Selfies are almost a necessity if a person or business wants to create a "unique and personalized online presence. Critics call selfies as narcissistic. But narcissism sells and for businesses, this is another powerful tool for smart social media marketing.
In case you are thinking that this is just another passing trend, think again: “Selfie” was named the 2013 word of the year by Oxford English Dictionary. Selfie is an approved Scrabble term, Time magazine considered selfie one of the “top 10 buzzwords” in 2012 . The word "selfie" has now become ingrained in English vernacular, thanks to millennials snapping photos of themselves doing everything from sipping a cappuccino to riding their a car or posing with friends at an exotic location/event. This trend was strengthened by social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
According to Brand Growth Management, this word has been around since 2004 when the #selfie hashtag first appeared on Twitter. With introduction of a front facing camera on its iPhone by Apple, taking self-portraits or selfies became easy!
Some powerful #Selfie statistics:
- Selfies comprise 30% of the photos taken by young adults ages 18–24.
- Instagram has over 53 million photos with the hashtag #selfie.
- Selfie was included in Facebook posts 368,000 times during a one-week period.
- The hashtag #selfie was used in more than 150,000 tweets on Twitter during a one-week period.
- According to ON's data it's not reality stars, but rather users in the medical and legal fields who post the most selfies on its platform.
- Selfie - the most tweeted picture: On Oscar night, Ellen DeGeneres snapped a selfie with a group of movie stars which became the most tweeted picture with over 33 million retweets across the Web. Other high-profile selfies are the ones of Pope Francis and President Obama who have already embraced selfies.
How can you use selfies in your marketing strategy?
Since visuals continue to drive customer engagement, businesses need to take advantage of the selfie phenomenon. Sharing these types of photos can help a company connect its brand identity to customers. We will examine how selfies can be used for marketing by businesses:
Show personality. Customers traditionally rank authenticity as a top trait they seek when doing business with any company. Selfies by their very nature are personal. Their content usually says a lot about the people who work at the company & are much more effective for connecting to customers than posed photographs. A selfie of employees at the office or a related event can be a powerful message that says, “We like to work here, and we support the company’s mission.”
Showcase the personal side of your business - Become human: It is much easier to connect with a person than an abstract concept like a company. Posting employee selfies shows that there are real people behind the brand. This helps create a powerful emotional connection for anyone considering the company’s product. Customers value transparency, and selfies can accomplish this. Nextiva posts selfies of its service team & customers know they are talking to real people. Also prospective customers buy from people whom they know , like and trust. Selfies can strengthen such factors and establish a familiarity between your clients/potential clients and your team!
Give social proof to customers: When customers post selfies with a company’s product, this is the social proof or recommendation that other prospect customers look forward to. This in turn becomes a powerful advertisement, since it's not from the company. Logically, customers do not pose with products they do not like.
Allow clients to "see" what your company does: Proof of an organisation in action also helps prospective customers to get a quick overview of the business activities including products, services. It is about provideing a creative outlet to display your products & services to prospective customers
Share humor - Share a laugh: Show the fun side of your company: Humor can be used to promote any brand, and funny photos have a greater chance of spreading around the WebEncourage customers to submit selfies by having a contest and rewarding them with prizes. Tie these photos to a Twitter or Instagram hashtag or have a specific Facebook page or Pinterest board for the contest.
Risks from selfies: Pictures can get posted that a company might not want to get associated with its brand. While you can edit selfies posted to your company's site and social media pages, you cannot control what other people are posting to their sites. Your best defense is to be aware on what is happening on the web.
Instagram for selfies: Selfies For Business Growth?
Instagram, a social media site is exclusively based on photo sharing where in users can simply upload a picture, add a filter and share it with their followers, along with a short caption.
Business owners can learn to harness the potential of this photo sharing site and channel that into business growth. This is not to say that business owners should upload selfies to Instagram and hope for business growth, but it can be beneficial to understand more about this social media forum often overlooked by marketers and business owners. One of the biggest benefits to using Instagram as a marketing tool is that it is completely free and very simple. In just a few minutes, users can create a user account, connect with their existing Facebook account and begin sharing photos with the world. This offers the opportunity for a business to do any or all of the following to attract new clients.
Many businesses use Instagram as a storefront to "display" new products and ideas. You can share the "story" of your company or share the passion that you have for your business through photos. It is a free way to visually portray to your potential clients why they should consider your company. It is fast, free and has unlimited potential, in terms of the amount of people you can reach. While Instagram may have been built on the popularity of the selfie, you can understand how to use this site to springboard your business to the next level, connect with a new clientage and use picture to tell your story. Instagram is not just for selfies, it's for smart business owners, too!
Emerging tech trends - Selfie stick, Belfie stick, From 2D to 3D & from 3D to big business
In order to capitalize on this explosive trend of selfies and make taking selfies easier and more flattering, camera and smartphone manufacturers developed 2D technology enhancements, such as selfie sticks and the ability to preview your selfie photo before snapping the pic. There is a Belfie Stick, which was created by the team at ON for those rear-view images.
But what do selfies have to do with 3D scanning and 3D printing? The definition of what a selfie is has evolved over the last few years. Today’s selfies aren’t limited to you snapping quick 2D photos of yourself using a smartphone and sharing them on social media. Instead, you can be quickly and easily scanned by another person using a 3D scanner, or even scan yourself, and then produce your likeness in three, physical dimensions on a 3D printer.
The explosive increase in awareness and use of 3D printing has certainly contributed to, if not driven, this trend. Additionally, both 3D scanners and 3D printers have independently become far more affordable while their technical capabilities have expanded, making it easier and more accessible than ever to capture scan data that is 3D printable.
The introduction of sub-$1,000 USD, highly portable 3D scanners, such as StructureIO, Kinect, Fuel3D, David Scanner – not to mention smartphone 3D scanning apps – most of which can capture colour, combined with affordable, photorealistic colour-capable 3D printers, have transformed the concept of selfies.
From 3D to big business
When people first learned that the 3D scan-to-print capability for producing 3D selfies exists and is affordable, it was largely used just for personal amusement. However, in the last few years, entrepreneurs quickly saw the opportunity to develop profitable full-time businesses around 3D selfies thanks to lower cost, colour-capable scanners and affordable photorealistic colour 3D printers. After all, keepsakes and other products centered around weddings, babies, pets, and children never go out of style.
In a recent article, Steve Heller of The Motley Fool, explored whether the 3D printed selfie is just a gimmick or has true, long-term business potential. His premise is that the operating cost of the printer, and therefore, the cost to produce the 3D printed selfie and the cost charged to the consumer, must be in the $20 to $30 dollar range in order to create viable businesses around 3D printed selfies. There are a few reasons for this. Heller believes that, like 2D selfies, 3D printed selfies will be an impulse purchase and most consumers are unlikely to make $200-$300 impulse purchases. In addition, the cost of the floor space required for this offering at retail is high and necessitates high revenue. Lower cost selfies will reduce the barrier to entry for most consumers and therefore increase revenue to offset the floor space dedicated to the offering.
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| Linkin Park, an American rock band has found a special way to keep their fans happy. The band has partnered with Staramba USA Corp., to offer fans a line of 3D printed figures of each band member. |
#Selfies are here to stay, so start taking them – seriously!
Resources: mcortechnologies, americanexpress
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