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Social Media Marketing on Twitter: Create a Meme

When doing research on Twitter for social media marketing, or, in fact, for any kind of internet marketing, a term you will come across often is “meme.” Memes, pronounced like “themes,” are simple, user generated concepts or repeated structures that pass quickly from one person to the next, in an almost viral fashion. When you have established a solid social media marketing plan and presence for your company, you may want to consider attempting to start a meme that relates to your products, brands or Twitter goals.

A meme has to be catchy and easy in order to encourage the maximum number of Twitter users to participate. A popular meme is #followfriday, in which users suggest other Twitter users for following every Friday, denoted with #followfriday included in the Tweet. In establishing a meme, you will have to think carefully about your brand, your social media marketing strategies, and the best way to engage your Twitter users in a meaningful and fun way that will spread quickly to other users.

The main goal of your meme, with regards to Twitter and internet marketing strategy, should be to get your hashtag or keyword to be used so often by Twitter users that it appears in the “trending topics” sidebar or gets some press on popular blogs. Also, it may be picked up by Twemes.com, a listing of hot Twitter memes, if it ends up being popular enough. Crafting a meme related to your business, brand or products will involve serious consideration and most likely many failed attempts. However, once you find something that works, your Twitter followers will do the rest, carrying it (and your marketing message) to vast numbers of Twitter users.

When thinking up a meme, come up with something quick, memorable, easy to participate in and associated with a specific date or time. #Followfriday and #musicmonday, for example, occur on their respective days. If you run a blog network, you could start a meme that includes suggesting a favorite blog every Saturday morning. Crating a meme that fits in with your Twitter marketing strategies will take some serious thinking, but if accomplished, it will easily become the most recognizable thing about your brand.

Twitter Marketing: The Number One Rule

If you’ve started using Twitter as a marketing tool for your business, personal brand or affiliate products, you’ve likely had some successes and some failures. Twitter is loaded with marketers and the line is very clear. The line between those who “get it” and those who don’t. Those who don’t get it are likely to labor in obscurity, while those who do will find Twitter to be an extremely powerful marketing tool. But how do you make sure that you’re on the right side of the Twitter line?

It’s simple. To avoid being ostracized on Twitter, to be included as a valued and trusted part of the community, there is one rule. For every time you talk about yourself, talk about someone else. That may seem counterintuitive. After all, you’re on Twitter to talk about your brand, your products and your offerings. Why would you want to talk about your Twitter followers instead of yourself? It’s because Twitter is a conversation, not a commercial. The point of any kind of marketing is to interest potential consumers and clients, and Twitter is no different in that regard. What is different is the way interest is generated on Twitter. To get your followers interested in what you have to say and sell, you have to play by Twitter’s rules. Self-interested tweet after self-interested tweet will get you nowhere except labeled as a spammer.

By engaging with your Twitter followers and tweeting about them, for them, or answering their questions, you slip right in to the flow of Twitter. Being seen as a valuable contributor and participating in the Twitter community, you humanize and personalize your business or brand. The personal face and engagement of social media marketing is what makes it such an effective strategy, creating mini-evangelists of sorts out of your Twitter followers. By indicating that you are willing to give as well as receive, your presence on Twitter won’t be seen simply as a marketing ploy, and become all the more effective for it. Following the “one for you, one for them” rule with what you choose to broadcast on Twitter shows that your brand or company grasps the whole Twitter concept, allowing for seamless integration of Twitter into your overall social media marketing strategies.

Copyright © 2011 Jackie Cuyvers