Despite not being taken seriously by anyone, memes are actually surprisingly powerful and can be a vehicle for the rapid spread of information or awareness. Famously, several years ago, there was a viral campaign on Facebook to raise breast cancer awareness through a viral meme that – if nothing else – got people talking.
The campaign started out by asking females on the social media platform to post their first name followed by the color of the bra the were currently wearing with absolutely no explanation of what the message meant. The goal of the campaign was to generate buzz by confusing male members of the site, thereby starting a conversation that would ultimately lead back to breast cancer awareness.
Organizers repeated the campaign for the next few years, calling on female users to post statements designed to garner attention each time. In every case, male users were kept out of the look, again in an attempt to get them talking and trying to get to the bottom of what was going on. Whether the campaign actually succeeded at making a meaningful impact on breast cancer is a topic for debate, but it does go a long way to demonstrate two key ideas that can seriously help marketers – including book marketers.
No, it’s not really likely that you’ll be able to get the whole country talking about a viral meme pertaining to your book, not unless your name happens to be Stephen King. However, if you can break down what worked about the breast cancer meme, you can harness some of that power.
One essential component of the campaign is its backbone of cyberactivism. Sure, it’s easy to criticize cyberactivism as lazy and ineffective, but there’s no denying that it rallies people to a cause and can actually get results. If you don’t believe that it can, look at the examples of cyberactivism surrounding internet censorship issues.
People generally want to do the right thing, and they want to help. However, people tend to have a limited capacity to do so, usually do to constraints on time and money. However, cyberactivism allows them to make small contributions to a larger movement that feels meaningful. As an author, you can jump on board with this, leveraging activism to engage readers and get eyes on your work. This could be a campaign that uses themes in your work to call attention to an issue, or it could just be something that gets the word out about an issue for some kind of incentive or goal. Maybe people who share a certain hashtag or post proof that they donated to a cause can get access to a free short story. There’s plenty of room to get creative with it. Helping out a good cause can also draw attention to your work in what amounts to an all-around win-win.
The meme campaign also used a bit of intrigue and mystery to generate buzz. If you think about it, it makes a ton of sense. People are naturally curious, and questions spark conversations. Have you ever seen an author tease a cover reveal? Maybe they show a little bit of the cover each day leading to the full reveal. That’s the exact type of thing that builds curiosity. This is the same reason TV shows rely on cliffhangers. While they’re annoying more often than not, they build intrigue and keep people guessing. Try to leverage this to drum up a conversation around your book.
Once again, by looking at examples of the power of social media, authors can pick out elements of what works and apply them to their writing. Establishing an online presence doesn’t have to feel like selling used cars. You can take advantages of natural tendencies to build something altogether more organic.
Hello Nick! I loved your blog! It is very well designed and you hit so many great points! One point that really resonated with me was about people’s limited capacity. I think it is very true that many people want to do more, but simply cannot, so those with a hear to do something do what they can. That actually really made me think about the level of contribution I’m doing in my own capacity. Could I do or give more? I think your blog just mobilized me. LOL. In all honesty, I love that it made me think. I also love the analogy of the author teasing a book cover. It made me think of trailers for movies and television shows. Though the preview may be an annoying cliffhanger, it definitely builds the anticipation. Very well done!