WHENEVER I TELL someone about my job as a social media manager, I’m often asked things like, “How do you think of what to post?” or “Where do you your ideas come from?”

Over the years, I’ve built what I like to call my content toolbox: a collection of communications tools that work for every social media platform. They’re changing all the time, but what sticks with people and makes them pause instead of scrolling onward is consistent and translates across platforms.

This issue, we’ll walk through how you can add memes to your content toolbox.

Memes aren’t just something funny you chuckle at and send to your group chat. They’re images with a language of their own that really are worth a thousand words. On platforms where brevity is key to getting your message across, they can be a valuable tool.

Done well, memes can be a great way to drive engagement to your social media pages. Once you understand the language of memes, it doesn’t take much work to create content that people will want to share. Let’s look at some examples.

Using Memes to Get a Message Out Quickly

One of the things I love about memes is that because they’re funny, they can take the sting out of getting folks to change their online behavior. I’m very big on using hashtags correctly, but I don’t like scolding people who are trying but don’t know the right hashtag. When this happened at CTA Summer Institute last year, I threw together this quick meme to fix it.

When I say quick, I mean it. I used a meme generator (I like imgflip.com) to create this and shared it to our social media platforms in less than 15 minutes. After sharing it in a few Facebook groups and sending it to a handful of folks I already knew were at Summer Institute, word got out fast — faster than if I had tried to track down everyone posting about Summer Institute myself. People started using the right hashtag without feeling like they’d been scolded by a cranky social media manager.

Using Trending Memes to Reach New Audiences

While some memes are evergreen, some are trends that come along, blow up and then disappear. I’m not saying you need to hop on every trend, but when it works, it works.

Anyone remember these Halloween costume memes from October 2022? When I first started seeing them, I thought to myself. “Okay, we have to do this. But it’s not enough to be funny. If this post blows up, we want all those people to understand what it means to be a union educator.” Call it the spoonful of sugar that helps the message go down, if you want.

While you can’t predict when a post will go viral, I had a good feeling with this one. I was happy to see this post get a ton of engagement, but what made me happiest was when I saw folks who don’t engage with CTA’s content sharing it to their Instagram stories and Facebook feeds.

This is just the beginning of what you can do will a well-targeted meme. I’ll be shouting out some more great examples in my next column, so if you’ve seen any memes for union educators that you love, send them to ebarcelos@cta.org. I might even feature them in my next column!

Social Media Toolbox Topics Coming Up
• Memes, Part 2
• Member Features
More ways to build your toolbox: See past columns at cta.org/educator. And if you’re attending CTA conferences this fall (including Region 1 and 2 leadership conferences), we’ll be offering social media training sessions; check out cta.org/conferences.