5 Memes You Should Probably Be Using Right Now
The most successful social media marketers understand the importance of connecting to their communities in relevant and engaging ways. Sometimes that means providing interesting, informational content. Other times it means asking questions and building relationships. But most of the time, it means releasing a well-placed and probably very immature meme.
Internet memes have been around since the mid-90s, but with the onset of gifs and social media, they’ve taken the web by storm in the last few years. Memes are powerful because they can be light-hearted or deeply philosophical. In a second, you or your brand can communicate an entire emotion or message. They’re effective at communicating simple truths and revealing a more personal (and often humorous) side to your brand or business.
Especially popular on social media, memes are synonymous with viral content. That’s why it’s so important to bake them into your overall social strategy. Users actively search through memes to find the funniest or most popular, and brands who use them well have great potential to get discovered. So, why not jump on the bandwagon? Here’s a list of a few of the most recent memes that you might be able to integrate within your strategy.
1. White Guy Blinking
This originated from a three-year-old video of a guy’s actual reaction to his friend playing a video game on the site Giant Bomb. It’s perfect for when you’re genuinely surprised about a situation.
me: i love that gif of the white guy blinking
friend: what gif?
me: pic.twitter.com/eiI53viqPL— salad fingers 🧝‍♀️ (@glitterfieIds) February 16, 2017
me: ill take a biology class, im smart enough for this just watch me
teacher: cells
me: pic.twitter.com/fHJJsPLioO— Iá‘ŽIá–‡O🥕 (@eskbl) February 5, 2017
2. What In Tarnation?
What originally started as a joke about Alabama rednecks asking, “What in tarnation?” has morphed into placing a cowboy hat on something and ending it in “ation.” So:
https://twitter.com/ltsTarnation/status/837078160483233792
When Pluto found out it wasn't a planet anymore pic.twitter.com/FLhZv4v0m7
— Ælex (@nvmdlmao) February 24, 2017
3. Trump’s First Executive Order
Still relevant. This is an image of the President of the United States signing his first executive order…photoshopped with whatever your heart desires. The options are endless, considering there’s a meme-generating template available!
4. Roll Safe
This meme is from Kayode Ewumi’s 2015 webseries “Hood Documentary” and includes a screen shot of a streetwise London guy who acts like he’s got it all figured out, but he also has it all wrong.
can't fail any classes if you drop out pic.twitter.com/RPvGrVfhfi
— spooky spence (@lonetyk) January 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/RodriguezThaGod/status/826313987394588672
5. Shooting Stars
If you’ve got some video skills, the Shooting Stars video meme is for “that moment” of falling, replayed over and over again in different environments. The videos are pretty inspirational:
the best shooting star meme #ShootingStarMeme #ShootingStar #meme pic.twitter.com/O5tyIuEwxE
— Shooting Star memes (@ShootingMemes) March 2, 2017
