Latest Social Media News

Meme Marketing Can WIN or HURT
This post is a little fast and loose with their definition of a "meme". When Richard Dawkins coined the term he had something more robust than cultural ephemera in mind. 

The use of Nirvana's lyric is not what made Nirvana a meme. Nirvana came to represent a tribe of angry disaffected youth raised on irony and lied to repeatedly by authority figures from parents to politicians. Trying to tease art from inspiration is a fool's errand, so Nirvana and Kurt Cobain became archetypes representing a movement and a tribe.

The author may be fuzzy on what a meme is, but they have the viral power of memes just right. Memes live to do one thing - transfer cultural ideas. Think of the May Fly who lives for a single day. Memes live for as long as the act of transfer is met with ever increasing amounts of transfer. 

Meme Creation Tips

* Keep ideas simple.

* New Via Known - Use Made To Stick idea and connect NEW ideas to familiar (think of the duct tape on the book's cover) ones. 

* As Memes go sideways tweak YOUR messaging. 

* If Meme is WRONG stop feeding it (and hope others follow your lead).

* NEVER fight a meme. 

The reason you don't fight a meme is TO FIGHT is to add transfer energy. The more you attempt to restate the more ingrained the meme becomes. If your meme goes so sideways it is dead wrong STOP FEEDING IT. 

Often if the originator of a meme stops the feed it will slowly die. Note the use of "slowly". if your boss says they want that fixed tell them sure no problem and DO NOTHING. Do anything and you increase your problem. 

Memes vs. Cultural Ephemera
Memes have more backbone than cultural ephemera. Dawkins "Selfish Gene" idea is an example of a meme with powerful reach and robustness. Despite many leading authors including Wright (NonZero), Benkler (Penguin and Leviathan) and Shermer (Mind of the Market) the concept of man's innate selfishness is a strong meme. 

Dawkins must appreciate the irony since the book he wrote in 1976 The Selfish Gene that created or reinforced or given name to the "selfish man" meme doesn't say man is innately selfish. In fact, The Selfish Gene has a detailed discussion of The Prisoner's Dilemma where competitive collaboration is discussed. 

This misinterpretation brings up an important point. Memes transfer ideas FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRANSFER not accuracy. Expect your meme marketing to go a little sideways when exposed to the world. The smart move, when your memes go a little sideways, is to adjust your messaging to be consistent with how the meme has stripped your ideas down for transfer. 

If this is starting to sound like playing the MEME SEO game can be a tad dangerous you win a cookie. Just as Dawkins's amazing title created its own meme that was only partially related to his book your memes will take on a life of their own. 

Summary
BE CAREFUL with "Meme Marketing" and respect the power of the mob and you can WIN big as the author of this post shares. Memes are LIVE AMMUNITION so think about your end goals and test ways your memes will go sideways. If you can't live with a meme going sideways DON'T CREATE MEME MARKETING. 

David Meerman Scott writes how to ride fast breaking cultural ephemera and memes to your marketing advantage in The New Rules Of Marketing and PR and NewsJacking.