Intern Insights: Give Memes a Try!

There is a general consensus among social media professionals that posts including pictures and videos are more attractive and receive more views than text-only posts. By mixing images into your social media scheme, students will be more likely to pay attention to informative posts as well. We know that financial aid is not a very visual topic, so we’ve come up with memes you can use on your school’s social media sites.

According to OxfordDictionaries.com, a meme is “a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.” In pop culture today, however, the term is applied specifically to a certain type of image with text. Users are familiar with the standard set of images, each having its own connotation for the purpose of making related jokes. For instance, this dinosaur image, called Philosoraptor, is used to pose humorous philosophical questions.

To the untrained, memes can be difficult to understand, but as their peers, we can assure you that your students have probably spent some time looking at memes instead of studying. Students get memes. Students love memes. The memes we have created relate to financial aid and college life. Here’s an example:

You can find this meme and others in the Financial Aid Memes album on our Facebook page. Feel free to share them on your own Facebook page, tweet them, or use them on other social media. Add some spice to your social media pages and make financial aid fun!

Kristin Tobias, Communications & Social Media Intern, Nelnet

Matt Heng, Communications & Social Media Intern, Nelnet