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Is it a case of narcissism or is it just plain ol’ identity formation? However you define it, selfies have now become a part of our lives. Whether you or someone/some celebrity you know is engaging in it, at the very least you have heard the term before. Selfies are so omnipresent that they’ve found their way into the English Oxford Dictionary in 2013. Nary does a day go by when you won’t find your Instagram or even Facebook feeds filled with the homage to oneself: the Vogue-esk body angle, the dramatic head tilt, and well-rehearsed smile or smize are all the usual elements of the selfie.
When it initially gained steam a few years ago, I thought the selfie would become a quickly passing fad that would die hard. We would all look back the year after and tsk tsk our participation in the madness ala the word “bling,” but I was wrong! The selfie has taken on a life of its own, and as time goes on, it’s becoming normalized. There are now ways to incorporate successful selfie strategies into your marketing campaigns. What makes this style of photography so darn appealing? According to Psychology Today, selfies allow us to engage in the storytelling experience as both the subject and photographer. We get to become both the lead actor and director.
Self-ish v. Personal Branding
Millennials, aka what I like to deem as “Generation Me,” are often credited with giving birth to the selfie. They may actually have more pictures of themselves now than their parents even took of them as babies! But what’s the obsession?? For many of these young adults, teens, and even tweens it’s about self empowerment and/or esteem building. These self portraits also serve as a tool for chronicling a moment in time. Remember Ellen’s Oscar selfie in 2014? That moment in time reigned as the most re-Tweeted image, with more than 3.3 million shares, until 2016.
Regardless of the personal goal, the act of creating a selfie reinforces your personal brand. Selfies communicate your brand experience. They are a peek into who you are and what you stand for. It represents (or should represent) your authentic self, whether that is the intent or not. It gives social proof through the image itself and its popularity. The more likes, the better evidence you’ll have that your brand is working to build trust and credibility. Remember, people gravitate towards products and services that they trust, and pictures are found to increase trust, according to new research on increasing “truthiness.” Once you establish this relationship, you can reap the rewards found through sales.
Companies have caught on to the selfie trend and have been incorporating them into clever, low-budget, marketing campaigns. Most are based on having followers and/or customers post real photos of themselves with a product or embody a brand’s essence. Take notes, as these seven successful selfie strategies may also work for your marketing campaigns.
GoPro – Selfies are ideal for the photography industry. This seemed like a no brainer for GoPro, which created a viral marketing campaign by embracing the entertaining videos produced by its customers. While the effort began with the company’s partnership with extreme athletes, the company is now showcasing the works of its fans, which includes death-defying sky dives and bungee jumps. It’s user-generated content has yielded more than 3 million views and 3 million subscribers!
Strategy: Spotlight fans who embody your brand essence.
Dove’s campaign challenges traditional beauty standards.
Dove – The company continues to be consistently conscious. Sticking with its brand, Dove created the documentary #Selfie (2014) to showcase the unrealistic beauty standards young ladies face in a social media driven world. The 7-minute short encourages women to redefine these traditional beauty standards by becoming content creators.
Strategy: Use selfies to showcase your authenticity.
WIRED – Their February 2014 issue debuted with a unique spin. WIRED offered readers the opportunity to use an app that places them on the cover of its magazine. They also asked readers to them use the app to share the cover pic on social media, using #WiredGoesViral. Yes, you too could have been a cover girl/boy.
Strategy: Place your supporters front and center.
Marc, by Marc Jacobs – similar to WIRED, Marc literally sought out real people as models. Although the concept isn’t new (hello Banana Republic!) the designer’s execution was. His company created a casting call by asking fans to post selfies on Instagram and Twitter and tag them using #CastMeMarc. The campaign drew more than 70,000 applicants.
Strategy: Give back by showcasing your fans and their story.
Samsung – To promote its Samsung Galaxy S5’s water resistance feature, guess what the company did. Yep, you guessed it. The folks at Samsung embraced the underwater selfie, using divers in Lake Zurich to approach passersby with the S5 and entice them to join them in the lake for a chance at winning the phone. Strategy: Think outside the box to capture winning moments.
Beats – When debuting its Solo2 headphones, Beats used celebrities to take selfies of themselves going from one side of the headphone to the other. The images and videos were shared via Twitter and Instagram with hashtag #SoloSelfie, resulting in more than 9,000 posts.
Strategy: Use celebrities to ignite your audience’s support when possible.
Nokia Lumia 735 – The smartphone company launched “The Selfie Collection” as a means of using a “selfish” act to support an unselfish cause. The campaign featured self-taken images of famous Scandinavian fashion bloggers using the Lumia 735. The bloggers also donated a fashion item for an auction to support the fight against online bullying.
Strategy: As an alternative to celebrities, partner with digital superstars who can vouch for you.
The New Normal
Do I now have you convinced that there’s a method to all this madness?
If not, here’s one more attempt that showcases pop culture at its finest. Grab your selfie stick and enjoy the #Selfie song. Never gets old!
If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’re also the marketer, financial manager, designer, web manager, juggler, and fire-breather–all rolled up in one!
As discussed in the video above, the biggest issue for soloprenuers is being the end all be all. However, there’s only so much you can do in 24 hours, not counting the actually delivery of your products. In my interview with @TonyLBrownHQ from TonyLBrown.com, he outlines actionable tips that you can use to systemize your business for success.
Previously, we discussed the difference between systemization and automation. In that discussion, Tony emphasized the importance of having a personal touch in your automated processes. I’m pigging back on this to stress that your communications should be RAW BRANDED™. Even though someone else may be stepping into your shoes to help spread your messages, that message should be authentic to you and your brand. It shouldn’t appear as if you are being cast by a robot.
In this video, Tony L. Brown credits fellow entrepreneur and digital superpro Chris Ducker with outlining the items that you should be outsourcing. This includes: what you can’t do, what you don’t like doing, and what you should have been doing. If you have any of these items taking up the majority of your to-dos, it’s time to seek some help. You can do so by delegating tasks to a virtual assistant. Yes, it’s time to let go and put your trust in someone else. However, this will not be a scary feat if you lay out your systems.
Tony advises business owners to develop a staffing structure then recruit for the roles you have in mind. By creating a framework, your VAs will understand how to deliver services to your standards. Don’t get trapped by your creation. Systemize your business for success and for sanity!
Are you systemizing your business operations? Drop a comment below.
Do you know the difference between automating v. systemizing your business for success? In my Blab interview with entrepreneur @TonyLBrownHQ from TonyLBrown.com, these terms are defined, and we discuss the relationship between the two processes. You will learn why small business owners need to systemize their operations for time management and greater efficiency. Most importantly, you will discover how to maintain your authenticity as your business is being systemized. Here’s a quick breakdown thanks to @TonyLBrownHQ:
Systemization – creating and systems and processes that govern your business operations, such as social media management. Systemization maintains a personal, authentic touch.
Automation – can be a part of a systemized process if it adds value to it. Your automated communications should not make you sound like a robot! Ex: Clicking to follow someone on Twitter and receiving canned auto requests to download their product. Ugh! Direct Messaging (DMing) can be done well as long as (once again) there’s a personal touch.
Specifically, if you are a small business owner who is juggling the task of being the CEO as well as the marketer, financial manager, designer, webmaster, etc., you can delegate your tasks to others in a systemized manner. In other words, you map out the blueprint and hand this off to those in charge of automating your process. The difference between this and straight automation is that your blueprint should be in line with your brand.
For example, if you have a virtual assistant who is charged with automating your social media posts, you should systemize the process for your VA, so he/she knows the appropriate images, tone of voice, and content that should be shared on your behalf. It should be the next best thing to cloning yourself! Most importantly, you will remain RAW Branded in a systemized manner. Got that one?
So, you’ve just built a website or blog. Congratulations! You’ve achieved the first milestone … but where’s the traffic?? You’re not alone. This is a common scenario for bloggers and website masters far and near. It’s often believe that if you build it (your website not fields of dreams), traffic will come. Except, there’s a missing component. Site visitors will come only if your website is optimized for search engines AKA Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
What’s SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of getting your website or blog organic/free search results in search engines. In other words, when searching in search engines, e.g. Google or Bing, for topics or keywords related to your website, your website should naturally turn up in the search results. It is ideal for your website to turn up on the first page of the search engine’s results page, since this will ensure that people will find your website.
According to academic research, 91% of web searchers do not go past the first page of their search engine results, and more than 50% of web searchers do not go past the first three results displayed on the first page of their search engine results. (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2009). Given this information, it’s time to buckle up and join the ranking game. Here are 10 quick (and legal) tips for website SEO that can up the ante for your brand.
How Can You Optimize Your Website?
1. Sign-up for Google Webmaster’s Tools – Please note that Google isn’t the only search engine that’s out there. Hello Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and Dogpile (ah, used to be my favorite)! However, since Google is dominating this space with approximately 1,100,000,000 estimated unique monthly visitors, let’s use it for a frame of reference. You should signup for Google Webmaster Tools to analyze your website. Through this service, you will see a list of keywords that are generating traffic to your website, spotlighting the audience you are organically targeting. You may want to adjust your topics and keywords accordingly. More on keywords later. Google Webmaster Tools also highlights how search engines view your website. With this information, you can correct issues related to Google bots’ inabilities to crawl your site.
2. Optimize Your On-page SEO – The action taking place behind the scenes of your website is equally as important as its external environment. Your website or blog’s Content Management System (CMS) should permit you access to each page’s HTML. Once located, optimize the page’s Header Tag (H1), ALT tags or alternative text, meta keywords, and meta descriptions (with no more than 150 characters) to accurately reflect the topic of your blog posts or pages. Use keywords, preferably longtail keywords. More on this after the jump!
3. Target Longtail Keywords – These keywords will help boost your search ranking and hone in on your target audience. Longtail keywords consist of a longer string of keywords. In other words, instead of using “cookbooks” as a keyword in your meta keywords, descriptions, or header, you should target longtail keywords such as “cookbooks for kids” or “cookbooks for college students.” Since these keywords are more specific, you will hone in on terms that have a higher traffic potential with lower competition. Of course the popularity of your longtail keyword and competition from other brands that are targeting your keywords will also shape your ranking for these terms.
News Flash: You cannot stuff keywords into your website! Those tricks of the past will now harm your search results. Instead, keep your keywords to two or three longtails keywords. Google Trends, Google AdWords, and Quora are helpful tools for identifying appropriate keywords.
4. Include Image/ALT Tags – These tags are essential alternative keywords that Google bots use to scan images on your website. This will enable your photos to turn up in Google image searches, thereby providing another source of traffic. They are particularly helpful for folks who use screen readers.
5. Use Pretty URLs – Create neat, simple URLs with keywords that relate to your webpage/post.
For example, replace www.yourwebsite.com/123I’mcomplicated_difficulty10 with www.youwebsite.com/easyURL.
6. Establish Inbound Links – Google Webmaster Tools provides a list of websites that are linking to you. The more link juice you have, particularly from influential websites such as CNN, the better your search rankings. Once upon a time, in the land of “black hat” web tactics, website owners would use sneaky tricks to drive multiple, invalid links to their website. While having external links to your website still matters for SEO, it’s no longer the end-all and be-all to the equation.
7. Go Mobile – In April 2015, Google unleashed “Mobilegeddon” AKA “mobilepocalyse,” thereby boosting mobile-friendly websites’ rankings in search results. Google states, “As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns.” If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to mobilize!
8. Create Key Content – While content is king on the web, your content must have value for readers. You will build an audience once you showcase your expertise. Once people are able to find you, make sure that they are willing to return to your website. Site stickiness is essential!
9. Dominate With Domain Presence – Time is truly a virtue. The older the age of your website or blog, the stronger it’s domain authority. Like a fine, aged wine, your website will eventually gain a firmer web presence over time. However, this is just one factor. An older website with outdated and irrelevant content will fall short in the rankings. See item #8!
10. Support With Strong Social Media – Your social media platforms and followers should link to your website. You’ll not only gain link juice from your social media followers, but you will also expand your brand’s reach. Time to mingle.
Where Should You Begin?
A few years ago, a website simply needed to have multiple inbound links and/or keywords. Today, a myriad of tactics must be implemented in order to frame your website. It may be a lot to juggle, but you can still make a big impact by implementing a few of these tips. Begin by creating content that resonates with your audience, connect with an audience and influencers in your arena on social media, and build relationships in order to establish loyalty.
Relax, relate, and breathe! Take these tips for website SEO one step at a time, and you will eventually #BeTheBestBrand.
Got another tip? Chime in below.
References
Van Deursen, A.J.A.M. & Van Dijk, J.A.G.M. (2009). Using the Internet: Skill Related Problems in Users’ Online Behavior. Interacting with Computers, 21, 393-402.
Happy Social Media Day! Thanks to the social media experts at Mashable, June 30 marks the fifth year of this internet holiday. Over the course of these years, we’ve seen the steady increase in social media users, which now includes both individuals and businesses. We’ve also seen the continued development of new, savvy social media platforms. From YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn to Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram, we’re connecting in ever increasing and varied ways.
So, it was quite timely when, on this special day, a friend of mine approached me with a serious expression on her face. She pulled me aside, made sure the coast way clear, and whispered, “What are hashtags and how do I use them?”
I threw an arm around her and gave her a tight reassuring squeeze that all would be okay. Ironically, I received the same question earlier in the day from a coworker. Seeing the glaring signs, I knew I had to write about this. I raced to my laptop, whipped it open, and jotted down the details below. For you millennials out there, this one may be old hat for you. For you newbies to the social media world, have no fear. I’m here!
Hashtag Defined
A hashtag is a word or phrase proceeded by a # (the number/pound sign) that is used to categorize a list of topics. For example, #whatsahashtag.
By tagging your message with the number sign, it will be easily found in your social media platform’s search function. By searching with a hashtag, a list of all conversations that have used this tag will turn up in your search results. Hashtags were originated by Twitter; however, they are now being used on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+. If you haven’t heard it by now, you’ll begin to notice how it’s infused in our lexicon. #everywhere!
How It’s Used
During the 2014 FIFA World Cup, viewers were encouraged to follow and comment on the event on social media using #WorldCup2014. This is similarly seen proceeding, during, and following award shows and in political races. If a large number of people begin to use the hashtag on Twitter, it will be noted as a “trending” item.
You can use the hashtag either proceeding, following, or within your main message text. The usage has now evolved to become a way in which people can express their current mood: #needtorelax #exhausted #excitedforthefuture
During Twitter meetups AKA Tweetups, hashtags form an ideal way to follow conversations during these events. If you are hosting a Tweetup, you should register your hashtag to ensure that other people won’t be using it in a separate conversation. There are a few services, such as Twubs, that are excellent sources.
How To Create A Hashtag
1. Begin with the # sign.
2. Use a word of phrase without spacing. #All1Word.
3. Be creative. A generic, one word tag may get lost in the shuffle. Try using two or more words.
4. Make it memorable, particularly as it applies to your brand. There should be some relation, unless of course you’re lightheartedly hashtagging.
5. Use existing hashtags for discussions you’d like to join.
6. Try not to use too many hashtags in one message. Remember you’re often limited by characters, and you don’t want your tags to overpower your message. #fail #EnoughHashTagsAlready!
If you’d like to make a mark with your brand, secure a unique hashtag for your audience to use. In case you missed it, mine is #BeTheBestBrand. Feel free to retweet this!
