We often find ourselves cringing when we see companies try to adopt old memes in order to market themselves, or perhaps try their hardest to come off as ‘current’ and ‘cool.’ We think of Steve Buscemi in 30 Rock, walking up to a group of high school students with two skateboards in hand, as he says ‘How do you do, fellow kids?’ If that reference made you cringe a little, you understand the root of our point.
Staying ahead of the curve in online culture can help your business avoid putting its foot in its mouth when it comes to reaching out and captivating modern audiences. Also, it can stop you seeming lazy. It’s the easiest thing in the world to reference a meme, or to use a stale joke. It’s harder to apply more worthwhile humor, follow more present trends of online usage, and to understand where your product or service’s marketing fits into the middle of all this. Thankfully, with a little care and attention, and yes, our advice, you should be able to take care of this well:
Spend Time There
While you don’t need to trawl through every single Twitter thread, it can be important to hire people who have some familiarity with online culture to help manage your social media policies. Simply heading to Reddit meme pages or potentially seeing how people respond and the parlance they use can help you familiarize yourself with what they mean. It might be that you wish to implement funny memes suited to that which you’re offering, or use certain hashtags to gain more visibility for your posts. It can all contribute, so long as you also:
Stick To Timeless Trends
Timeless methods of communication are always relevant. That is professional, peaceful and proactive. It’s best to simply have a complaint dealt with quickly or to offer your marketing copy clearly rather than simply trying to gain a few laughs. Your business can spend all the time in the world trying to appeal to those who are ‘internet savvy,’ but if your products are unlikely to cater to those people you are unlikely to be barking up the right tree.
Understand Effective Results
Not all demographics will understand your outreach in the same way. This is why you need to understand effective results from a range of potential developments. For example, following smart email trends might help you ensure that your content delivery to inboxes is tailored, non-offensive or irritating, and above all – read. For example, learning what kind of subject lines lead to non-clickbaited interest can help you consider the future of your output. It might be that you tailor which times your marketing efforts are sent out. It could be that you find it most important to gain some form of response, such as having specialised emails only reserved to those who qualify for a certain promotion, and creating a sense of urgency by letting your customers know this.
With these tips, you’re sure to stay ahead of the curve in online culture.
