Why We Meme

by Caitlyn Richtman

Meme: noun.  an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media

Do you ever wonder why brands try to jump on the latest social media trend even though the memes they’re creating have nothing to do with their brand’s priorities? Why do we tweet about Spike and Hairy Dawg getting into a fight? Why do we meme? The answer is more straight forward than you might think.

Creating UGA-themed memes for our social accounts is a way to reach alumni outside of our current audience. On social media, users are much more likely to reshare a funny meme than reshare our posts about one of our priorities, like making a donation. I hate to admit it, but that’s just how the internet works.

For example, our video of Baby Yoda was seen over 150,000 times whereas on average our tweets are seen about 5,000 times.

Are these memes supporting DAR goals? Surprisingly, yes.

When we share a UGA alumni meme to our page and it’s seen 150,000 times, and we gain 20 new followers, that’s 20 new people that are going to see our next tweet about Alumni Weekend  or Giving Week and engage with us. If we didn’t tweet about Baby Yoda, those 20 people might never have followed our page or our 15,000+ might unfollow us because they aren’t engaging with our content.

Why do we meme? Because memes are fun, helps us gain followers, and they’re the language of the internet. Baby Yoda is proof that we can have fun on social media while also supporting DAR goals.

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for, our recent memes:

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