Snapchat has gained an infamous reputation around the world for its more scandalous features. Thus, when people think of Snapchat, they usually don’t think about it in the sense of “how can I use this platform to reach my customers?” With a user base of 60 million people and 16.5 million daily users, isn’t it time marketers began thinking about the marketing potential of this network?
Marketers need to be where people are paying attention. Snapchat is most popular with 15 – 25 year olds. If your customers are in this demographic you should think about jumping on the platform. Since Snapchat is still very new, it hasn’t been ruined by brands yet, which for marketers looking to advertise on the platform is a big plus.
Many businesses think that because the content on Snapchat disappears it isn’t worthwhile to conduct business on, however they are missing out on a key difference between Snapchat and other social networks. On other networks users scroll past content very quickly, although the content doesn’t disappear most users will never go back and look for it anyway. On Snapchat it’s true that users can’t look back for a markets message because the content disappears, but users do give 100% of their audience’s attention for the length of the contents life on their device.
How Marketers are using Snapchat
Marketers already using Snapchat see it as a place where customers can be involved and engaged in projects or campaigns that your business is running. A good way to accomplish this is to invite customers to send you their own Snapchat messages that relate to the campaign your business is running. Then you can save them and repost them and add them to your company’s other social media sites as well. This creates a feeling of community or something like a group project, as your customers are more involved in your ad campaign. Rather than just talking to them, you’re making them part of the conversation.
The Culture of Snapchat
Snapchat isn’t like other social networks, there isn’t an in depth metrics panel similar to what can be found on LinkedIn and Facebook pages. Marketers engaging on Snapchat shouldn’t expect a direct return on investment “X amount of Snaps won’t lead to X amount of sales.” But that adds to some of the appeal of Snapchat, it’s about having fun with your customers and if your business appears genuine and just having fun on the platform then your campaign will most likely be pretty successful.
Have you been using Snapchat for your business? Let us know in the comments section below!
Based on the article by Michael Stelzner at http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/snapchat-marketing-with-gary-vaynerchuk-and-shaun-mcbride/
