The question on everyone’s mind, that wants to be known, is “How can I get my selfie viral?” There are over 7 billion people on this planet and when it comes to social media there’s two types; those who don’t care how many likes, shares, comments, or follows they get, and those who can’t get enough followers and shares. Some people feel like they don’t have what it takes to make something big, to have multiple likes on something created. That is a false idea put into your head. Why are you limiting yourself from being great? Everyone has the same potential for doing greatness. It’s those that take initiative that succeed. There are a lot of people on social media, but its not impossible to stand out.

How many people on #SocialMedia

So I’m going to give you some pointers on how (at least for me it works) to get more brand (you) awareness. This is mainly for those who want to use social media to get known, if you don’t care, then just read for amusement.

Step 1: Make good content

Good photo vs. Bad photo

Above is a picture of a cute old couple and the bottom is a horrible mistake of a picture. Make sure you post something that is of good quality if you want it to go big. Have a story, have something to say, put something people are going to want to see. My favorite advertisement of all time would be the viral video campaign for the movie Carrie. If you haven’t seen it you can watch it here. It went viral and the movie didn’t do too shabby in domestic sales revenue compared to other movies that came out in its field around that time. It had a really interesting twist that made people want to watch it and share it. If you capture the attention of other people, they will want to see what else you produce. Twitter does a great job, in my opinion, with spreading awareness. Retweeting has become a huge marketing strategy for companies now. Share something clever, or funny, or awesome so that people can retweet it. In the Social Media Bible it talks about making your home videos go viral. You’ve heard about #tbt throwback Thursday. Find a way to make your home VHS videos into something that will bring back memories. I have a friend named Liz Denning that would post throwback pictures everyday. I loved watching them on Instagram blow up and get a lot of likes. It brings home a nostalgia that people can somewhat relate to. Content. Make sure you have good quality content in order for it to go viral. If you want to stay humble and not necessarily be on the lime light, you can always make up memes. One of my favorite is the overly attached girlfriend meme. It started as a spoof from her parody of the Justin Bieber song and now it is known throughout the webisphere.

Overly Attached Girlfriend

Step 2: Tags and Hashtags

#SelfieKing

This is one of my good friends, Shane Morris. He enjoys taking selfies like your average white girl, and though we always bust him on the amount of selfies one person can take, he does a really good job in getting a lot of likes. His secret is putting an overly excessive amount of hashtags. Now we understand that the smirk gets the majority of the likes and if I put a picture up with twice as many hashtags I wouldn’t be able to get as many likes myself, but I have to hand it to him. He knows how to get the followers and the likes. He goes out and produces multiple pictures of himself, with either an inexistent shirt or a guitar, but he makes the results. He gets the followers. He gets a good amount of hashtags that go along with his selfie. For example, this picture contained hashtags such as #fashion #express #model #follow #cleancut and #selfieking. He is going to get his community of people to like his picture by following the lingo in his community. If your passion was fashion, or skydiving, or singing you would put hashtags with the lingo affiliated with your hobby. You’ll slowly start to realize your not alone.

Step 3: Make a name for yourself

@NinasMakeup

I have a cousin, Nina Arce, that has her own business, @NinasMakeup where she does makeup for music videos filmed in Miami. She started with connections and launched off her social media campaign. She has a plethora of followers now and she is proud of her great accomplishment. She made a name for herself in that industry by posting and sharing information through social media. In return the producers and artist share her work. She gains connections through sharing. She makes investments by sharing so she can get shared. This is great because birds of the same flock together. People use her because she has a great social media presence. She took a selfie with me not too long ago and joking around she said “You’re welcome I just gave you a bunch of followers.” It was true her presence is so big that she impacts others. You want to get to her state where people are wanting, eager to see what you put next. In the New Rules of Marketing and PR it says that a media presence good or bad is better than no media presence. Try to aim high but make sure you get yourself out there. I know you can do it.

It’s possible to go big. Don’t give up hope. You’ll be surprised to see that people with a high social media presence tend to get more job opportunities if done correctly. So get out there and make a name, photo, or new tag for yourself and look for me on #Darce