What Your Business Needs to Know About Snapchat

You may have never used Snapchat before; in fact, you may not have much idea what it even is, beyond the latest and greatest social media platform. You’ve probably seen that increasingly ubiquitous ghost icon, though—and hopefully you’re starting to realize that, even in an ever-changing social media landscape, Snapchat is here to stay. Indeed, since its late 2011 launch, the social platform has grown to 100 million daily active users and 7 billion video views every single day. That’s not something your brand can ignore.

Indeed, more and more brands (and political campaigns) are getting in on the fun—and maybe it’s time for you to join them. Before you go down that road, though, here’s our primer on Snapchat—what it is, how it works, and why it matters.

How Snapchat Works

Sites like Facebook and Instagram provide you with ways to catalog, collect, and preserve your memories; Snapchat is something of an outlier in that it’s all about ephemerality. It’s all about fleeting, momentary connections, with almost none of the content that is shared ever saved.

Using Snapchat, you can send snaps—pictures, videos, or messages—that are embellished with captions and animated effects. These snaps are intentionally self-destructing, lasting somewhere from one to 10 seconds before vanishing forever. Once a snap is actually viewed, it’s gone for good.

You send a snap to one specific, individual friend—so think along the lines of a text message or a Facebook Message, not a public tweet or Facebook status update. However, Snapchat also allows you to create a collection of snaps, called a Story, that is public, viewable by everyone. A story lasts for up to 24 hours—but then it, too, goes poof. Within those 24 hours, though, people can view the story as many times as they like.

Snapchat users can also access Snapchat Discover, which curates stories from editorial teams at CNN, ESPN, and a handful of other media entities.

How Brands Can Use Snapchat

For businesses and brands looking to embrace this ghostly technology, here are a few quick tips:

• Even though your content will be fleeting, it needs to offer value—whether that comes in the form of actionable advice or simply entertainment.
• Embrace variety in the content you share; remember that Snapchat is meant to be breezy and fun!
• When you send something really important, like a URL, give your recipients a heads-up that they need to screenshot it.
• Promote your Snapchat account through other social platforms.

To learn more about the latest in social marketing tools, explore some of the resources we’ve got at ACES!