Today, to stay relevant, your brand and business need a social media presence. With so many social networks to keep track of, one network is a little different from the rest - Snapchat. What is this unique social network, and how does Snapchat work? The answer to these questions can change your brand or business for the better.
Understanding Snapchat and knowing how to use it as a marketing tool can lead to a new and larger audience, increased brand awareness, more engagement, and ultimately, greater success for you. So how does Snapchat work and how can you use it to build your social media presence? Read on to find out.
There are so many social media platforms out there, all with unique features. It's hard to stay on top of what each one is. But today, Snapchat is one of the most popular social apps out there; and for marketing your brand or business it's important to understand what Snapchat is.
So how does Snapchat work, and what's so great about it? Snapchat combines a messaging platform with a social network and can be used through an app download on your smartphone.
We can't answer "how does Snapchat work?" without telling you all that you can do on it. On Snapchat, you can chat with your friends using photos, videos, and text. Plus, you can use Snapchat for voice calls and video calls too. But what really makes this social app unique is that everything you send is fleeting. More on that in the next section.
You can also spice up your images and videos with emojis, text, stickers, drawing tools, unique filters, geotags, and more. And the filters aren't only for changing the lighting and colors of images. While you can use filters like that on Snapchat, too, you also get filters that change your appearance, voice, and more.
Most other social networks like Facebook or Instagram, keep your content online until you remove or delete, but Snapchat works a little differently. All images, videos, and texts are deleted 24 hours after they are opened.
What's the appeal about a platform that lets you send images, videos, and texts, just to have them disappear? It seems strange to many at first, but this feature takes tons of pressure off of posting that perfect video or picture because it won't last forever. Plus, content that doesn't last long becomes more epic: after all viewers only have a short chance to see it.
Another great feature on this social app is Snapchat stories. Snapchat stories are videos or images that are posted to a personal profile and can be viewed by either anyone or only be viewed by a user's Snapchat friends. So instead of sending content directly to others, it's displayed for friends or the public to see. Just like with direct messages, the content displayed on Snapchat stories also disappears after 24 hours.
As a business or brand looking to boost your social media presence, you want to make sure that your settings are set to public so that everyone can view your stories. Do this by clicking the ghost at the center of the main screen, then click the red settings symbol on the top right corner. Change the sections for who can contact you and who can view your stories from “my friends” to “everyone”.
So what if someone really wants to keep a picture or video you send them? In that case, there is the option to screenshot and save a copy of an image or a snippet of a video; but the poster will be notified of this screenshot and know exactly who took it, too.
Now that we've covered the basic components of the answer to "how does Snapchat work?", let's get into how it can be used for marketing and boosting social media presence.
For brand and business marketing, social media is a huge asset. Today, without a social media presence, your brand or business will easily get lost in the competition. Since Snapchat differs from most other social platforms, it can be a little overwhelming to step into using Snapchat for marketing; but these statistics will help show you why can't miss out on this social network:
A big part of the answer to “how does Snapchat work?”, is "differently." We mentioned before that Snapchat differs from most social networks, and while this might seem like a hindrance it's actually a benefit. Since Snapchat is unique, you'll be able to reach a new audience with new content and in a new way.
While Snapchat is a popular social network, it's not as commonly used as other networks such as Facebook. Most brands and businesses are already on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest; so getting your content to stand out can be more challenging.
Snapchat is a little less about that perfect image or video and a little more about fun. As we mentioned before, filters aren't really used to improve the quality of videos or images, but to make them more interesting and increase the entertainment value.
Plus, Snapchat provides a personal feeling too because it gives people a behind the scenes look. And with disappearing content, it's all about the present moment.
We mentioned how the uniqueness of Snapchat brings with it a lot of new benefits, but it's also great for reaching a new audience you're having trouble connecting with. Especially if that audience is a younger demographic.
Some marketing tools are costly, but Snapchat is free.
Image source: Pixabay
With the benefits of Snapchat for marketing, it's easy to see how it can be useful to your business or brand; but how does Snapchat work for boosting social media presences?
As with all marketing, to effectively use Snapchat as a marketing tool you need to have a marketing strategy. Since Snapchat is unique, your marketing strategy for Snapchat will look different from other strategies--even other social media marketing strategies you've used before.
To help you out, we've got some methods that have been proven to work:
People love a challenge, and they love prizes even more. A great way to use Snapchat to spread brand awareness and engage with your audience is by running contests.
Think of something fun for Snapchat users to do, and then share it as a limited time contest on Snapchat. Don't forget to offer a desirable prize that relates to your business or brand.
Successful businesses that use Snapchat for boosting social influence offer discount codes and promos; and you can too. Offer coupons and promo codes for discounts for users that watch your story or post a picture with one of your products.
This increases engagement, brand awareness, and sales.
If you've got an event coming up or an exciting new product launch, you can use Snapchat to build momentum.
Share images and videos or the preparation process to build excitement. This will be especially effective on Snapchat since everything you share will soon disappear.
We mentioned before that one benefit of Snapchat is that it provides a personal touch.. Give Snapchat users a quick look behind the scenes.
Show them around your workspace, introduce them to your team, and share your company culture via Snapchat stories. This will help humanize your brand and business.
Don't just stop at getting personal: give users exclusivity too. If you have live events or are rolling out new company initiatives, live stream them.
This can be used for trade shows, product launches, special events, etc. This helps increase brand awareness and promote authenticity too.
A newer feature on Snapchat is the tagging feature that lets users tag other users and link to their stories. This gives influencers the ability to link to brands and businesses, and the other way around too.
For example, if you're in the fashion industry you can reach out to fashion influencers on Snapchat to help them promote your designs. Or, if you can swing it let an influencer with a big following take over your Snapchat for the day. Get creative and reach out.
Because of the demographics of Snapchat users, your Snapchat audience might differ from your regular audience. That's okay, they are still a big audience, and that's important, so adapt and connect to them.
Have fun with Snapchat and its unique features and adapt your content to appeal to your Snapchat audience.
Are you ready to take your brand or business to the next level? Snapchat can help you get there. With so many benefits and marketing uses, there's no shortage of fun marketing with this social network.
Now you know the answer to “how does Snapchat work?” and so much more, all the benefits are just around the corner.
Featured image source: Freepik
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