If you are a poet, with a flair for putting pictures and words together, then you should be a memetic creator. Now this is not new…according to sources within Wikipedia.
Memetics is a theory of mental content based on an analogy with Darwinian evolution, originating from the popularization of Richard Dawkins‘ 1976 book The Selfish Gene.[1] Proponents describe memetics as an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer.
The meme, analogous to a gene, was conceived as a “unit of culture” (an idea, belief, pattern of behaviour, etc.) which is “hosted” in one or more individual minds, and which can reproduce itself, thereby jumping from mind to mind. Thus what would otherwise be regarded as one individual influencing another to adopt a belief is seen—when adopting the intentional stance[1][2]—as an idea-replicator reproducing itself in a new host. As with genetics, particularly under a Dawkinsian interpretation, a meme’s success may be due to its contribution to the effectiveness of its host.
Today, we only know how to make one as a vulgar insult. Not something that is inspirational. And these so called social memes are far more popular than pictures of your dog or cat? Who I am sure you all adore.
Traffic Mining using Memes
To use and abuse Memes, you gotta know how a hosting platform works. For one, Instagram is a cool place to gain followers but not Facebook. Facebook’s discovery searches are inadequate for people to browse posted content. Your only hope is that your Page fans or network of friends share your content to get discovered, what’s more, not all content can be seen on Facebook if you don’t already have an account.
G+ has an open approach but your content can be share within special interest groups—such as those who make ant hills or curate used bicycles. But the downside is that if your content doesn’t gain traction, it will quickly fall into the abyss of other-content. There are just too many post in some places that it can be frustrating to put something up that people will notice.
Flickr is not a place to share memes, though some do it. As a hosting platform for content sharing, Flickr does a pretty neat job doing it but people who join flickr are more likely to be photography aficionados, and not just people out to consume content.
Tumblr for some reason is a good place to host both pictures and blogs. The platform has matured into a content aggregator and people who are fed up with the technicalities of blogger or WordPress can jump onto Tumblr with such ease like ducks to water. People even come to Tumblr to get their daily dose of content so it’s probably a good place to start. Tumblr also allows you to set a click thru link right onto your blog if curiosity gets the better of them, this very useful for generating inbound traffic to your home site.
Your photos or memes have to be worth some eyeballs if it was lovingly created. I won’t go into detail about discovery and getting likes as we have to look into developing the content first.
Instagram is very meme friendly. I don’t have to explain this, just browse and explore and you’ll know what I mean.
Mobile Apps are Weapons of Choice
In the past, you had to rely on an image editing desktop software like Photoshop or Corel Draw just to add some text or watermark onto an image. Today, all this can be done via the humble mobile app.
There are several free ones both for Android and iOS but let’s not kid yourself, not all of them work that well. Some apps listed here are just finding its way around, others have made great strides to form their own support community. I will list some which I have tested.
Photofy
A great little tool for Instagram type post. Churns out square format photos crops only but it has a lot to offer in terms of fonts and designs. The app is free to use and you can buy the paid version which basically gives you more freedom to include your own designs or logos—a must if you have world domination plans.
Rhonna Design
Good to go and for iOS and Android too. The iOS version is more astute while the Android version was so yesterday. But they get the job done. This is a paid app so you have been warned.
Text Cutie
Definitely for the younger audience. Not my style though but it might work for you if you are reaching out to a younger audience. Free to use for now but I suspect that there may be in-app purchases for more options.
SnapStory
An iOS app only for now, it gives you access to rudimentary text layers over your photos. It is still finding its way around and needs a lot of work. Still, it is free for now.
Over
Over is only now available for iOS. It might make it to Android someday and until then, we can only hope it does. This app is easy and fun to use and you can select any aspect ratio you wish to use when cropping your original images. This is a free app with options for in-app purchases of more designs.
Graphics & Text on Images will be the new Internet Drug
People are going to tire out on those selfies one day and why not add those text and graphics to spice things up? There are only so many ways to skin a cat so to speak and passing this around could prove to be addictive. People who are creatively challenge will have no idea where to start so they would probably repost those images you created with religious fervor. Either way, as long as you point it back to your site, you win.
Techmystique 