals that your brand and your website have popularity and relevance. This means that every share, like, pin, view, and vote matters. In fact, they matter a great deal.

You see, search engines interpret your social signals as legitimate evidence that your brand is being seen and shared by consumers. This, then, translates into an improvement in your website or social channel’s SERP (Search Engine Page Rank). And that’s because social signals you’re receiving are interpreted as trusted recommendations for your brand from consumers. You should not underestimate the significant importance of social signals for your brand marketing. And just think, memes, when used effectively, can help with that!

The Key Takeaway

Due to the transient and fickle nature of social mood, popular and relevant themes will ebb and flow. Still, we believe that memes are now a permanent part of social sharing. These little jewels are simple to make and even easier for people to share, so from a marketing perspective, the ROI is great considering their explosive potential of going viral.

That being said, you must still give due diligence to your keywords, meme content, your target demographic and how it integrates with your brand. But wow, when the stars align for you, your meme could expand your brand like never before!

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The post How to Make Memes for Your Business and Use Them Effectively appeared first on Ozark Web Design.

from Ozark Web Design https://ozarkwebdesign.com/how-to-make-memes-for-your-business-and-use-them-effectively/

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rosajspinksca · 5 years

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How to Make Memes for Your Business and Use Them Effectively

Table of Contents:

How to Use Memes Effectively

Curate Memes for Your Keywords

Inspiration for Memes

Re-Purpose an Existing Meme

What about Copyright Infringement?

Inspirational and Motivational Memes

How to Make a Meme

Branding Your Memes

Memes Can Dramatically Improve Social Signals for Your Brand

The Key Takeaway

Why SEO Marketing is So Effective for Local Small Businesses

September 17, 2019 No Comments

If you are a small business owner or doing a startup business, or even a micro business or side-hustle, the

Increase Post Engagement with Personal Happenings

September 25, 2017 No Comments

A sure-fire way to boost post engagement on Facebook is to occasionally post a “personal happening” – maybe once or

Optimize SEO with Google Plus

November 21, 2017 No Comments

Optimize Your Social Media It is sometimes difficult, I know, just to keep up with posting to one’s own Facebook

How to Use Memes Effectively

Memes should reflect the voice and tone of your business.

Curate Memes for Your Keywords

Inspiration for Memes

This is an example of creating a niche meme that will get a lot of shares.

Re-purpose an Existing Meme

Share it on the right social media channel, but put your own spin on it.

But what about copyright infringement?

Inspirational and Motivational Memes

Brainy Quote offers a good source of intelligent inspirational and motivational quotes. This pic was from their Top Ten list. (Click the image to visit the website.)

How to Make a Meme

An example of a meme to provoke conversation on social media.

Branding Your Memes

Are you missing out on your social media's potential for outreach? Get professional social media management now.

Let's Get Started!

Memes can dramatically improve Social Signals for your brand.

The Key Takeaway

Like this? Please share it!

Share on facebook

Share on twitter

Share on linkedin

Share on pinterest

Share on reddit

Share on email

The post How to Make Memes for Your Business and Use Them Effectively appeared first on Ozark Web Design.

source https://ozarkwebdesign.com/how-to-make-memes-for-your-business-and-use-them-effectively/ from Ozark Web Design https://ozarkwebdesign1.blogspot.com/2019/10/how-to-make-memes-for-your-business-and.html

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ozarkwebdesignseo · 5 years

Text

How to Make Memes for Your Business and Use Them Effectively

Table of Contents:

How to Use Memes Effectively

Curate Memes for Your Keywords

Inspiration for Memes

Re-Purpose an Existing Meme

What about Copyright Infringement?

Inspirational and Motivational Memes

How to Make a Meme

Branding Your Memes

Memes Can Dramatically Improve Social Signals for Your Brand

The Key Takeaway

Why SEO Marketing is So Effective for Local Small Businesses

September 17, 2019 No Comments

If you are a small business owner or doing a startup business, or even a micro business or side-hustle, the

Increase Post Engagement with Personal Happenings

September 25, 2017 No Comments

A sure-fire way to boost post engagement on Facebook is to occasionally post a “personal happening” – maybe once or

Optimize SEO with Google Plus

November 21, 2017 No Comments

Optimize Your Social Media It is sometimes difficult, I know, just to keep up with posting to one’s own Facebook

How to Use Memes Effectively

Memes should reflect the voice and tone of your business.

Curate Memes for Your Keywords

Inspiration for Memes

This is an example of creating a niche meme that will get a lot of shares.

Re-purpose an Existing Meme

Share it on the right social media channel, but put your own spin on it.

But what about copyright infringement?

Inspirational and Motivational Memes

Brainy Quote offers a good source of intelligent inspirational and motivational quotes. This pic was from their Top Ten list. (Click the image to visit the website.)

How to Make a Meme

An example of a meme to provoke conversation on social media.

Branding Your Memes

Are you missing out on your social media's potential for outreach? Get professional social media management now.

Let's Get Started!

Memes can dramatically improve Social Signals for your brand.

The Key Takeaway

Like this? Please share it!

Share on facebook

Share on twitter

Share on linkedin

Share on pinterest

Share on reddit

Share on email

The post How to Make Memes for Your Business and Use Them Effectively appeared first on Ozark Web Design.

source https://ozarkwebdesign.com/how-to-make-memes-for-your-business-and-use-them-effectively/

#SEO Tips #Website Design #Search Engine Optimization #Social Media Management

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minnievirizarry · 7 years

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Want Free Backlinks? Put These 6 Elements in Every Post

The notion that quality content will naturally earn free backlinks is a fallacy.

Thankfully, there are 6 elements that can actually build free backlinks.

What is the most criminal fallacy in the world of SEO?

If you answered, “the idea that quality content naturally attracts backlinks,” congratulations!

You’re right.

For years, SEO experts have hammered on about how high-quality content earns free backlinks.

And yet,

any experienced blogger can quickly list plenty of high-quality articles they’ve written that got zero free backlinks.

Quality content does not earn free backlinks. And it’s simple to see why, once you flip the situation on its head.

Bloggers do not link to other sites because they value the quality of the content.

They link to each other’s content because it’s beneficial for their own purposes.

The best type of content for backlinks is content that other bloggers can use on their own sites.

If we want other bloggers to link to us, we have to give them something valuable that they will want to use on their own site.

Infographics are a famous example (though they have lost considerable value over the recent years due to overuse).

Another fantastic example are maps. Some experts say they’ve earned hundreds of backlinks just from creating images of maps.

And still another example is bite-size charts, the kind Neil Patel uses in every article.

What all these content types have in common is that they are reusable content assets.

They are:

Content that other bloggers can’t recreate quickly, cheaply, or at all

Reusable - in other words, they can be used in multiple articles

These types of content are the real sources of free backlinks because other bloggers can see the value of using them in their own posts.

Give other bloggers something of value that they can use, and you will draw backlinks in bulk.

If you want to earn free backlinks, include these six things in every post:

#1. Produce content assets that are appealing, difficult to create, and reusable

The key to using your content assets to build free backlinks is creating content that cannot easily be reproduced but that is reusable on other blogs.

Infographics are the classic example, for the following reasons:

They are appealing (provided they look professional and show interesting information).

They are not easily recreated. (It takes time or money to produce a quality infographic.)

And they are reusable. Simply provide an embed code and other bloggers can reuse the infographic on their own blog with a backlink.

Again, not easily recreated, appealing, and reusable are the keys.

Provided content meets these three criteria, it will have a good chance of earning backlinks.

So how do you make use of this?

Take another look at your latest post, or the post you are currently writing.

Ask yourself:

Could I communicate the information in this post in a way that is not easily recreated, appealing, and reusable?

If so, create the content that meets those three points.

And if graphics are not your strong point, I find tools like Canva.com and Snappa.com to be a great tool for quickly creating high-quality images.

They offers lots of templates that speed up the process.

#2. Take original, high-quality photos

One of the best sources of backlinks is images.

There are countless blogs online that have mid-level domain authority from backlinks that point to images.

And oftentimes, those images were not even created by the blogger but lifted from resources like DeviantArt.

Why do images earn free backlinks? Because they help other bloggers produce their own content.

Depending on a blog’s niche, it can be incredibly difficult to create high quality-images.

Imagine how difficult it would be for an astronomy blogger to produce high-quality photos of planets every time they write an article.

This, of course, is an extreme example.

Nevertheless, it can be time-consuming, hard work, or just plain impossible to produce high-quality images that are applicable to certain subjects.

Therefore, if you do produce high-quality images, there’s a good chance other bloggers will use those images and provide a link to you as the source.

If you are unable to create unique images yourself, there are workarounds. The most obvious solution is to simply pay for stock images.

A better solution is to find an amateur photographer who is interested in your niche. Offer them exposure in exchange for the images.

You get the images (and the backlinks they produce). The photographer gets exposure. It’s a win-win.

#3. Testimonials and reviews

Another good source of free backlinks is testimonials and reviews. Give a product a positive review, and the manufacturer is likely to link to your article.

The same is true for testimonials. Lavish praise on a professional’s work, and they will likely want to tell their customers about it.

This is why “Best of…” posts are so popular. They are an easy way to earn backlinks.

Testimonials hit our three key points:

A positive review or testimonial is highly appealing.

They are not easily recreated in many cases, as it could be difficult for a product to attract many such reviews.

And they are easily reusable because the recipient can simply copy and paste a quote with a backlink.

The problem with “Best of…” articles is that they can seem unnatural.

The solution? Don’t write “Best of…” roundups. Instead, include a couple of testimonials inside an article.

For instance, if we’re creating content about copywriting, give testimonials or reviews to one or two copywriters or copywriting products in the post.

This will limit the number of external links on the page while attracting backlinks, and the backlinks will likely be high-quality and very relevant.

Once you’ve created testimonials and reviews, send out emails.

Here’s an example:

#4. Do your research and load your articles full of facts

Another type of content that bloggers will link to in droves is facts and research.

Any blogger worth their salt knows to include sources to validate the information in their articles. Those sources have to come from somewhere. Be the source. Get the link. Simple.

This technique used to be abused by bloggers who would produce false facts for link-bait. Now that Google is taking measures against fake news, it’s important that our facts be truthful.

To truly take advantage of this technique, we need to attract traffic from bloggers who are looking for facts. That way, those bloggers find our articles and use them as citation.

One way to do this is to include a few choice keywords, like “research,” “facts,” and “science.” These will help bring the right traffic (other bloggers) to our site, whereupon they will use our facts in their articles, giving link attribution to us as a source.

#5. Express commonly held ideas, thoughts, or feelings in appealing ways

The key to our backlink strategy is creating content other bloggers can use.

Logically, we can attract more potential backlinks by making our content applicable to more bloggers.

To do this, create content that communicates commonly held ideas or feelings.

The obvious example of this is memes. Memes get shared because they express an idea, thought, or feeling that millions of people experience at one time or another.

For instance, the Morpheus meme (“What if I told you…”) is applicable to a million different situations.

This strategy is not exclusive to memes.

Any content that expresses commonly held ideas, thoughts, or feelings in an entertaining or valuable way has a good chance of attracting a healthy amount of backlinks.

Another good example is image quotes. The most famous quotes are used by thousands of bloggers at one time or another.

If you create the best image for that quote, there is a very good chance other bloggers will use that image in their own articles, with a backlink pointing to your site.

#6. Use interviews to get expert advice on common problems

Genuine experts carry a lot of authority in their niches.

Getting interviews with these authority figures is a surefire way to substantiate your articles.

But do interviews hit our three criteria for attracting backlinks?

Interviews are appealing because they offer authoritative information and because most people interested in our niche will also be interested in our interviewee.

Everyone who is interested in SEO, for example, is interested in hearing the latest expert insights on the subject.

Interview an expert and there’s a good chance other bloggers in your niche will link to the article.

Interviews are also not easy to recreate, depending on the interviewee and the answers you manage to get them to provide.

Interviewees will not agree to every interview, so if they agree to yours, it could very well become a highly valuable content asset.

And interviews are easily reusable.

Just make sure you put a message on the blog post saying that quotes may be taken from the interview provided a backlink is provided.

Interviews meet our criteria. And indeed, interviews are a valuable source of backlinks.

A simple look at the latest news articles will bring up countless citations to interviews, most of which provide backlinks.

But how do you actually get interviews?

As a journalist of more than ten years, my experience is that it’s best to be introduced to an interviewee via a mutual contact.

If there is no such contact, however, the next best bet is to appeal to the interviewee’s heartstrings.

Tell them why your interview genuinely matters.

Explain how it is in their best interest, and relate it to subjects they care about.

And remember, even famous people have souls.

If you let them know that this interview truly matters to you and for more than just financial reasons, there is a good chance they will say yes.

I find the following email sufficient for most purposes.

Content that is appealing, reusable, and not easily recreated will bring a significant number of free backlinks

Focus on creating content that hits these criteria, and you will earn free backlinks in bulk.

Paul Harrison is a copywriter and online marketer based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada . His passion is helping independent creatives and businesses to succeed online. Get in contact with Paul at PMHarrison.com.

The post Want Free Backlinks? Put These 6 Elements in Every Post appeared first on Ninja Outreach.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://ninjaoutreach.com/how-to-get-free-backlinks/

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