بازاریابی سلفی: کاوش خودشیفتگی و خودانگاری در محتوای دیداری تولید شده توسط کاربران در رسانه های اجتماعی Selfie-Marketing: Exploring Narcissism and Self-Concept in Visual User-Generated Content on Social Media

Introduction The concept of a “selfie” is simple: a consumer takes a photo or video of himself or herself, shares it via social media, and then, waits for feedback. Approximately 93 million selfies are taken across the world each day (Cohen, 2016), with nearly 40% of millennials taking at least one selfie per day (eMarketer, 2015). Indeed, selfies are an integral part of many consumers’ lives, especially for millennials. Due to this growing trend, some companies are increasingly devoting resources to selfie-focused marketing activities (AdWeek, 2016), which encourage consumers to take and share selfies in relation to a brand. The authors hereafter refer to this concept as “selfie-marketing,” defined as user-generated selfies that are used by a company for marketing purposes. For example, Buffalo Wild Wings launched an Instagram campaign asking consumers to share selfies with the #fannerism hashtag while watching the World Cup at its restaurants (Gibson, 2014). While the marketing academic literature is studying brand-consumer interactions on mobile devices and social media in general (e.g., Bacile et al., 2014; Hamilton et al., 2016), it is important to examine the increasing trend of social networks featuring visual communication. Scholars outside of marketing, such as psychologists studying human interaction with computers, have made progress in this area. Bayer et al. (2016) examined visual-content sharing apps such as Instagram and Snapchat and how they differ from other social networking platforms in content formality and permanency, as well as unique social and emotional experiences. Moreover, Pittman and Reich (2016) suggested that people who share selfies on Instagram versus Snapchat may be attempting to express themselves differently, as social interactions on each platform may differ considerably. As such, consumers use self-presentation of selfies shared on visual content sharing apps as an impression management strategy (Qiu et al., 2015). However, this phenomenon is far less researched in a marketing context (Lim and Lim, 2016), specifically as brands start to devote more resources to selfie-marketing campaigns. The present research begins to fill this void by exploring the interplay of selfies, selfpresentation, narcissism, and self-concept on two popular visual content-sharing apps: Instagram and Snapchat. The authors examine how millennials use selfies to present their self-concepts on visual content-sharing apps, in an effort to understand their attitudes and intention to participate in selfie-marketing. This research adds to the literature’s understanding of selfie-marketing and offers insights for marketers to plan and implement selfie-marketing initiatives.