Did you recently see a funny meme on Facebook? What about a popular GIF on Buzzfeed? It was probably posted and hosted on Imgur (pronounced “image-er”) last week.
Millions of images are uploaded to Imgur daily and shared across the web. It’s where virality starts: More than 100 million people consume the content on Imgur every month.
Unlike other social networks with personalized streams, Imgur is composed of one massive social community where top images are viewed hundreds of thousands of times a day.
Some startups and small businesses have begun to use platforms like Reddit and Snapchat as a medium for communication and marketing, but businesses should use Imgur to take advantage of the large community.
So, how are brands using it? Here’s an example that General Electric put together to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11. It’s a picture of moon-walkin’ Buzz Aldrin rocking a pair of Moon Boots.
Brick and the rest of the news team made special appearances prior to the launch of the film Anchorman 2.
The beauty of Imgur’s platform is the opportunity it provides for both paid and earned media. Earned via shared content and the natural mechanics of virality built into the site. The nature of the platform encourages interaction and yields massive engagement rates. Though, brands be warned: Engagement can come in many forms, some more positive than others.
We’ve distilled down our experience with the community and our work with brands into a four rules to follow in interacting with Imgur. In each case, we’ve included proven examples that will help illustrate each point.
There are four important points to keep in mind:
- Tell A (Really) Good Story
- Engage With Imgurians
- Move Quickly
- Play By The Internet’s Rules
Rule One: Tell A (Really) Good Story
Imgur is more than just a place to upload funny one-off images. Blending albums and GIFs give Imgurians (and you!) the power to tell rich narrative stories that dive deep into particular issues and evoke a large range of emotions outside the random cat meme. This is a unique opportunity – Sponsored Images do not function the same way traditional banner advertisements do, therefore it is important to avoid treating them as such.
We encourage brands to take the extra time to have an editorial angle on the content you publish on Imgur, and to share original content with the community. In addition to being a classy move, it’s a major thing that the Imgurian community (not surprisingly) appreciates and responds to.
Rule Two: Build A Reputation – Engage With The Imgurians
While imgur is built around images, our comment sections provide an endless source of entertainment as well. This is where Imgurians respond to images, comments, post reaction GIFs, and where community activity “lives” on the site. We highlight comments made by the original poster (“OP”), which gives you a chance to interact with Imgurians on a direct level.
Do it! You’re missing a huge opportunity by not interacting with the community. Much like the users, much of your credibility on the site will rise or fall based on how you participate in the comments.
- Example: Now This Is Why I Joined Imgur (Fresh Prince)
- Example: This Is Why I Love Imgur (Recycled Trampoline)
Rule Three: Content Moves Quickly
Like the rest of the Internet, it’s important to know that Imgur moves fast. What is popular now may not be popular a few hours, and trends move through the front page at a crazy fast rate. To that end, content is rarely “evergreen” and the window of opportunity to be part of a meme is short. If you have successful content or are looking to participate in the activity on the front page, you’ll have to create and publish content quickly.
Like all Imgurians looking to get on the front page, it is useful to take the time to get to know the dynamics of the front page. That’s the best gauge of what content is rising or succeeding on the platform at any given time.
Rule Four: Play By The Internets Rules
Much like any other community on the Internet, there are the unwritten (and written) rules that people follow in interacting on the site that the community has developed by itself over time. It’s worth getting to know the basics. Some of these things are common sense, but others perhaps less so. Here’s a few examples that you’ll see around Imgur:
- No Reposts
- A repost is an image that has already been posted in the past. Once an image has reached popularity, it cannot be recycled or posted again.
- Example
- The Pet Tax
- It is customary to include a “pet tax” within an album that tells a longer story as an offering to the community. This pet tax can be the Imgurian’s cute cat, dog or other pet and is seen as a thank you for reading and upvoting the content.
- Example: Mystery dispenser
- Grammar Matters
- Imgurians consider themselves to be grammar sensitive. This means that the use of Internet speak such as “lol” “brb” “ur,” etc. is never tolerated. A misuse of your vs. you’re can be the end of your submission. Watch out for using hashtags.
- Example: Grammar Matters
You’ll pick up more of these rules of thumb as you get more and more into the site – but having these in hand should be a good head start in participating in the community.