Even YOU can Create a Meme

One of the products of social media has been the meme. While there isn't any simple definition that encompasses all examples sufficiently, I'd say a meme is a picture with a thought provoking statement.

We see these all the time on Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest and Twitter. Some become viral and go around the world.

These meme's enhance your personal or professional Facebook pages and twitter updates. People tend to share them, comment on them and "like" them. These are all factors that increase your visibility in social media.

You can, of course, simply download and share memes you find on the web. The other way is to create your own. You can use Meme Generators or Build from scratch.

Meme Generators

You can find these by simply running a google search for "meme generators." They are all pretty much the same. They have many of the most common ones like the angry baby, the "Most Interesting Man in the World," and the thinking dinosaur. You can just add your text. You don't have much choice as to font, but it is quick. Here's one I did:

If you are just looking for some neutral backgrounds, you can try Quozio.com 

It has fewer character type backgrounds and has more scenic. Here's one I did with them for our church facebook page:

For inspirational or more serious memes, this service is a bit better than most meme generating sites. 

Working from Scratch

Of course, if you want something uniquely you, you can work from scratch. Find your own picture to match your words or a quote you found. It doesn't require massive skills with Photoshop, you can do all the essential editing online. Here are the steps:

Get an Idea

Obviously, you have to start with an idea. Now, the idea can start with either the words or the picture. Sometimes I'm inspired by a picture. For instance, I found this one on the NASA web site:

NASA is a great source for photos, and they are mostly free to use commercially because they are in the public domain. 

I was working on a "minidevotion" for our church Facebook page. I saw this and I was thinking about how short life is and how great the cosmos and how God had plans for me beyond this short life. So, my thought was "God's retirement plan - It's Out of this World." 

I went to an online photo editor. There are several of this but I used Pixlr.com . I just used Pixlr express. It's easy to use. I opened the picture then clicked on the Text button. I looked at a number of different text styles and finally picked one. 

I decided to go for a "punch line" approach. The top line near the top of the picture would be the set up "God's Retirement Plan" and the bottom line, "It's out of this world," would be the kicker near the bottom of the picture. 

This is the result of about 10 minutes "work."

Now, I have something I can save, download and post on our church Facebook page. 

You can also find photos you are free to use by running a search at http://search.creativecommons.org . Be sure to check that their pictures are still under creative commons license and follow any attribution instructions carefully.  

So, that's how you can make your own memes. Who knows? Maybe your's will be the next Angry Baby or Grumpy Cat.