Does posting memes assist to extend site visitors to your web site?
This can be a key query, which actually pertains to all types of partaking social media posts – as a result of whereas some of these trending updates very clearly garner Likes and feedback, do they really profit the stats that actually matter to your small business?
I imply, Likes and followers are nice, however what you want is conversions, relative to what which means for your small business. For SMT, we’re working to get as many individuals to learn our posts as potential, and as you’ve probably seen, we’ve not too long ago been making an attempt out memes as a technique to increase engagement, and see what that will get us on this respect.
So what have we discovered? Right here’s a fast overview of the preliminary outcomes of our meme experiment.
First, a fast little bit of background…
We’re at all times seeking to attempt new issues, and take a look at out the most recent developments and processes, and never simply because it would assist us generate extra site visitors and construct group, but additionally, as a result of that’s what we write about. If we’re going to jot down about it, we have to know and perceive it as a lot as potential, as a way to make sure that what we’re speaking is appropriate, and is sensible for our viewers.
On this respect, we’re at all times testing new approaches, apps, instruments, and so on.
When it comes to posting, final yr, we tried out polls on Twitter and LinkedIn, and query posts on Fb, to see if they’d assist drive extra engagement. And so they positively did – some of these audience-prompting updates garnered a heap of Likes and feedback. However after we cross-checked this towards Google Analytics monitoring, we didn’t see an enormous uptick in classes or customers visiting the positioning.
That’s to not say that these aren’t precious, however they weren’t shifting the needle in any vital method on our key metrics. On the identical time, too many polls can get annoying. In our expertise, they’re an fascinating instrument to make use of, moderately, however not a large driver of our final goals.
But, on the identical time, our social site visitors, like all platforms, tends to have ups and downs – and in a down interval this yr, we determined to attempt one thing new to clean up the feed and provides our viewers one thing else to interact with, and perhaps lighten the temper slightly on the identical time.
Enter memes
The inspiration on this occasion got here from SEMRush, who’ve additionally examined out memes as a way to spice up engagement, and construct group.
SEMRush’s expertise noticed them considerably improve their social engagement by posting well timed, on-trend, area of interest memes. So we thought we’d give it a attempt, to see if that helps drive extra curiosity in our articles.
Step one, after all, is creating related, partaking memes. Which isn’t at all times simple. Lots of our memes by no means made it out of take a look at section, with some clearly failing when seen within the templates.
Some that we’ve posted additionally haven’t linked in the way in which that we’d hoped.
However that is the sport – should you’re going to submit memes, you’re going to have hits and duds, and also you simply must reside with it. I think about it’s the identical as a comic, among the jokes work, some don’t. However ideally, extra of them get fun than not.
Which, fortunately, our memes have.
On common, the memes that we’ve posted are producing round 135 Likes on Fb, which has helped them generate considerably extra attain than our common submit, whereas they’re additionally performing sturdy on each Twitter and LinkedIn.
And so they’re enjoyable. The way in which I view them is just like the comedian part of the standard newspaper, a light-hearted second between the information updates and informational components.
The elevated engagement clearly has some advantages in boosting algorithmic attain (if folks have interaction with one in all your posts, the algorithm is extra more likely to present them extra), in addition to constructing group across the SMT model. However the important thing query is – ‘do they really get extra folks clicking by to the positioning?’
Outcomes
In our case, when evaluating our total social media efficiency towards the earlier 3 months earlier than we began posting memes, we’ve seen a 12% improve in classes from social, and a 16% improve in customers.
That’s not a large shift, however if you’re working with the ebbs and flows of referral site visitors, in addition to adjustments in analytics as a consequence of shifting information laws, any improve is constructive, and a double-digit soar is certainly well worth the effort.
That is solely round a month of information, so it’s not definitive, and there are additionally different components to contemplate that might affect the outcomes. However the numbers, to date, recommend that it’s value sticking with – and as famous, it’s enjoyable too, including slightly extra relatability to our presence, as opposed simply the most recent information.
Just a few different notes:
- Some commenters are going to take your memes actually, regardless of it’s that you just submit. There’ll at all times be a few feedback like ‘properly, truly, the fact is that…’ Sure. We all know. These usually are not meant to be literal, they’re a second of light-heartedness in amongst our common, advertising strategy-focused information updates.
- We’ve discovered that extra basic memes work higher than trending ones. A few memes the place we’ve tried to faucet into information occasions, just like the adjustments to Twitter verification, haven’t carried out in addition to jokes about extra widespread social media advertising experiences. This additionally, after all, pertains to the memes themselves, and whether or not they’re truly humorous, however in a number of examples, trending subjects haven’t been as massive successful.
- Each meme is a little bit of a threat. You’re looking for commonalities together with your viewers, and a few issues that you just may assume are widespread won’t resonate. You could know your area of interest, and know your group, which takes some experimentation – and plenty of analysis (I’ve been writing about social media developments for eight years)
- One man on LinkedIn retains saying that he’s envious that we’re capable of get these memes authorised by administration. For people who don’t know, SMT is an editorial group of two (2) folks. Approval, on this sense, isn’t precisely a barrier.
- Does it take a very long time to give you them? Not likely. We often do them in batches or round 10 at a time, then schedule them out on totally different days/occasions throughout FB, Twitter and LinkedIn. We will make 10 or so in, perhaps, a few hours, as soon as each week and a half or so. Not a significant dedication.
- We’re presently scheduling round one meme a day on every platform, once more, taking that newspaper comedian strategy. Perhaps we miss a day right here and there, however that’s the final intention, as one thing to maintain that engagement flowing, and hold the leisure worth up.
Look, it’s not essentially a stroll within the park to maintain developing with humorous memes – and it could be that we run out of concepts at some stage and all of a sudden it turns into much more troublesome. It’s additionally not for everybody. Arising with a (comparatively) intelligent joke that matches a meme template doesn’t at all times come simple, and there are days if you simply don’t have it, regardless of how exhausting you stare on the display.
However for a minor time dedication, it does appear, not less than at this stage, like this can be a great way to assist have interaction your viewers, which may additionally drive direct site visitors advantages.
We’ll submit one other overview of our meme expertise three months in.
