How to use Snapchat for Business

(Reasons you need to get on Board) Social media. Oh, we are literally living it! At no point has there been such a high number of active users on social media as we have presently. I cannot remember the exact number and I’m too lazy to dig up the latest surveys illustrating the number of adults actively using a social networking site of some kind. But you should have an inkling. Just because everyone is on social media, however, doesn’t mean everyone is loving it. In fact, a lot of people are left feeling down in the dumps in their boring, mundane life after stumbling upon a random stranger’s Instagram’s feed awash with all the exquisite eats of this world, beautiful designer outfits, awe-inspiring holidays with brilliantly chosen filters, and all those throat-potato-evoking shares from their latest exploits. But I digress. The focus today is on social media for business. Even then, the landscape is no hugely different. You have to ‘Go out there!’ and make yourself visible; you have to share and post ever so frequently otherwise you risk becoming irrelevant – never mind the lack of ideas on what to share; you feel the pressure of matching the competition’s massive fan base; responding to entitled followers wearing your ‘best face’, and all those other nasty little things. No Two Ways The thing is though, you just have to jump on the proverbial bandwagon or risk being left behind. And the sooner your business embraces social media, the better you are poised to leverage your marketing efforts. At times though, it can feel like a fool’s errand trying to make your voice heard amid all the noise. And particularly so when it comes to the bigger platforms: Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter (may be not Twitter), you name them. That said, what if I told you there is a platform many businesses are yet to embrace where you stand a better chance of being heard? Well, there is. It is called Snapchat. Snapchat: The Next Big Thing As we speak, Snapchat still remains a platform not many businesses are on. And as the train lazily weaves through station after station with thousands boarding each day, now would be great timing for you to make yourself visible too and avoid that lost-at-sea feeling you’re likely to get on the more populous platforms. Before you dip your feet in the water though, it pays to carefully consider who your customer base is; your audience. Reason is because Snapchat is a platform more partaken by a younger audience. According to a 2015 Sensis report, the largest age group using Snapchat in Australia is the 18-29 bracket at 38 per cent, with 15 per cent of females in the country using the platform compared to 14 per cent males. Compare this to the United States’ 45 per cent of users aged between 18 and 24 in 2015, according to comScore which also revealed a whopping 71 per cent of users fall in the 18-34 range. You might also want to know the platform stands sixth on most used social networking sites in Australia, according to the same Sensis report. The list is topped by Facebook (93%), surprisingly seconded by LinkedIn with 28%. Instagram comes in third with 26%, with the other surprise being Google+ which boasts 23% users compared to Twitter’s 17%. The latter is a percentage co-shared with Pinterest which comes in fifth, right above Snapchat with 15% of users. Powerful Brand Platform It is only recently that Snapchat has come into the limelight, and the increase in adoption perhaps correlates with the development changes the app has undergone. But before you dive in, it pays to know that Snapchat is a different ballgame compared to other social platforms. Launched in September 2011, it was initially this boring one-to-one mobile messaging app more popular for sexting due to its ephemeral nature: messages disappeared just seconds after sending. Although it still maintains that aspect, with snaps disappearing within a 10-second window after they have been opened, the upside is that unlike other social networks, your posts (snaps) here stand a better chance of being seen since they remain unopened until your followers actually view them. Speaking of growth and followers, this is one of the fastest growing social networks we have today with visual stories getting over 1 billion views every day, and almost a similar number of photos and videos disappearing within the same period. But it’s not all for nothing. Engagement is particularly high and therein lies the catch. In fact, when it comes to sharing photos on social media, guess who is king? That’s right (who would have guessed!) – Snapchat.  According to December 2015 data, an average of 760 million photos are shared on Snapchat every day which is almost double that of Facebook which stands at a ‘paltry’ 400 million. Whatsapp and Instagram you say? Whatsapp witnesses daily shares of 700 million with Instagram not even worthy a seat in this grandiose company with its 70 million shares. There are a lot of up-to-date facts about Snapchat that make for very interesting reading, and some you can find on Photoworld.

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