The instant video and picture messaging app, Snapchat, has taken social media by storm over the last 2 years with it current daily users standing at 150 million and rising fast. Snapchat’s exponential growth is staggering with 68% increase in daily users since this time last year, and yet businesses are being slow to adopt a platform that poses significant advantages. Here are 5 reasons why Snapchat should be part of your business’s social media strategy.
- It’s high impact and disposable.
Snapchat’s USP as a social platform lies in its speed and temporary nature. Photo and video messages, known as “Snaps”, only last for between 1-10 seconds once viewed by another user. The idea is to create a fast audio visual conversation between users. It is this brevity that creates a feeling of exclusivity for users and prompts engagement via FOMO (fear of missing out). From a business point of view, Snapchat is the only major social platform to provide genuine opportunities for real time marketing campaigns.
- All the kids are doing it.
The one demographic where Snapchat is snapping up users faster than any other platform is with millennials. The disposable nature of content on Snapchat is of huge appeal to younger people who want to talk about their life and experiences online without it being preserved there. Another part of its appeal with teens and young adults is that can be used entirely non-verbally and still be able to create a functional conversational. If your business sees millennials as a key demographic, then there is currently no faster way to engage with them than by using Snapchat as part of internet advertising.
- It’s informal and intimate.
Making your business’s social content fun is something that is often espoused by marketing experts and in previous posts on this blog, but when it comes to Snapchat it is the only way to approach promotion on the platform. Snapchat is already iconic for its whacky photo and video filters and the speed of the platform leaves little room for formalities, but by keeping it light and brief your business can demonstrate a more human side that can create a feeling of intimacy with your followers.
Example: Try using Snapchat’s “Story” mode to show a day in the life of your business to educate and entertain followers as you inform them as to what your business is all about and how it works.
- It’s more interactive.
Through its speed and ease of use, Snapchat provides ample opportunities to prompt interactive responses from followers and allows you to capture user-generated content. There are growing examples of businesses using the platform in such exercises like scavenger-hunts to encourage engagement with users. In this sense, Snapchat lends itself perfectly to gamifying your marketing campaigns and creating that all important fun factor.
- It has purchasing power.
Finally -and perhaps most crucially- Snapchat provides safe transactions for users thanks to its partnership with Square. This makes it ideal for flash sale items and impulse purchases for followers without the need to take them out of the platform and set up accounts on a business’s site.