Unless you have been, oh, I don’t know, living under a rock or something, you have probably heard about the most shared ‘selfie’ of all time: the “best photo ever” taken by Ellen Degeneres at the Oscars.

The photo, posted to Ellen’s Twitter account, has already surpassed the previous most-tweeted selfie, Obama’s ‘4 more years’ photo. Ellen’s star-studded selfie (seen below) has already racked up close to 3 million retweets. Wow!

This has brought up the question in many marketers’ minds today: Can businesses use ‘selfies’ to achieve even a small fraction of the reach that Ellen’s photo did? And if so, how?

6 Genius Ways to Use Selfies in Your Marketing

If you would like to capitalize on the popularity of selfies in your own marketing strategy, here are 6 genius ways you can do so!

1.  Contest: Get fans and followers to take selfies with your products.

 Image courtesy of Bill Marsh Hyundai

Hold a contest that encourages your fans and followers to take photos of themselves with your product. Get them to not only post the photo to your Facebook wall or with a contest hashtag on Twitter or Instagram, but also to share the photo with friends to increase your reach.

 2.  Contest: Get fans and followers to take selfies at your place of business.

This is the same idea as #1, however this one is ideal for local businesses. Hold a contest where the best ‘on location’ selfie wins! This one is great for generating a buzz for your local brick and mortar business.

3.  Create a selfie app relevant to your business.

In some niches, creating an ‘insert yourself into the selfie’ app can be a fun and profitable way to get some attention online. There has been an explosion of selfie apps in the past year or so, but by creating one that is specifically relevant to your audience, there’s always room for one more!

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 4.  Offer a discount in exchange for a selfie.

How much is increased exposure worth to you? 5% 10%? More? Offer a discount to your customers or clients with every selfie posted to your wall, or posted with a relevant company hashtag on Twitter or Instagram.

You may want to encourage people to take a photo with your product, in your business, or somehow incorporating your logo.

5.  Hold a cause-related selfie campaign.

If you are looking to raise public awareness about an issue or cause while expanding your reach at the same time, holding a selfie campaign could be a good move for you.

Take the New York Public Library’s 2013 selfie campaign, for instance. In light of severe budget cuts, library management knew they needed to do something outside of the box to generate buzz about their services.

They installed photobooths outside 2 of their locations, and encouraged visitors to take photos and then tweet the results. These photos were then automatically posted to Flikr, further expanding their reach.

6. Feature a fan’s selfie.

Ask your fans or followers to submit a selfie with your product, and then choose one image to feature as the ‘Fan Selfie of the Week’. Kind of like a contest, but the ‘prize’ is simply the adoration of, and recognition by, the rest of your fans!

via:http://kimgarst.com/6-genius-ways-to-use-selfies-in-your-marketing