
doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3604651
The sharing of Internet memes is increasingly popular form of expressing opinions and complex sentiments in an easily understood image. Marketers are exploiting the attention memes generate by enlisting meme influencers to create memes to promote products. I develop a machine learning algorithm that classifies meme images scraped from the meme aggregation sub-Reddit forums to generate a panel of meme posts. The data reveal time-series patterns in meme proliferation and quality, competition for attention across memes, learning-by-doing in meme creation, and potential mechanisms of the learning-by-doing. These findings suggest that the market for meme influencer will tend to be concentrated and may tend to become a superstar market.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
