What's the fascination with Snapchat, especially from the marketing
perspective? Good question. I have to admit the "youngins" picked up
Snapchat long before we started considering it as a marketing tool.
You may be sitting
there wondering what Snapchat is? No worries, you aren't the
only one, let me give you a brief introduction before we start talking about
its marketing value.
Snapchat launched in
2011. It is a mobile messaging application. In the beginning, it
was a great way to send photos and videos without bogging down your
phone's storage. The younger kids picked up on it first. They could add
captions, drawings, and even filters to their photos and videos before sending
them to friend and family, thus the term "snap." The element
that attracted most users was the fact that you could only view the
"snap" for 10 seconds before it disappeared.
Poof – gone for good! Now, you can probably see the
attraction for tweens and teens. Today Snapchat has over 100 million active users and over 7
billion daily video views. Now, you understand the attraction to
marketers.
Snapchat closely resembles how we communicate face-to-face
than any other social network. when we talk to each other, passing in the
halls or just living out our lives, those moments disappear. Snapchat emulates
that behavior and psychology. Moments are temporary and that's exactly
the feeling and behavior that Snapchat matched to."
In 2013, Snapchat introduced a new feature called Snapchat Stories. This enabled users to
string together photos and videos taken throughout the day creating
narratives. Think of it as a Twitter feed or Facebook
timeline. The stories last for 24 hours. This new feature took hold
and users continued to grow, according to Business Insider over 40% of 18-year-olds
were using Snapchat.
In 2015, they launched
a new feature called Discover. Discover took Snapchat to an entirely new
level. Discover connected SnapChat users with top media companies and media
companies started publishing content to the app users. The companies they
launched with included ESPN, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic and CNN.
This feature has pushed the platform into a prime position for
monetization.
Ok, so that's a brief
history on SnapChat, now let's talk about why marketers are bringing it to the
attention of business owners.
Snapchat users have centered around the millennial generation that's one attraction,
but other generations are adapting to it daily and active users continue to
increase in volume. Facebook as continually been losing the younger
audience to applications like Snapchat, ComScore reports that three out
of every five 18-24-year-olds use Snapchat. The numbers are
attractive and the application carries more value than just snapping
photos and videos that disappear.
There is a lot of buzz
about Snapchat lately, but you are really the only one who can determine if
it's the right social platform for you and your business. It is growing
in popularity and users on a daily basis, so let's explore some of the ways that
Snapchat can be used so that you are able to make the educated decision on
whether or not it fits into your marketing strategy.
The challenge with
Snapchat is that the marketing options are not as advanced as those available
on social platforms like Facebook. You need to have a clear
understanding of the objective you want to achieve with Snapchat and how it
adds value to your overall social marketing strategy. Snapchat does take
a considerable amount of time to create a presence that is continuous and strong.
In my next blog I’ll
talk about how you can get started with SnapChat
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