Memes are fun, but aim higher. Image from Askville.com

Those who work in a marketing agency or marketing department of a company have likely encountered a client, colleague or boss who was very excited about Internet trends. Some examples of these trends, called memes, include the whole keyboard cat series and women writing their bra colors in their Facebook statuses. While every meme is unique, they all managed to capture the attention of masses of people in a short period of time.

Because of the popularity of a meme, some companies and agencies strive to purposefully create one. While I understand the appeal, it’s important for any content marketer or social media manager to know the difference between a meme and a marketing campaign that goes viral.

Why? Well, take a look at this awesome video from the good people at Current’s SuperNews and see how many memes you remember enjoying at one time or another:

Now that the trip down “Memeory Lane”  is over (sorry, couldn’t resist the opportunity to pun), ask yourself:

• Do I know who created those memes?
• Did I buy anything as a result of those memes?
• Did a bunch of people copy those memes without referencing the person who started it all?

Your answers were “No”, “No” and “Yes”, right?

Instead of thinking about becoming a here-today-gone-tomorrow Internet craze, work toward a content marketing strategy that solidly connects people to your brand in an interesting way. With some creativity, even well-branded, product-heavy content marketing can go viral. Just ask the people at Blendtec about the success of their online “Will It Blend?” campaign. They:

• Made their product the star of their videos and used it in an interesting way
• Gathered feedback from the audience on what they’d like to see next
• Utilized smart SEO tools and keyword strategies to drive people to their videos and site
• Involved public relations to take their concept mainstream
• Appeared in the news and even did in-person demos on the Today Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
• Saw a major lift in sales. As early as 2007 (the same year the campaign launched), Blendtec’s revenues increased five times over.

The final word is this: Memes are for fun. Viral and content marketing are for businesses that are serious about making money.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 11:15 am and is filed under Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.