Rethinking Twitter
How the Digital Corps used “memes” to resonate with a different target audience
Twitter is weird. The social media vehicle reaches 68 million monthly active users from the United States and is a hotbed for political commentary, intense discussion, and “meme diffusion.” Yes, meme diffusion is actually a multilevel academic model that proposes how internet jokes spread across the web and facilitate cultural changes. If you really want to read more about it (and you should) you can find the full academic model and research study here.
The study suggests that memes are essential to spreading information and cultural associations across the web. The term “meme” was actually coined back in 1976 by Richard Dawkins, and referred to the spread of an idea from one person to another in a culture. You would be shocked at the amount of research that has went into understanding the dissemination of memes. A quick Google search will result in information about meme culture, meme theory, memetics, the definition of memes and so, so much more. It’s quite outrageous, but incredibly fun to learn about.
Recently the Digital Corps revamped its Twitter account to reach a more diverse audience and we used memes to do it. We noticed that our content was fairly dry, and not extremely engaging. Oftentimes, we either shared tech articles or provided monotone commentary on Digital Corps projects. We took a semester to evaluate our Twitter performance using a content analysis and Twitter Analytics. Eventually, we made some major changes. We changed our voice to sound more approachable and relatable to our millennial/Gen-Z audience. Additionally, we incorporated more visuals and silly content, using memes, to grow engagement.
The Tone
Our tone of a voice’s inspiration came from accounts like MoonPie or Wendy’s, but we still manage to remain original to our own brand. We started avoiding using industry jargon or words that sound too “professional.” Instead, our tone and content is understandable to any person on Twitter.
Oftentimes, the tone is silly and even a little snarky.
The Memes
The Digital Corps defined it’s target audience on Twitter as students in the Ball State University community. Instead of reaching out to industry professionals, BSU organizations, or even Digital Corps alumni, we wanted to affiliate ourselves with students at the college.
But how? With memes, man.
The study I mentioned earlier, defines memes as an act or meaning structure that is capable of replication, which means imitation. When you look at a meme, you’ve probably seen it before. The only thing that is changed is the context of the meme or the person sharing it. Usually, personal commentary is provided to create meaning for the meme. The Corps adopted this strategy and associated the visual representations with things that BSU students could relate to.
When David Letterman, a Ball State alumni, mentioned his alma mater in an interview and called us the “Harvard of Muncie,” we showed our love in meme form. Anyone outside of our Twitter audience may not understand the reference, but essentially we’re saying that David Letterman’s quote is better than the meme itself. Memeception.
We also use memes to express things that students can relate to, even if they’re not from the Corps. This example uses food from a popular restaurant on campus as the unifier.
The Results
We’ve seen substantial growth in the last year as we have started to change our Digital Corps Twitter. An increase in followers, follower engagement and reach has shown that a more approachable Twitter account is growing in interest. Through this, we learned that if companies want to better promote their brand, one of the most powerful approaches is to simply be relatable.
You should never underestimate a good meme.
