It’s hard to believe that Snapchat has been around since 2011. Even though it’s no longer considered a new social media platform, many small businesses still aren’t making it a part of their social media marketing. Time and staffing limitations could be your reason, but don’t let fear of the unknown stop you! The app isn’t just sharing photos and videos — it’s an incredibly effective tool for building relationships with your customers.
Even though Snapchat’s logo is a ghost, it’s definitely not scary. We’ve put together some tips, that take surprisingly little effort, to guide you as you work Snapchat into your social media strategy.
Know Your Target Demographic
Although Snapchat is used by over 150 million people across the world, the majority of its users are young. For businesses targeting that younger demographic, Snapchat can be an effective marketing tool for product promotion, special discounts, and engagement with customers.
According to a survey by Snapchat, more than 60% of 13-34 year old smartphone users in the United States are active on Snapchat. This means Snapchat isn’t worth your time or money if your target customers are younger generations. If you are catering to an older demographic, Snapchat isn’t a good fit for now. This, of course, can change with time just as it did with Facebook!
Real Time, Real You
One of the unique features about Snapchat is that snaps are timed. Unlike other text and multimedia messaging platforms, posters can choose a time limit for how long the viewers can see videos and photos. This timeframe can range from one to 10 seconds, after which the message is lost forever (unless someone takes a screenshot, of course...and the sender will be notified, so no secret screenshotting here!!). This feature might make Snapchat more engaging for its users, but it also means means businesses have a small window to capture their customers attention and effectively deliver their message.
Because the time frame is small, your message needs to be clear, concise, and memorable. Use photos and videos to announce flash sales, share promo codes exclusively for Snapchat users, preview new products, or give your customers a quick peek behind the scenes.
Time To Get Personal
If there’s a key point you need to understand about Snapchat, it’s that the app is supposed to be fun. Snapchat allows you to communicate your message informally, while showing your personality and making customers feel special. It’s a one-on-one interaction, making it more personal than Facebook and Twitter.
Take advantage of that exclusivity and connect with your customers in an unfiltered and unmediated way. Play with different filters or capture your customer’s attention with a story using a mix of videos, photos, drawings, and captions.
As is the case with any social media platform, you want to provide your guests with a unique experience. Take your customers on a journey inside your brand, which will create a connection between you and them. Your customers will feel more connected, loyalty will grow, and your brand will benefit!
Related Posts
The Social Media/SEO Connection: Part 2
In my last blog, we covered the basics of how important it is to combine social media and SEO. As difficult as it can be to focus your efforts on different marketing aspects, we are here to help. Here’s how you can combine the forces of SEO and social media to develop an improved digital marketing strategy.
The Social Media/SEO Connection
Digital marketing is ever-changing and is in the midst of an interesting evolution. Historically, we’ve understood search to be a major source of traffic and leads for small and large businesses alike. As social networks continue to grow, social media marketing is even more heavily embraced. So, where should you focus your efforts and which is more important -- SEO or social media? The answer (frustrating as it may be) is that both can be key elements to your marketing strategy.
Facebook Metric Changes: Spring 2019
Spring has officially sprung, and just as you are seeing changes outside in the world, Facebook is making some changes, too. Facebook is constantly working to provide a high functioning ad platform, which means metrics must evolve, too. These changes aren’t anything new; over the past few years, we’ve seen regular updates and removals of unnecessary metrics. The goal is to replace current ad metrics with more actionable ones. A recent company blog post shed some insight on a few upcoming changes. These changes will start on April 30th and we’ve compiled a list of recommendations on the metrics you should use going forward.