Telling a good story is important to moving people into action. Amy Sample Ward and I talk about this in our book Social Change Anytime Everywhere, which is coming out next month. We have found that people respond best to advocacy campaigns that tell stories and use calls to action that connect with them on a human level. Basically skip the jargon, and talk to people like you were at an incredible dinner party. Unfortunately sometimes nonprofits are afraid to get creative, particularly when it comes to humor. Memes are a great way to talk about your issue and use humor to get your message shared.
For example, if your nonprofit is going to experiment with creating a meme, it's worth noting the following data, according to this infographic How to Cook Up A Winning Meme that examimed over 100 sucessful memes from 1980 to today.
- 42% of memes are pictures
- 41% of memes are video and 29% orginated on YouTube.
- About 27% of memes orginated on websites and 14% on Reddit.
- Prior to 2011, male memes dominated, but in 2011 women memes began gaining more traction.
- Cats make up 7% of all animal memes, which are also quite popular. So if you are an animal welfare group like the Humane Society of the United States or have a connection to animals, this is especially important data.