To grow traffic, Memes have become a favourite to many people. They make your content, blog, or site to go viral within a very short time. However, the formula of memes is very strict, and many people end up losing its potency. To succeed growing traffic using Memes, it is prudent to keep up with the Memes culture and apply them correctly. This article provides useful tips that you can use to drive traffic using Memes. Step 1: Understand your memes To know more about Memes, learn their culture and be part of it. You can do this by spending time where Memes are made and used such as Tumblr, Imgur, Reddit, SomethingAwful, and 4Chan. These are communities with individual cultures that you can join and fit in. The objective is learning, and you should focus on watching how everything about Memes is done. The second way to understand Memes is visiting Know Your Meme that provides catalogues of all internet cultures. You will get all the basics of Memes such as wording of texts and image preparation. However, catalogues are limited in that some Memes never make it there, and some information takes long to get updated. Knowing about these cultures is critical because a Meme can go live at Tumblr and die before being picked by 4Chan or SomethingAwful. Step 2: Identify a trending meme The lifecycle of common Memes is very prompt. Once a Meme is born, it circles in the community to get felt by members and then die. Only very few Memes become timeless such as lolcats. Standard Memes such as Advice Animals start with a theme and branch into sub-themes before each of them dies individually. For those working to enhance their marketing with Memes, it is prudent to focus on the targeted community and review their trending Memes. Make sure to establish the fast rising Memes and capitalise on them as opposed to starting from scratch. Even when you work on a great Meme, you will find many users rejecting it. Step 3: Be as funny as possible To make a Meme work for you, it is important to bring in a lot of humour. Here, it is prudent to understand the industry you are targeting to use related humour. For example, if interested in industrial Memes, try to work on an industrial related humour that will make members follow it. Remember that you only have a very short moment to appeal using some words and a picture. Therefore, if the targeted community does not get the joke, your Meme will not work and is not worthwhile. Step 4: Craft the Memes properly The way you craft a Meme will define how successful it will be in driving traffic to your site. Some simply open Photoshop and add some text. However, this is not the best way to do it. Because most Memes use impact font, trying to replace or imitate in Photoshop makes them appear awkwardly. Instead of trying to create a new Meme, consider using online image editing apps such as Memegenrator and Quickmeme. Besides, these apps assist you to know what others are creating and the most trending memes. Step 5: Share your new meme For Memes that are very specific, sharing with large communities is never easy. Imgur keeps down new Memes in their User sub while Reddit downvotes them. Therefore, it is better to share your Meme on your own website, blog, or specific industry communities. A great idea to consider at this point is Twitter and Facebook groups. For marketers with general Memes who want people to note it was designed by your brand, think of sharing with big sites such as 4Chan, SomethingAwful, Reddit, or Tumblr. Release the Meme to watch it grow and then die. With a successful Meme, a lot of followers will notice your brand and follow the links to the site. Conclusion When Memes are properly thought about and designed, they have the viral impact of bringing massive traffic within a very short time. However, it is important to understand respective communities to drive the traffic you anticipate. Remember that you must be prepared to keep designing and releasing new Memes to keep traffic flowing because their lifecycle is very short.

Shounak Gupte