7 Great Ways to Promote Your Small Business on Snapchat
With 158 million users active each day, sending more than 2.5 billion snaps per day, Snapchat is currently the largest growing social media platform. Heavily used by those in the 18 to 34 demographic, Snapchat is less formal than Instagram, less terse than Twitter, and less used by grandparents than Facebook.
Snaps only last for 24 hours, and then disappear entirely, which means that companies need to do some planning before they can successfully promote on Snapchat. These seven promotional possibilities will get you started.
Access to live events
Is your company volunteering at a local event, are you launching a new product, or are you hosting a big celebration? By recording short videos that are put together in a story, companies can let distant followers enjoy the fun even if they can’t be at the event itself.
Filters for Snapchat
Some filters are always available, and then there are custom filters for Snapchat that come and go. Filters distort or enhance a user’s snaps by adding silly images, distorting their face and voice (for video) or adding a logo or brand to the snaps. Companies can use these to promote their logo or their event. For example, for the few days leading up to the theatrical release of Wonder Woman, Snapchat users could add Diana’s tiara to their image, along with a Wonder Woman banner at the bottom of the snap.
Contests, perks, and promotions
Promotions are not as intuitive on Snapchat as they are on other social media platforms. Their official campaigns are expensive, and might only be suited to the largest corporations, but there are less expensive options.
For example, you can offer a promo code in the last few seconds of a Snapchat Story, incentivizing watching the whole video. You could also offer promotions or perks to those who snap you back holding your product or item.
Behind the scenes
Whether it’s showing off the work that goes into hosting a live event, a tour around the office of some of the people who customers wouldn’t normally encounter, or just fun things happening around the building, customers feel like part of your story when they see those things. That personal edge is crucial when marketing to Millennials.
Be candid, but PG
On Instagram, everyone shares pictures that are designed to look fabulous. Everything is carefully staged and well lit, and professional photographers are often used.
Snapchat is designed to be candid. Between the short amount of time that snaps are available to be viewed and the silly nature of many of the filters, the platform is designed for lighthearted and fun use. Its user base is also much younger than that 18-34 demographic suggests; companies report getting snaps back from 9 and 10 year olds. So keep the items you share on Snapchat absolutely PG to avoid potential backlash.
Announce New Products
Another great way to use Snapchat is to show off a new product. With quick videos, show a bunch of different ways that your product can be used. Bonus points for getting various people at your company to demonstrate different uses, to keep the various videos interesting. Include a promotional code at the end of the video.
Cross Promote
One potential downside of Snapchat is that following new accounts is not at all intuitive. On other social media platforms you can search for accounts to follow; on Snapchat, you have to know the users exact username in order to find them, much less follow them.
One way to get around this is to promote your Snapchat account on other platforms. Make sure customers know to follow you from your Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram accounts. You can also use QR codes that customers can scan in brick and mortar stores to find you online.
Tracking interactions on Snapchat is also less intuitive than on other platforms. Some helpful statistics might be the number of users who open the snap, the number of users who view the snap, and the number of users who save your snap for later.
If your key demographics match up with those who frequently use Snapchat, finding the right ways to use the platform may be a phenomenal way to boost your social media presence and improve customer relationships. Crafting a candid, behind the scenes experience on Snapchat, which can tie into the more formalized presence your company has on other platforms, can help your business succeed at reaching its audience.
How does your business use Snapchat? Has it been successful over time?
