If you have a profile on Facebook or any other social media site, you have seen a meme. The basic definition of a meme is a video, photo or a cartoon with a caption printed along the top, bottom or both. One viral example of an Internet meme is the famous Grumpy Cat. We all know someone at work or in our social circle whose personality fits that cat perfectly, which is what makes the meme so popular. 
In many cases, a meme represents what we would like to say, but don't. Memes do more than tickle the funny bone. They attract site hits. For example, IcanHasCheeseburger.com, is reputed to have 1.5 million hits per day. More than 6,700 Twitter users follow the site and 140,000 people have liked the Facebook page.
The vast majority of memes are humorous but they are also used to shock, create drama and raise awareness. These memes are shared on social media for businesses and other internet users. The meme's beginnings and growth have always been tied to advances in technology.
And You Thought the Cat Lady Was Funny!
You might be asking what is a meme? The very image memes began in the 19th century when Harry Whittier Frees, an American photographer, delighted in designing greeting cards that had photos of his cats on them. Frees used a variety of props, dressed his cats like people and photographed them carrying out human tasks. He would then put captions on the photos.
Who Wouldn't Recognize This Cat by Now?
The trend started by Frees followed memes into this century. A meme often ends up in a series with the photographed subject taking on a persona all its own. Grumpy Cat is a good example of this persona trait. While scrolling your social media site if you spot a photo of Grumpy Cat, you don't even need to see the text to know it will be negative, sarcastic and funny. That cat hates life.
A Meme by Any Other Name
While Frees is often credited with being the first meme designer, the concept didn’t get its name until 1976 when Richard Dawkins coined the moniker. Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, invented the term Meme from the Greek word mimema, which means “something imitated” (American Heritage). The now popular term “meme”, was described by Dawkins as a concept of propagating cultural ideas. They provide "a way for people to communicate social memories" to others. Once a meme begins to travel, it implants itself in the minds of those who see it. That meme's persona is thus started.
The Creepy Moving Beginnings
The advent of the Internet took society to heights never before imagined. By the 1980's with the click of a mouse, we could shop, chat with others and research just about every topic on earth. And, yes, spread memes. The faster technology makes the Internet, the more quickly memes can be shared. Once society realized the value of sending photograph memes around, it didn't take long for the next steps - GIF's and video based content for marketing and other personal use.
The first well-known moving meme was the dancing baby. It quickly caught on because it could be set to any song or dance beat out there.
This meme came along in the 1990s and at the time, was the most technologically advanced meme available. How would you like to wake up to this in your house? Most people felt the same way, which pushed technology to continue improving and allowed this dancing meme to retire, none too soon.
The basics of the 1990's memes involved using a series of images that were put in order-the way old television cartoons were done- and then embedded as a graphic, the way current graphic art is done. The result was looped animation.
Today, We Have Flash Mobs and Flash Memes
It was at this point that the business world discovered a purpose for memes. Banner based marketing advertisements began popping up everywhere. These ads depicted dancers, wrestlers and other types of eye-catching movement. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, these were quickly abandoned when consumers complained about the meme GIFs slowing page loads. Sometimes the page would crash mid-load causing site owners to pull the ads or risk losing hits.
Not wanting to abandon moving memes altogether, experts developed flash animations, which took the place of GIFs and are still used today. If you miss the old GIFs you can always seek out the dancing baby. You might want to view it during the daytime, however, to avoid nightmares.
Using memes in your inbound marketing strategy can help boost the popularity of your profiles, drive traffic to your website and yes—actually increase lead generation as well. It’s all part of the fun customers expect in exchange for giving you their attention, their contact details and possibly even their money.
*Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
