Exploring the Effects of Internet Memes in Social Media Marketing through A/B Testing

Abstract

This study is concerned with the“Internet meme”, an image with a brief message attached to a Social Network Service (SNS) post expressing one’s mood humorously. Internet memes have become popular especially among young users recently. Meme marketing, one of the growing corporate strategies designed for more effective online brand communication, has been evolving in environments where younger generations have become the most active individuals and constitute the majority of the virtual Internet society of today. The purpose of this study is to quantify the effects of Internet memes in the context of social media marketing on SNS platforms. A/B testing is conducted with dozens of post experiments on an SNS platform that has the most users in China to test the effect of Internet memes by measuring the post engagement rates. Further, a statistical analysis using generalized linear mixed models is conducted for exploring the characteristics of users who tend to react to Internet memes. Practical implications for SNS marketing are also drawn.