Every year a new social media platform becomes the buzz about town. And every year, businesses try to learn how to use the new platform and capitalize on the free form of advertising. This year, the talk is centered around Snapchat, a new photo-centric platform that combines Instagram with texting. The demographic is very young, which makes it extremely appealing to advertisers who are losing their television audience to On Demand and Netflix. But the real question is how does it work, and can I use it for my small business?
How Does It Work?
Snapchat is a photo/video and messaging app. The users have the ability to send a photo or video to another user and after 10 seconds, the video or photo disappears. In addition, the user can edit the photo by adding artwork making it almost like a comic. If you want to allow your photos or videos to be viewed by your followers or friends for 24 hours, you can then create a story, which can also be searched. Snapchat also allows for you to chat over video and pictures with your friends who have the app as well. As Snapchat has progressed, it has also become a platform for original programing, the first ever program called I Can’t Even and written, directed and produced by Stephen Spielberg’s and John Goldwyn’s daughters. Along with the communication aspect, users can keep “score” of how many snaps they sent and how many snapbacks (responses) they received.
Can I use it to Market?
Because of the instant nature of Snapchat, it is truly appealing to teenagers, who love instant gratification. As a result, it becomes extremely appealing to businesses looking to market to that demographic. Currently, large corporations, such as Coke, have capitalized on this platform by allowing their marketing team to dedicate the necessary time to create snaps and stories for immediate view and replacement. However, this is not as easy for the small business. Snapchat is a relatively young platform, having only been introduced in 2011 and only gaining extreme popularity over the last couple of years. Therefore, the options have not been as widely explored as other platforms. That being said, the problem with small businesses capitalizing on Snapchat in its current state may be the speed in which snaps must be created and then ultimately deleted. Small businesses do not typically have the manpower to maintain that speed in advertising. Nor, is there demographic necessarily represented by the users of Snapchat.
However, if your small business is looking to do business with teenagers and young adults, such as restaurants and boutique stores, to name a few, you may find Snapchat to be the perfect place to advertise, considering our advertising is dependent on photos. Either way, the jury is still out to determine how Snapchat can be best utilized by small businesses as a marketing tool.
To learn more about Snapchat and other social media marketing for your business, contact the experts at Skol Marketing at 612.787.7565 or Info@SkolMarketing.com.
Image credit: http://micheleliuzzi.com/come-usare-snapchat-per-il-tuo-business/
