To many, Snapchat may not strike as a reliable tool for online marketing at first. But, considering the growing popularity and the augmenting number of users of this tool, Snapchat can be effectively utilized to advertise your products/services online. Let’s take a sneak-peek into this social media platform and how you can make the most of it:
A brief introduction to Snapchat
Snapchat is a mobile based application that runs on Android and Apple iOS platforms. One can use it to create messages in the form of ‘Snaps’ containing photographs, texts, videos and drawings. These snaps last only for 1-10 seconds and after that the content gets removed and recipients can no longer access it unless one has a taken a snapshot of the message.
What makes Snapchat different from other social networks?
The demographics of Snapchat clearly indicate the growing appeal of this platform. It is a vibrant and lively social media and has incorporated a range of special features since its launch in 2011. The instant messaging trait of this platform has also paved a way for live chat. The thing that segregates Snapchat from other networks of social media is its approach to advertising and marketing. Though the platform may not have the segmentation tools used by Facebook for advertising, it has its own creative methodologies for marketing products. This allows businesses to think outside the box when it comes to promoting their products online.
Being a new social media platform, Snapchat certainly gets its due share of attention from advertisers but this is not the sole reason that businesses utilize this platform. Users of Snapchat are captive audiences and are seemingly curious to witness how brands and businesses adjust themselves to this platform.
The advertising features of Snapchat
Snapchat took a number of years to completely embrace its prevalent marketing philosophies. It began with ‘Snapchat Stories’, a feature that allowed brands to share snaps that lasted for twenty four hours as compared to the current time of ten seconds. Just like on other social media channels, the Stories that are shared on Snapchat won’t help if they are just plain fragments of information. The challenge is to make these stories creative and friendly. Just after Stories started maturing as a brand on Snapchat, it released ‘Discover’ to allow businesses to establish themselves on the platform. Discover makes use of a growing trend on social media that engages users who directly visit Fb timelines, Twitter Profiles, company pages on LinkedIn, etc.
Unleashing Real Time Content for engaging users on Snapchat
Online marketers have realized that the ephemeral nature of Snapchat has found attention among users. This the reason why brands such as Mountain Dew have started seizing the moment while crafting snaps and Stories. The content created by the brand will be archived in its ‘Discover Profiles’ so that users and followers can benefit from it.
Snapchat is an emerging platform and slowly many marketers are becoming familiar with it. Considering its augmenting number of users, the platform has a great potential for storming the world of online marketing!
