The Meme Phenomenon..

On a lighter note, i want to talk about “Memes” the recent internet phenomenon which i categorize as “Content” none the less has spread throughout the world like wildfire, What are internet Memes? how did they came into being? and how have they grown?

Starting with What Memes are, what does the word “Meme” actually means, i looked up the meaning from the all wise Wikipedia and i found this; A meme is “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures. If we look at it this way then,the internet memes we see nowadays are so not what goes with the above mentioned meaning..BUT…if you look at the meaning more closely and then translate it into a more “Modern day” meaning, today’s world/people/norms have considerable changed and are now vastly driven by practices and cultures witnessed in different parts of the world,adopted to a more local level, the internet has truly made the whole world into one big global village, and the kind of Memes we see on the internet everyday,(Funny,Retarded,Sarcastic, situation,Rage comics) are pretty much true yet humorous depictions of whats happening around us and just how people have started to act with the ultimate explosion of the Social Media,internet, and crowd/user generated free sharing content.

The Meme phenomenon came to light not much time ago, maybe 2 years or so but over the past one year has gained immense popularity and recognition worldwide.

an internet meme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

U.S. customs officials have the authority to scrutinize the contents of travelers' laptops and even confiscate laptops for a period of time, without giving a reason. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things like “girls with DUCKFACE” pictures, the ridiculously photogenic guy (a recent hit Meme),Troll Faces, Bad luck brian, the college graduate, words like “Me Gusta”, ” Like a Boss“, are some of the renowned and most associated with Memes on the internet, all of them being used to highlight a specific statement, or sarcasm, or an action WHICH IS ACTUALLY carried out by people/us in our daily lives and we don’t really think about much.

Memes have very conveniently and humorously brought a change in the way which people communicate now on the internet,considering that the internet itself is inhibited majorly by young adults more than any other demographics, Meme based conversations and references have gathered quite the recognition, in fact in many social circles now it has turned out to be a “In” fad, to know about memes and to use their references while talking to each other.

The Meme culture has also given rise to great,unique and interesting visual content based websites such as www.9gag.com , 1loop.com,buzzfeed , among the more recognized ones,creating yet another vast field for digital content, which can also be commercialized and integrated with orthodox marketing in the form of merchandise creation etc.

The creation and shot to fame of Memes and Meme based content websites, gives proof that, digital content has no bounds, and can create serious ripples when integrated with the right form and amount of mediums.

*ME GUSTA* 😀

Related articles

• Are Memes Art? [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• A fun MEME! (socialactions.net)

Content Marketing Success.

I read a very interesting post on content marketing the other day and it talked about how to position your content marketing strategy to really hit it where it counts with consumers. just to summarize it lets look at some of the things I learned from it.

Design means a lot: your content is far more interesting to read and a lot more receptive for the reader if it has visual appeal to it, remember the reader/audience might not be big on reading lengthy articles, while if these articles are complimented with visual aids, (infographs,pictures,GIFs) it hold the audience concentration in one place and allows you to get your point across more efficiently.

Use all aids: like i mentioned above about how to give a thought into putting some design in your content, adding visual aids pretty much goes hand-in-hand with this, use videos ,animations, call-outs to make your message more interesting to the audience.

Don’t force feed: the basic rule of marketing, which is to make profits and sales is always there somewhere in the head of a marketer,but when it comes to content marketing this changes a little.With content marketing you need to follow a more subtle and in-direct approach to selling your brand, content marketing should aim at educating,informing and entertaining the audience so that they themselves are enticed enough to inquire about the product or service and then allow themselves to experiment by actually using it. Going in with a “hard-selling” strategy will not allow you to approach audience/customers in a unique manner and you will end up as just another orthodox marketer trying to force feed your brand into the customers mouth.

Don’t keep them waiting: Most marketers do not realize when writing content that on the digital front, information needs to be fast and complete, and there has to be as much IMPORTANT information as you can put in when writing a content piece. What you need to do is to maintain the audience attention and make them go through as much information as they can WHEN they are in their “content reading mode”, provide links to support your article,give them hyper-linked content so that they can look into something right there and then. Don’t lead them on and don’t make them wait give them all important information all at once.

Sharing is caring..literally: Your content should be easy to share and go around, “liquid” content should not only be in terms of smoothly flowing and connecting but also in the form of easy sharing.

This is it for now 😀

Helpful ways of Catching Customers Through Social Media

Hey all, so its been a while since i wrote another blog post for Digitarium, other things had been keeping me busy lately, soo finally getting a little time today i decided to keep today’s post very simple and related to one of the things i talk most about here i.e. ways/tips on interacting and getting customers/audiences through the Social Media.

Here goes.

Search,Search and Search a bit more: the Social Media sphere is huge and believe it or not if you have a brand you might not be aware of people talking about it half the time, if not directly people might be using key words which are associated with your brand or word that might match your brand name, so you need to find these people,filter out these words on the Social Media, especially Twitter, use TweetDeck to put searches on specific words,tags. or associated brand words and find out whoever is talking about anything related to your brand,narrow them down and give them shout-outs a customer loves nothing better then the brand addressing them personally.

Pictures are always good: in today’s world people do not have time to read lengthy content, articles and paragraphs, but IF you post up a picture it can speak volumes..literally.. the probability of people engaging in conversation and feedback with you or your brand is twice as much when you put up a catchy picture or any sort of visual reference/ medium for the audience to interact with.

Use different platforms: Brands on the Social Media need to realize that their competitors might be using more than 1 medium of Digital communication, BUT they also need to realize that if they are using different Social Media Platforms for promotion they need to focus on attracting users on that specific platform, uniform offers all around different networks is not the best way to expand on Social Media, if an audience can find a brand promotion on Facebook and finds the same brand promotion on Twitter, then he would go on to the platform he is more accustomed to rather then going to all of em.try making exclusive offers on different Social Networks, to keep audience interested.

Lets Get Competing: Competitions are the best “evergreen” way of gathering volumes of followers and fans on your social media, it brings people on your page and it actually gets them to interact even. But, yes you need to be a little strategic when it comes to hosting these competitions, because this can attract a lot of unwanted or “fake” followers too. so yes hold competitions but looks for “quality” over “quantity” when devising competitions, so that you get loyal followers.

Lets Get Personal: People like it more when you are addressing them personally, they would be more inclined towards listening to you and do what you tell them to, if you address them individually they would prefer talking to you/your brand more rather than going towards others, and they will sooner or later turn into brand advocates for you. A consumer appreciates it more when a brand shouts out to them personally.

Ciao.