An Introduction to Snapchat Marketing Basics
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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
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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.
Snapchat vs Live Video Streaming
Every now and then the world of internet marketing gets shaken up. Actually scratch that – the world of internet marketing is perpetually being shaken up. The world of internet marketing hardly ever sits still and is in a state that some people refer to as ‘permaflux’. This is because internet marketing relies on technology and the very nature of technology is to constantly change, develop and progress.
The latest thing to rock the world of digital marketing is arguably live video streaming. Live video streaming does exactly what it says on the tin: it lets you stream video content for people to watch all around the world. The biggest platforms/apps for doing this are Periscope, Meerkat and now Facebook and many people are heralding it as the best way possible to engage with your viewers.
But in some ways, you could argue that Snapchat was doing it first. And you could also argue that Snapchat was doing it better right from the beginning. Let’s take a look at why this argument isn’t as ludicrous as it sounds.
The Benefits of Live Video and Snapchat
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The thing that everyone loves about live video is that it allows brands to communicate directly with their audience. The audience can watch something as it unfolds and feel almost as though they’re there with the content creator and in fact they can even participate with that footage by commenting and asking for the camera to be pointed in X direction (for example).
Snapchat does almost all these things. Snapchat of course works by allowing you to film a very short video or take a single photo and then send that to a specific person or a whole list of followers. The content then lasts a couple of seconds before completely disappearing.
This actually means that Snapchat can be used in a very similar way to live video. Something you film on Snapchat can be watched seconds after you film it and that gives it a very live and very personal feel. As with live video, your audience can feel almost as though they’re right there with you filming on location or reviewing your product. At the same time, they can respond by sending you something back – although of course this isn’t quite as immediate as seeing something live.
Where Snapchat Comes Out on Top
But there are some ways in which Snapchat is actually better. For example, if someone isn’t around at the right time to watch your live video then they won’t get to see it on Meerkat. On Periscope they have a short amount of time to catch up. On Facebook they can watch it as a regular video on your wall for a while after – but it loses that feeling of being live and personal.
On Snapchat, this will continue to feel like a personal and almost-live message whenever your audience sees it. And for this reason, 90% of your audience will see everything you post.
Snapchat isn’t quite ‘live video’ – but in terms of engagement and how personal it feels… it might as well be!
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