My quest for virality proved to be successful … sort of. Though most people probably wouldn’t consider 500 views on a meme “going viral,” I achieved my campaign objectives and goals.
Goals
- Create a viral meme
- Enhance social media influence
- Develop content creation and amplification skills
- Effectively engage audience with paid social advertising
Objectives
- Reach over 500 views on the meme on Imgur
Meme
Campaign Analysis
My meme was a joke about the tendency for people to show up fashionably late to parties. I challenged myself to create a meme with an original photo that I took. It did pretty well during the in-class dot testing so I decided not to change it, aside from making the meme text bigger and bolder.
I had the humor and rich media aspects needed to go viral, but I think my meme touched on a trend some people don’t necessarily like (as evident by a comment made minutes after I posted the meme: “just another reason not to like people”). For some people, it may have evoked a negative feeling/emotion, which made them less likely to share the meme.
I focused my campaign primarily around the weekend and during the night to catch people when they would most likely be thinking about partying and would most likely relate to my meme. For the promoted portion of my campaign, I targeted college students and Twitter users categorized as “young & hip” and interested in arts and culture because they are likely to be attending parties and similar type gatherings.
My promoted Tweet earned 1,270 impressions and 47 engagements — which I was relatively pleased with. I A/B tested two Tweets early in the week to decide the Tweet that I would repeat and promote Saturday night.
I scheduled my Tweet for 9 p.m. and promoted a few minutes later, assuming that it would be promoted right away and showing up on users’ feeds while they were getting ready to go out. Unfortunately, the promoted Tweet only earned impressions from noon to 4 p.m. the next day. The campaign likely would have been more successful if I had timed it correctly and made sure the Tweet was promoted at the best time.
I was most happy with the 22 organic link clicks on Twitter, considering I only have 33 followers. I actually gained three or four followers during the campaign. I did a good job of cropping the webcard so that you couldn’t see the entire image but could barely see the man in the photo has a sign.
Sometimes it’s good to be fashionably late. #party #meme #memes #NHsmc https://t.co/ywsOyw25B1
— Jon Mettus (@jmettus1) April 9, 2017
Clearly my meme was most successful on Imgur itself. The meme had more than 350 views within an hour of being posted and before I Tweeted it out at all.
Final Engagement
Twitter: 22 organic link clicks + 43 promoted link clicks = 65 total link clicks
Imgur views: 502