“You need to do some meme research,” was not the first thing I would expect to come out of the mouth of one of my professors at the Newhouse School. But then again, this is 2017, this is public communication, and especially in the context of COM 427 – anything goes. Sometimes you need to push yourself in directions you did not expect to be heading into.
This attempt at making a meme “go viral” was fascinating study. I dived into world of advertising/marketing, learned about the science of virality, and gained tactile knowledge of several key platforms for social media analytics.
Creative Process
Throughout the process of brainstorming and testing the meme, I reinforced my confidence in my often-stated catch phrase, “I’m not funny.” Looking at my results of the in-class test (zero eye-catching dots) and comparing my classmates’ brilliant memes with the sorry attempts at humor I could come up with, I solidified that I am usually at least not that kind of funny. I really appreciate wit, I love to laugh, but this exercise stretched me and the way I engage with pop culture and social media trends. Memes are not usually my entertainment source of choice, even though I will admit that I do love the Joe Biden/Barack Obama memes that were popular in the fall.
The initial memes I made featured my puppy, Oliver, and were memes that I, personally, thought were cute, relatable, and funny:
Once I saw the snarky yet wonderful work of my classmates that screamed “I’m going viral,” I realized I needed to return to the drawing board to make a better one of my own. Professor Grygiel suggested that the meme I set forward for the class, while cute, did not necessarily fit the science of virality: it was not bright enough, it zoomed too far into the dog’s face, it was relatable but not timely enough, and the photo did not exactly fit the caption I was going for. After the in-class meme judging, and this brief chat with Professor Grygiel, I went home and mobilized my resources, fueled by determination to come up with a final product that is much stronger than what I came up with for class.
The Final Meme:
Once upon a time, my friends found a bunch of old photos on my computer that captured prime moments from my awkward/ridiculous childhood. We laughed to pieces, and decided that they would make great memes someday… Remembering this, I decided to give it a go and actually turn one of them into my meme, as embarrassing as it could be if people figured out the goggled chubby child was little me.
The photo I chose to upload to imgur for promotion depicts me jumping into a pool when I was approximately eight years old. I thought it captured the way I felt heading into April and the end of the school year: not entirely prepared, looking like a mess, but nevertheless, diving headfirst into all that is to come.
Marketing Plan Re-Cap:
In crafting my marketing plan, I planned out a series of tweets and Facebook posts that were intended to promote the imgur photo engagement from my follower base. I scheduled them at times in which I had previously received the most engagement with my followers (data gained from the website FollowerWonk), and wrote copy that could be relatable to common & timely sentiments.
Beyond my planning out my own content, I also “choreographed” an instance in which I coordinated with another Twitter user to purposefully reply to my tweet again, so I could then retweet her comment and add my own thoughts to what she said about it. This helped to bring the meme back into the feed of users who may not have caught it the first time around.
Considering this strategy, I set measurable objectives (found below) to quantify my goals for high engagement around this meme.
Original Objectives:
- Surpass 500 Views on Imgur
- Receive “likes” by at least 10 Twitter users
- Have webcard content retweeted by 3 Twitter users
RESULTS:
Unfortunately, the above mentioned measurable objectives from my marketing plan were not quite met. My final Imgur viewcount was 387 views, which fell short from the 500 views that I had hoped for.
I utilized Twitter Web Cards to entice viewers to click on the photo that they could see only a portion of from the tweet itself. This WebCard ended up being the major piece of content that was promoted in the Twitter Ad Campaign that I conducted:
Hey there, #April. Cannot believe we have basically one month left of school. #overwhelmed #NHsmc https://t.co/UX8FIDBTMu
— Katie Conti (@GlobalConti) April 3, 2017
I leveraged a $5 Twitter Ad Spend (spread out over 3 days) to heighten engagement beyond my own followers. I set my maximum campaign spend to $5, with $2 per day spending limit. I achieved a total of 907 impressions and 30 link clicks, in the end.
What didn’t work:
I wrote in my marketing plan that I thought this image, meme caption, and pre-caption would apply to many of my followers who fall in the age range of university students, people who were recently in college, or just those who have a lot happening in their lives (mainly in the theatre, tv, and entertainment industries).
After wondering why oh why I was having so much trouble with click-engagement on Twitter, I began to realize that my follower base on Twitter is really not that into the “meme scene.” Looking a little closer at the kinds of things many of my followers actually tweet, retweet, or otherwise engage with, I realized that the kinds of people who most often engage with my content are those who are looking to also comment on current events (international relations folks) or those who are looking to join me in geeking out about Broadway matters.
I really think I would have been able to get to the next level of virality if I would have indulged in the “theatre people” crowd and made a meme that commented on a current show. I could have tapped into this niche audience and made a splash, if only my meme was more specific and original. I am followed by The Great Comet, Anastasia, and Dear Evan Hansen, as well as many fan accounts, and this style of meme could have fit my voice better than an out-of-the-blue childhood photo.
What DID Work:
After failing to coordinate schedules with my cousin Gina (who is currently working in the PR world and is highly engaged on social media) as was the goal on my marketing plan, I enlisted the help of my friend Emma who ended up helping me greatly with engagement. She works for a company that frequently posts content that ends up going viral, so the image was well received by her small but powerful follower base when she interacted with my tweet.
Also, having another friend of mine post the image to her own personal Facebook page was a great way to gain another approximately 100 likes to the image. She does not usually post memes, but as a senior she was able to relate with this message, as were many of her friends.
The actual spent campaign’s promoted tweets did see a high engagement rate, even though they did not deliver the high number of clicks I anticipated. My resulting 30 link clicks definitely fell short from what I was expecting. I think perhaps people are less hesitant to click on a stranger’s meme if they know it has been promoted content, so I would not doubt that played into it. My campaign gained a total of 907 impressions, spread over three tweets across a span of 4 days of the 7-day campaign period, which seems to be a great indicator that this campaign was partially successful.
Total Engagement:
My Total Engagement number from Twitter Analytics was 72 engagements, and looking back at the ad statistics from the Twitter Ads platform, I see I received a total of 44 tweet engagements from the Ad campaign, so… #GoOrange.