Social media is one platform that you cannot afford to neglect or take for granted. The usual names that will crop up when it comes to social media marketing would be Facebook and Instagram. But there are others. There will always be others. One of them that you might just overlook is Snapchat.
More powerful than you can imagine
If you run your own business or a startup, not using Snapchat will surely be your loss. Others will be using it and if you haven’t already known, this is one of the fastest-growing platforms in the digital marketing sector. Below are some of the reasons.
- The fastest-growing name in popularity – To date, Snapchat has become more popular in the US than the likes of other social networks like Linkedin and Pinterest (not counting Instagram and Facebook).
- Bigger population – According to a recent survey, Snapchap’s population grew and surpassed that off Twitter. In fact, it grew more in a year as compared to Twitter in 4 years!
- Second favorite after Facebook – in the US, Snapchat became the second favorite social network after Facebook. Even Instagram came in third
How far has Snapchat come?
One of the latest additions to the social network scene, it only opened up in September 2011. This platform allowed young people to share personalized photos and odd-looking faces and very soon became a youth culture across the world. The dollars don’t lie. In 2014, its revenue was a meager US3 million. A year later, it grew more than tenfold to US50 million. With more than 37% of Americans using Snapchat, this trend has spread globally.More than 10 billion videos are viewed daily on Snapchat! Over 60% of Snapchat users are below 25 years of age Almost 70% of users are female So, think about it, if you are a brand that appeals to young women, wouldn’t this platform be your ideal marketing plan?
Let’s do business
When it comes to Snapchat, the plan is slightly different as compared to other social networks. What you want to do with Snapchat is you want to share personalized messages, videos, doodles, content and emojis that hit right at the audience. This platform might not be the one to use if you are going for the full-fledged marketing and brand messaging move. You can be more experimental with Snapchat because that is what your target audience is.
Stand out among competitors
If you can hit at the audience where it matters, then you have a strategy that is different as compared to your competitors. You should then go for Snapchat for Business. This means that if a user is your ‘friend’, then they will see your content. Snapchat is quite rigid when it comes to driving away traffic. If your content is there, your followers will see it. Period!Set up a business profile and the interface is somewhat similar to a personal account. The only difference is that a business account is needed to pay to launch ads.
Some terms you should know
Snapchat has its own culture and to some extent, its own lingo too. Here are a few common ones.
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- Snap – The most popular term here. As the name implies, it means to capture an image or a video (thereby to Snap!). The user can view a snap of up to 10 seconds and it will vanish after viewing.
- Stories – This is almost the same as Instagram Stories. The Snaps appear chronologically and will only be there for 24 hours. After that, they will disappear.
- Discover – This is one unique function where the screen will show the Stories of the friends and some content from publishers who usually add new stuff each day. Users might have consented to certain stories which will be shown here
- Snapcode – This is a QR code that is generated and assigned to every user. Think of it like WeChat code
- Memories – When a user saves certain Snaps and Stories, they are shown here.
So, what’s your move?
Unlike other social media, there is no hashtag and such. With Snapchat, you want to maintain the top-of-mind as much as possible. Hence, your content needs to be consistent in terms of the time of publishing, messaging, style and engagement. Once your user gets used to what your content offers, they will want more.This is very critical because content on Snapchat disappears after 24 hours. If your Snap is forgettable, then there is no reason they will remember you at all.Your use curates what they want to see on their Snapchat. If you are in their design, you will always be there. Snapchat users select what they want to see and who to follow In other words, if they selected your business, they are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. This is target marketing at its best! Therefore, you should make it easy for users to find and follow you. Use your Snapcode as much as possible.
Tip – Make the user ‘WANT’ to follow you
The best way around this is to bank on FOMO or Fear of Missing Out. When the user has this sentiment, they will seek you out all the time. Creativity and out-of-the-box marketing will work wonders here.
