To meme or not to meme – It shouldn’t be a question

Social media can be an impressive tool in PR to spread your company’s message, but it can also be a bit of a minefield, as some companies now know too well. It doesn’t always pay to jump in just because a social media medium is currently popular or a news story goes viral.

A recent example I noticed was a company promoting its software by editing a popular meme of a Star Trek character. Memes usually highlight a joke or a piece of celebrity gossip for a much younger audience and choosing this tactic to convey the company’s message on their key product seemed unusual. I’d be surprised if, as a B2B brand, the meme drove any real interest in their products or services, whereas there are many other social media tactics that would have been more engaging and in keeping with the image of the brand. I watched the comedy film Chef recently which highlights the power of social media when used by a business in the right way. Essentially a 10 year old boy makes his dad’s food truck business a roaring success by generating a buzz on social media. While this is a good example from fiction, in reality you have to work out where your business’ audience is and whether what you are doing is going to engage them for the right reasons. 

While social media can be useful, some avenues should be left to a consumer audience. Nobody wants to back the wrong horse, but it’s a waste of money to put a bet on each runner. We get asked about Facebook a lot by clients and our honest answer each time is it’s probably not geared towards a business audience, at least not in the way that a site like LinkedIn currently is. We normally recommend retweeting notable PR coverage from the company’s Twitter and LinkedIn accounts as a starting point in order to amplify the credibility that comes with a media appearance. We also suggest taking full advantage of the capabilities of social media to give a bit of vibrancy to your message and engage the business audience you are hoping to target. Obvious and easy examples that help get your message out there are live streams of conference keynotes and infographics of research statistics.

While companies should look at new ways to engage with customers, this should fit with the company’s wider corporate identity and marketing messages. Otherwise they run the risk of coming across as irrelevant, or worse, needy. As social media channels develop and become more sophisticated in future, perhaps there will be more ways for companies to jump on the bandwagon, but at the moment some wagons should probably just be left to pass by.