94 Let customers see: funny current affairs pictures to make you follow the trend and attract people

If a single [Facebook fan post] (http://bit.ly/32J14hP) from a government unit can be liked by more than 28,000 people, shared more than 10,000 times, and left more than 1,000 comments in less than a day, it can also attract many other government agencies and corporate editors to attract traffic… Well, don’t you think this is a fantasy?

On the evening of March 2, the Ministry of Education’s fan page posted a post on campus epidemic prevention (http://bit.ly/32J14hP), reminding young students whose return to school has been postponed due to the new coronavirus to pay attention to epidemic prevention measures such as washing hands and wearing masks.

Generally speaking, this kind of official propaganda mostly involves posting a news photo of a superior speaking, or putting up a company logo and then putting it up. Usually no one sees it, and in the end it only gets a very small amount of exposure and likes from family members.

But this time [Ministry of Education] (https://www.facebook.com/www.edu.tw/), in order to conform to the habits of young people and “expand the impact”, the editor specially asked colleagues to sacrifice their color and dress up as a numerology teacher of a certain zodiac sign, and use the characteristics of the 12 zodiac signs to explain the epidemic prevention measures that emphasize the return of college students.

This method can scan all students with different attributes at once. It is not only funny, but also easy to remember. It also triggers other groups that were not originally targeted to go crazy, forming a second wave of influence.

This post attracted many government agencies and corporate editors to join in the interaction, such as [Ministry of Health and Welfare](https://www.facebook.com/mohw.gov.tw/photos/p.1496547987178281/1496547987178281/?type=3&theate r) (the main victim of the epidemic prevention alliance), National Taiwan Arts Education Center, etc. have all posted their own epidemic prevention propaganda pictures in the message box , forming a melee of cooperative arch traffic. Even the editor of the [Zodiac Teacher Fanpage] (https://www.facebook.com/JesseTang11/) who was imitated was also fished out and joined the message conversation. This is equivalent to introducing traffic from all over the place, boosting each other’s momentum, resulting in a positive traffic cycle.

Image source: [Ministry of Education Facebook Fan Page]

Not only for epidemic prevention, Captain America also drives the trend of pictures

The latest trend in current affairs, apart from COVID-19 prevention, is the Captain America comic strip.

Some netizens used screenshots from the Avengers 4 movie (https://www.marvel.com/movies/avengers-endgame) to create a funny conversation between Captain America and the bald supporting character. As a result, more and more netizens kept using the same photo to add new jokes like a snowball, forming a trend.

The editor of Forbidden City Boutique, which was introduced by the Content Hacker website before, also caught up with the popular trend this time. On March 3, he also used some of the patterns in the Qingming River Scene and combined it with jokes about historical figures to recreate a wave of Captain America pictures. This post also received more than 11,000 likes, more than 4,600 shares and more than 500 comments in less than a day, creating a rare and good effect.

This method of operation not only takes advantage of popular trends and uses its own unique characteristics to carry out an effective content marketing operation, which makes people find it interesting and easy to remember; it also avoids possible image copyright infringement issues. It is a content marketing operation method that is very worth learning.

Image source: [Forbidden City Boutique Facebook Fan Page]

The editor of the Forbidden City generously released blank picture (as shown below), indirectly encouraging netizens to create more, hoping to continue to promote the second or even third wave of quotation of pictures.


Suggested steps for following popular pictures

So, what should you do if you want to use popular topics to promote your own products or events? Here’s what content hackers recommend:

Step 1: Find out what’s popular

What topics are popular recently?

• Topics of public concern: such as epidemic prevention.

• Seasonal topics: festivals such as Valentine’s Day.

• Focus areas or popular topics on the Internet: such as Captain America pictures.

Step 2: Find out how the issue is related to your own products or activities

If you cannot relate to popular issues, you will end up just following the trend. After the target audience finished laughing, they had no idea what the relationship between the picture and the product was, let alone wanting to know more about it or even spend money to buy it.

• The topic is directly related to the characteristics of products and activities: for example, during the epidemic prevention period, cleaning body products can effectively wash the limbs and torso, etc.

• Let the topic be related to the characteristics of the product or activity: such as mobile games, online movies, or snacks and drinks, which can be used as good companions for staying at home during epidemic prevention, etc.

Step 3: Use the resources on hand to generate illustrations

After identifying important topic associations, you need to use the resources at hand to create corresponding illustrations.

• Ask colleagues or friends to take imitation photos: If you can’t spend a lot of money to hire a celebrity to endorse the photo, then use people around you, or even dress up as a celebrity yourself (note: it can’t be too similar, as it may also cause portrait rights issues) to create a mockup. This approach is similar to the effect of a TV imitation show, a bit similar but not quite similar, and it will have an inexplicable sense of joy. But remember not to let relatives, friends or colleagues work in vain. Performance fees can always be paid after negotiation.

• Use your own product photos or legally authorized free libraries: For example, the editor of the Forbidden City quoted his own product photos such as the Qingming Riverside Scene, and of course there is no licensing fee issue. If you really can’t produce product photos, you can also use the legally free authorized [CC0 Gallery] (https://www.contenthacker.today/2018/07/cc0-free-photo.html) to find suitable pictures and then use them instead.

Step 4: Before publishing the photo, check whether it will cause any disputes.

When making illustrations, whether they are for your own products or the objects being imitated, please always use a positive image. All content should avoid possible problems:

*Politics: no color, no specific position.

• Gender: non-discrimination and equality.

• Religion: Adopt positive appeals and avoid religious disputes.

• Race: no discrimination, equality.

Step 5: Pay attention to the image sizes required by different platforms

Regardless of Facebook, Instagram or LINE, there are corresponding recommended image sizes. When making a game, you can’t think about using a single picture to complete the level. You have to search online for the latest recommended sizes before proceeding.

Especially when dealing with consecutive pictures, you must also consider the presentation effect when combined. For example, Facebook can sometimes be combined into a jigsaw puzzle, and several pictures can be used to create a complete wall effect.

Step 6: Add a call to action (CTA) The popular pictures that are finally produced must be able to achieve a specific purpose. Whether you want the target audience to enter the official website and product page, or sign up for an event, remember to add the corresponding call to action (https://www.contenthacker.today/2019/01/how-to-create-the-perfect-call-to-action.html) (call-to-action, CTA) hyperlinks that people can click on, not only if they have seen it and laughed and passed without leaving a trace, it is an important step in truly effective content marketing.

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★ Photo Credit: Ministry of Education fan page, Forbidden City boutique fan page

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Further reading

• How to create a powerful call to action?
• 2017 Taiwan Growth Hacker Annual Conference: To promote user growth, why not first decouple brand and content
• Content Operations Lesson 3 for Startup Teams: Inventory Resources and Place Calls to Action

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