If you had only ten seconds to sell your brand, what would you want to show your audience? Snapchat’s main function allows users to send photos, videos, and texts that disappear after a length from one to ten seconds. The user can determine the length of the message. Users can send directly to their friends or post to their story. Your story is a series of snaps within a 24-hour span. Marketers are using Snapchat to create a narrative that engages audiences daily. Snapchat is quickly growing in popularity with its largest demographic being in the 18 to 34-year-old age range. As Snapchat continues to grow, your target audience will likely join the network’s group of active users.
How Snapchat Works
Content is not saved on Snapchat. The most you’ll have is potential or existing customers for one message is within the 24 hours of your story. There is value in having the attention of your consumers, which is what business marketers have gravitated towards. Snapchat is connected to your phone’s address book. When you create an account, it will be linked to the cell phone number that created the account. You can then find friends based on their phone numbers.
Simple Display
Snapchat uses a very simple display. There are only three screens. When you first open the app, you are shown the camera. You can swipe down to see your profile statistics, click the top left hand of the screen to toggle on flash (Flash is available for front and back cameras) and toggle camera view from selfies to front-facing.
Picture or Video
At the bottom of the main screen, you can tap the circle to take a picture or hold it to take a video. Remember, you only have up to 10 seconds. Once you take a photo or record a video, you can add text or draw on top of the picture by using the icons on the top-right hand side of the screen. These will only appear after you’ve taken the picture or video. On the bottom, you will have options for setting the time others can view your picture, download the photo or video to your phone and send. Be sure to activate filters under your settings. Filters, similar to Instagram’s, add to your photos and videos.
To activate, click the gear icon in the top right-hand corner of your profile and select Manage. Snapchat filters include time, weather, colored filters, speed, reverse your speech, speed up your speech and sometimes special geotagged locations.
Send, Post and Track
You can send snaps to individuals or post to your story. Your friends will not receive a notification when you post to your story, but they will receive a notification if you send to them directly. You can see who opens your snaps if sent to an individual, as well as who watches your snaps in a story. You are also able to see who screenshots your content.
What to Post
The first hurdle to using Snapchat is figuring out what to post. Snapchat’s uniqueness is geared towards enabling brands to strengthen their point-of-view with real-time marketing. Does your business host events? Give your audience direct access. Events can be as large as a product launch or as small as someone coming into your office. Remember, people make buying decisions based on emotion. Use Snapchat as an opportunity to build trust and loyalty by giving exclusive looks at the behind-the-scenes of the business. Show off your office and the people you work with. Anything that is unique to your business and your brand will make for interesting content.
As Long Island’s Premier Agency Specializing in: Web Design, SEO, PPC, Social Media, Content, Analytics and more, we would love the opportunity to talk to you about how we can help your business use Snapchat for greater business growth.
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