Exploring Selfie Marketing

Sharing selfie has gained popularity in the 21st century. Selfie refers to as a self -portrait picture or video shared on social media e.g. Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. Selfie is almost a natural phenomenon in this digital period. People go about looking for eye-catching backgrounds to take memorable pictures that they will send to their family and friends online.

People's love for taking pictures for fun has shaped the way companies market their products. People no longer engage social media platforms in sharing pictures for the fun of it but to share their content and introduce their business to the world. They also employ the platform as a means of interacting with brands.

Brands turned selfie to a marketing strategy by leveraging the user's obsession with it. They make fruitful use of millennial obsession trend to up their market game.

In this age when the introduction of smartphones and social media has affected the role of radio and TV ads in getting a wider audience, almost all the big brands have joined the train of selfie marketing. They are taking over the social media outlet such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and others by staging selfie challenge, selfie campaigns to create a brand and to keep the brand relevant.

Selfie marketing strategy

Everything in marketing needs strategy and selfie marketing is not left out. Below are the things you can do to make your brand and business success in this digital world.

Contest

Companies make use of challenge to promote their product by encouraging their followers to post pictures or videos of themselves with the company's product on social media with a contest hashtags. They get their followers and customers to post a picture with relevant hashtags that creatively leads back to their business. The hashtags are: short and unique, based on the topic that is related to the product, and they consistently show emotion.

Relevant selfie apps

The need to show a human side to brands is important in building a lasting relationship with customers. Business owners can use selfie apps related to their businesses to interact and personalize to reach existing and new audiences. The app will enable companies to engage their customers in interactive sessions, take a selfie to get a coupon and giveaway.

Social media presence

As the owner of a brand, you need to show people your personality. Let them know you, don't hide behind the closed door to promote your brand. Share a short video of yourself using your product. Don't wait until you have large sums in your account. You can share the little you have with the world. Of course, marketing selfies don't always have to be yours, you can always ask your friends and followers to share selfies of your product with a discount.

Social media influencer

Social media influencers are people with many followers on their social media handles. The worth of an influencer depends on how close they are with their audience and the trustworthiness of the product they promote overtime. Influencers bridge the gap between brands and audiences. There are two types of influencers – celebrity and micro.

Celeb influencers have a wider range of audiences than micro-influencers. Chose the type of influencer that matches your product and ask them to post pictures or videos of them using your product and doing that often comes with a price. The price can either be cash or something of value from your product. Being a self -brand influencer can also go a long way in boosting online reputation and sales.

Chose the right platform

To choose the right platform there is the need for brands to understand social media from the marketing point of view. Users use the various forms of social media (e.g. status and private message on WhatsApp, news feeds on Twitter and Facebook, etc.) Brands must go beyond the communicative and fun catching aspect of social media and delve into its customer's reaching aspect.

Platforms like Instagram where posts can last long can be utilized when introducing products that fit in that area and platform like Snapchat where snap posts disappear after 24hours when introducing unfiltered pictures of the product. A right platform is at the discretion of business owners, they can choose the platform that is right to showcase their goods.

Quality of the product and service rendered

Consumers find it difficult to trust the quality of the tangible product but in the case of service, consumers can only judge it after it has been rendered. One of the important marketing strategies is that brands must be able to show reasonable evidence of the quality of the product or the service. Short selfie videos of the quality of the product can be shared or brands can ask their customers to post the video feedback with the hashtag of the product. Do not promote a product with low or little quality.

Exposure

Just as the saying "seeing is believing," consumer wants to see a media sensation carry the bag they want to buy before buying. This is when celeb influencers are needed. They can take a selfie with the product and send it to their wide range of followers since many people want to look like their idols. That will give the right exposure to the product. A little online giveaway to followers that post a selfie with your product can also bring a lot of people to your page as it is because people like free things.

Selfie is the way of creating an experience and connecting with people without having to say a word. Business owners utilized the fast-growing selfie audience and platform to display their products and services. Today, selfie no longer means taking pictures for fun, it means you can take your pictures, have fun while at it, and in the end make your cool cash and have the right exposure to fame. Great isn't it? Selfie marketing is the new normal and almost all the big brands are doing it. Do you have a business or a service you render? Step up and go digital, it will help your business grow.