An Introduction to Snapchat Marketing Basics
It’s all too easy to overlook Snapchat as a social media platform that doesn’t really matter for business or marketing. After all, there’s no real way to discover new people to follow, the content doesn’t ‘last’ and it’s generally less geared toward marketing than something like Facebook or Twitter.
Or at least that’s the opinion of many business owners. In fact though, overlooking Snapchat for its marketing potential is a huge mistake. Let’s take a look at why…
Snapchat is Highly Personal
If you’ve had your ear to the ground, then you may have heard the buzz about live streaming. Live streaming services are quickly becoming incredibly popular thanks to their ability to allow direct and live communication between a brand and its followers.
But in fact, Snapchat has been providing something very similar for a long time. Snapchat allows you to update people about your trip to another country, it allows you to invite people to watch the public unveiling of your new product or service and it allows you to share a joke as you’re coming out the shower. This kind of personal communication has the power to create much more engagement, familiarity and trust. And if you look at the big names on Snapchat – like Arnold Schwarzenegger – then you’ll be able to easily see how it can be used to great effect.
It Has Incredible Engagement
Yes, Snapchat’s ‘instant’ nature gives it the potential to greatly increase engagement. And in reality, that’s exactly what it does.
According to a post on Huffington Post, a Snapchat user with 1,000 followers can expect 900 of those followers to watch each video. That’s huge! And this is in comparison to the far smaller amount of engagement you see on Facebook or Email. Email open rates are 25% when they’re at their very best and on Facebook, most of your followers won’t even have the option to see your posts unless you pay for them.
The Filters Are Awesome
Snapchat’s latest big feature is its filters. These are not only an excellent accomplishment in terms of the sheer coding expertise (this is an example of ‘computer vision’ which is very difficult to pull off) but they’re also brilliantly viral. It’s not uncommon to see screenshots of these filters popping up all over the web!
How to Build Your Following
So how do you build your following on Snapchat?
Simple: you start creating a compelling story and post multiple times per week at least (ideally, you’ll post multiple times per day). Then simply make sure that you download a couple of those and share them on other platforms like Facebook and Instagram along with your Snapchat username. This way, you can show your fans what they’re missing and give them the opportunity to follow you more closely! You can also promote your Snapchat through your blog posts, your website and blog posts. Of course you need to ensure that the clips you show are engaging and exciting enough to attract more users.
