Smart business owners are learning how to market with selfies to help grow their businesses, but what matters most for businesses is that selfies get shared a lot. How can you take advantage of the selfie craze to help spread the message about your company?
Selfies are no longer just for celebrities and influencers! Businesses and corporations use selfies as a marketing tool as well. Coaches, consultants, influencers, bloggers, authors, entrepreneurs—really any company where you are your own brand—can benefit from using selfies to do the following:
• increase authority;
• offer value and advice;
• create or promote a brand;
• show off your personality;
• communicate your message;
• relate to others;
• build relationships;
• gain trust;
• connect with an audience.
Use selfies in your marketing
1. Hold Contests
Contests don’t have to be a big deal; even a weekly drawing for a Starbucks coffee card, a free item in your retail store or webstore, or free haircut at your salon will get people—especially the millennial generation—snapping away.
2. Theme It
You can wrap selfies into a seasonal promotion, campaign or product. Try to encourage followers to take selfies wearing the new autumn scarf or hat they bought on your online boutique, or if you’re a dealership, get them to show off their car as part of your themed sales event.
3. Join Them
Be engaging by posting your own selfies on your company’s social media accounts and get employees to share, too. Inspire your customers to comment or post their own selfies and lead by example.
4. Tie It All In
Tie your customers into your company’s campaign even if customers post them on social media instead of your site. Simply ask your customers to use specific social media handles or hashtags when posting their selfies, and make it relevant to your business or campaign. Create special hashtags for a promotion or event, too!
Selfies can be a means of fundraising for specific causes, and are a legitimate marketing tool that cost much less than a billboard or television spot. The user generated content (UGC) that is created when your customers post a selfie also offers something that conventional marketing and advertising campaigns can’t: a conversation between consumers and brands in actual, real time. This is invaluable to you as a business owner, because brands can measure results, gauge qualitative feedback, and speak to consumers directly through comments and posts.
Bottom line
The use of selfies shows no sign of slowing down, specifically on social media. You know the old saying: ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’, so why not leverage their popularity by incorporating wats to use selfies in your marketing strategy?