So how can content marketers use this to their advantage? It’s popular with teens There’s no question that Snapchat is a key social platform for marketers who are specifically looking to target younger people. Another reason for its popularity among the younger generation is its focus on images and video, rather than text-based posts. It’s all about fun When it first came out, there were a lot of people who dismissed Snapchat as a gimmick that would never become a serious social network contender. In fact, when it comes to content marketing, playful is often the perfect angle. While Snapchat may not be the first place you think of when it comes to selling your products, it can actually be a surprisingly good platform for spreading brand awareness. And that’s really what good content marketing is about. Next, Snapchat plans to roll out its new augmented reality feature, which will enable marketers to pay for words and images to be overlaid onto the world, as viewed through a user’s smartphone camera. New advertising formats like this are increasingly popular and completely different to anything we’re seeing from the other social platforms. What are your experiences with using Snapchat for business?
Snapchat is a unique social platform and one that has exploded in popularity rather suddenly since its release in 2011. Now reaching around 8 billion views daily (and there are only 7.4 billion of us in the world, remember), the medium of ephemeral content has well and truly taken off. So how can content marketers use this to their advantage?
Snapchat is the only platform that reaches younger, teen users in substantial numbers. It’s easy to see why, what with all the fun features it’s packing. Whereas Facebook and Instagram integrate advertising as part of their business model, Snapchat requires a slightly different approach – one that’s more personal, engaging and rough around the edges.
Here’s why Snapchat is becoming content marketing’s not-so-secret weapon.
1. It’s popular with teens
There’s no question that Snapchat is a key social platform for marketers who are specifically looking to target younger people. Snapchat is constantly updating and adding new features to stay fresh and relevant, which is just one of the reasons teens love it so much. By contrast, networks like Facebook and Twitter have, for the most part, remained much the same.
Features like Snapchat Discover and a seemingly unending array of picture and video filters (such as face-swapping) mean the novelty of Snapchat never quite wears off.
Another reason for its popularity among the younger generation is its focus on images and video, rather than text-based posts. As a rule, teens (and to an extent, users in general) are more interested in flipping through visual content than written content.
An eMarketer study says more teens than expected are leaving Facebook for Instagram and Snapchat since they are “more aligned with how they communicate”.
2. It’s all about fun
When it first came out, there were a lot of people who dismissed Snapchat as a gimmick that would never become a serious social network contender. How wrong they were!
One thing that Snapchat does particularly well is promoting a playful user experience. As we now know, just because a product is frivolous and lighthearted, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taken seriously. In fact, when it comes to content marketing, playful is often the perfect angle.
Our Facebook news feeds are often flooded with hard news – a lot of doom and gloom. Snapchat meets our need for light, entertaining content that doesn’t fill us with anxiety about the state of the world. Ultimately, users will always be drawn to fun – as long as it’s brand-appropriate.
3. It puts mobile first
In the same way as Instagram, Snapchat is designed specifically for use on mobile devices – you actually can’t use it on a desktop. This means that users take it with them wherever they go, heightening the relevance of their location at any given time. Snapchat has a ‘find your friends’ feature that enables users to see where their friends are, and what they’re up to.
This puts it right ‘in the moment’. Everything on Snapchat is happening right here, right now. It satisfies our craving for the new and exciting and plugs us into the lives…
COMMENTS