Social media activities of small and medium-sized enterprises – Study of a meme portal that became a brand

Abstract

The digital space offers an outstanding possibility for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to an effective marketing communication activity, despite their general lack of resources. One such peculiar opportunity is a unique, direct communication style that might bring the organization closer to their consumers. Our study investigates a sample of 90 social media posts of a renowned Hungarian meme portal that has become, over time, an SME brand. The aim of our research is to investigate a brand communication strategy heavily focused on content generation, with special emphasis on the contradiction between a business context and the remains of social criticism of the late meme portal status. Our results show that the elements that made the brand known (meme status) are hardly sustainable when in the center of a brand communication strategy: the page’s followers are confronted with a number of contradictions, which is unavoidably leading the brand to reconsider, at some point, their content strategy and even to reevaluate the unique tone at the origin of the initial success.