How Brands Can be on Snapchat Immediately
Kissmetrics says, “Snapchat isn’t for everyone.” That it’s most active age demographic are young adults between 18–24 so… “If you’re a B2B marketer targeting high-level decision makers at corporations then Snapchat isn’t your best bet.” I don’t agree necessarily. Just last week Alex Moazed published an article in Inc Magazine titled “Why Snapchat Is the New LinkedIn for Tech Startups”. Here’s my take on snapchat for businesses targeting grownups over the age of 25…
Snapchat is a new way to digest content.
It’s like on demand reality TV that pierces into anyone’s personal life aka ‘story’ and vanishes within 24 hours. Kinda like how back in the day you had to show up to your TV at 8pm on a Thursday and turn on NBC to watch the show ‘Friends’. That was the only way to catch a new episode until the re-runs played. Now most video content is streaming and on demand, a trend Netflix and Amazon sparked, but their shows don’t expire, so there’s no urgency to consume that content right away.
Before I continue let me start by stating, I’d know NOTHING about Snapchat and especially not Snapchat for brands if it wasn’t for Saba Sedighi. Want to truly understand how to use Snapchat and why it can create an ROI for your business, hire her - period. In one session you’ll finally ‘get it’ like I did. I remember when no one understood Twitter, how to use it or what it was. Radio station DJs would scratch their heads attempting to discuss it over the airways. Now, years later, it is a staple of digital communication for media, news, entertainment that all brands must have. Just like in the early days when a website became required to be a proper business.
I don’t know where Snapchat will lead. It’s been around since 2011 and only now are companies like Forbes replacing their Twitter profile pic for their snapcode, but I think it matters enough that us tech startups should take an interest. Investors Marc Suster and Chris Sacca have, partner at 500 Startups Sean Percival, the co-founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian, Jason Calacanis, the founder of Betalist Marc Kohlbrugge and of course Justin Kan who co-founded Twitch TV. Ryan Hoover from Product Hunt has one too. Eric Willis, a moderator at Product Hunt, even created Startup TV on Snap where startups around the world take over his account and share their ‘day in the life.’ And Sarena Bahad just launched a women in tech snapchat channel today.
Here’s a list of startup founders and investors on snapchat. Feel free to add to it if you’re on Snap: http://wearelatech.com/techchannels-snapchat
Snapchat celebrities like Danny Berk are being contracted by big name companies such as Zillow and Cinnabon to showcase their brands in a fast paced engaging bite sized way.
Any marketer knows that the more times a consumer sees your brand the more likely they are to buy. The classic saying was a passerby needed to see your branding 7x before they’d take action. For instance seeing your product on email, then on a website, then in an ad, then from a friend and on social. And based on the infamous Gary Vaynerchuk, who allegedly receives on average 15,000 views per Snap, of which I imagine most are 24 yrs+, you’d be on one more medium to stay at top of mind for a future customer.
It’s hard to build a following on Snapchat, it’s not YouTube, it’s not Twitter and it’s not Facebook. It’s its own beast. So to attract people to your Snap you have to use outside channels like media publications and your social profile images for people to know your channel exists. And even with that the only people who will truly understand how to connect are those already on the platform. But if you have online real estate such as a twitter profile and it could serve dual use — a Snapcode image, why not?
For the longest time I felt I just didn’t jive with this new way of capturing content, it didn’t feel natural. I’d be running around South by Southwest randomly taking videos and photos of my friends at events. Saba said to have a story; a beginning, middle and end. And that’s when I realized picking a theme, having a purpose, telling a specific story for my channel and enjoying the creative process of doodling on a video or photo is all I need to do to fuel the machine. My sole goal should be to keep my Snapchat going in a low cost way while the world figures out it’s place in the lives of kids or adults or both
There’s so much more I can get into from advertising your company using Geofilters to how DJ Khaled cashes in on monetizing his channel through e-commerce, but I’ll leave that for Saba to share… https://twitter.com/SabaSedighi
And if after reading all this you still prefer sticking to Twitter, here’s where to find me @espreedevora and @wearelatech
Snap usernames for tech influencers mentioned in this post:
If you know more awesome people in tech on Snap be sure to add them to this list…
wearelatech, garyvee, sabasedighi, marckohlbrugge, womenintech, startuptv, dannyberk, seanpercival, rrhoover, justinkan, msuster, csacca, jasoncalacanis, alexisohanian, mmazzeo
