Coyne Delivers "State Of The Selfie"

PARSIPPANY, N.J., Feb. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Coyne's State of the Selfie report, released today, takes a headlong dive into selfie culture with the goal of helping marketers harness the cultural phenomenon for their brand or company.

Love them or loathe them, selfies are everywhere. The first selfie dates back to 1839, "snapped" by Robert Cornelius of Philadelphia. Today, more than 93 million selfies are taken worldwide each day, and in the last year alone, the term "selfie" was mentioned over 154 million times across social media channels (according to Google and Sysomos, respectively).

Explosively popular photo messaging apps like Snapchat support this selfie saturation. The app gives users a platform to easily and quickly share over 400 million photo "snaps" per day. Five percent of all selfies shared on social media are taken and sent via Snapchat. They've become a part of everyday life, inspiring academic studies, cultural trends, memes, news, college courses and products.

"Selfies as a mode of communication have saturated our society," said Marie Baker, Vice President of Social Media at Coyne. "It's vital that we dissect and understand their role in popular culture and apply that knowledge to building effective brand communication strategies."  

The State of the Selfie report includes:

• The Science of Selfies – Survey results from Coyne Connect (the agency's exclusive panel of online influencers) and a look at academic selfie studies
• Body Language – A deep dive into the latest trends in selfie culture 
• Selfie-ventions – A review of useful, unique and unusual inventions inspired by the selfie
• The Great Selfie Debate – A selfie fan and selfie hater go head-to-head
• Express Your Selfie – A how-to guide for taking a great selfie (spoiler: avoid cliffs!)

The agency's influencer panel survey found that more than 50 percent of respondents still enjoy seeing selfies in their social media feeds and more than 85 percent engage in this behavior themselves, with the majority posting a selfie once a week on their social media channels. Facebook and Instagram came in first and second as the favored platforms. Of the nine percent of respondents who don't post selfies, their main reason was purely because they'd rather post pictures of something else.

The selfie is here to stay. Researchers are now looking at how selfies are connected to attitudes, characteristics and other psychological behaviors. College courses in London and Boston now explore the artistic production, psychology, and societal impact of the selfie.

Fascinating research findings to date include:

• More selfies = longer arms: Harvard University researchers found that human arms have grown longer by an entire half inch in the past two years alone…all because of selfies. They predict human arms will become four to five inches longer by the close of the century. Evolution?
• A great selfie takes time: A study from The Body Shop found that British women spend 753 hours of their life capturing the perfect online profile picture. This means they are spending over a month on just this activity (in aggregate).
• Dating online? Do your research, ladies: Ohio State University researchers found that adult males who post a lot of selfies are more likely to exhibit psychopathic or narcissistic qualities than those who don't.
• You're so vain: Selfiecity.net (a new media project) found that women take significantly more selfies than men – 61.6 percent in New York alone.

State of the Selfie also features a how-to guide to help smartphone photographers master the art of the selfie. Key tips and tricks include avoiding the dreaded duck face and "over-the-shoulder-butt-in-the-mirror shots"; angling your phone to highlight your cheekbones and disguise a double chin; and facing the light.

For a full-color print copy of the full State of the Selfie report, please contact Shana Reyes at [email protected].

ABOUT COYNE: 
Coyne is a full-service, integrated communications agency with expertise in a variety of industries. The agency consistently displays the knowledge and creativity that has made it one of the fastest-growing agencies. The agency is a member of the Worldcom Public Relations Group, the world's leading partnership of independently-owned PR firms, and prominent clients include The Walt Disney Company, Hard Rock International, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Chrysler, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Shell Lubricants, Columbia Business School and Pfizer. Clients look to Coyne for its amazing combination of unbridled imagination, limitless enthusiasm, unwavering strategic approach and impeccable integrity. Fueled by the agency's mission to be the best place to work, employees deliver high-profile programs that drive visibility, engagement and growth for many of the world's most-trusted brands. The agency has evolved far beyond its PR roots with a dedicated social media practice, an award-winning digital design group and a full advertising and marketing team. Coyne has won more than 750 industry honors in the past decade, including Midsize Agency of the Year by PRWeek, Consumer Agency of the Year, Best Agency to Work For in America and Small Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report.  

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