3 Ways to Boost Your Snapchat Efforts

By: Chase Kohler
Snapchat is the emerging network the industry cannot get enough of. While traditional social media has been focused on preserving memories for generations, Snapchat delivers on their promise that twenty-four hours later the moment never happened. With live filters, download capability and geo-targeting options added over the last eighteen months, the former ‘teenage wasteland’ has become one of the fastest growing marketing platforms. While major brands and events across the gloImage_Abe have made their way onto this platform, surprisingly, marketers as a whole have been slow to embrace the latest social trend, with only an estimated 70% active on the platform on a consistent basis.
Image_ASo what’s alluring about vanishing photos, videos and filters? Unlike the ever-lasting portal of Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat holds content that cannot be scanned by Googlet least not yet, we’re watching you Google +). To follow a brand that is not paying to play on the main page, one has to manually enter the exact name or scan a barcode. Snapchat takes more effort than traditional social media networks to engage with, meaning those who do engage feel a much stronger connection than just scrolling through a curated feed. Since a user can switch from plastic surgery cuts to CNN breaking news through a simple swipe, the options become limitless for what brands can offer.
Here are a few easy ways to jumpstart your Snapchat presence now:
1. Create a Geofilter
Genius or simplistic, one cannot deny the stronghold geofilters have provided to Snapchat’s growth. Whether on a street, at a national monument, or attending your cousin’s wedding, geofilters provide a custom filter that anyone can use to personalize a photo. Priced based on the amount of space and volume of users, geofilters range from $15-20,000 for a twenty-four hour period. With photos from Snapchat appearing more frequently across other platforms such as Instagram, this tool provides promotional potential beyond your simple sugar rush.
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2. Ask for a ‘Snap Back’
While many brands utilize Snapchat for bursts of behind the scenes magic, not every brand has an exciting celebrity ready in the makeup chair.  According to Adweek, nearly a fourth of all content created on the platform is product focused, yet only a meager 11% of all brands request a further call to action! While content strategies will vary depending on business model, those ten seconds you have with consumers is your time for pure engagement. Keep the campaign going with a URL name or ask them to ‘Snap Back’ ideas! Side Note: Live links are not a feature in Snapchat for brands yet, but it’s most likely only a matter of time.
3. Give a Personal Lens
As mentioned above, the introduction of interactive filters last year helped Snapchat’s content move from native to national, with added capabilities like image downloading and re-purposing on users’ Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Interactive filters use facial detection technology to create a custom environment over someone’s silhouette. Beyond the millions of puppy dog images created lies a key potential for marketers-sponsored lenses. This recent example from Wendy’s showed the ‘Hot’ lens to promote their new Jalapeno Fresco melt. No longer are messages only being pushed to users, but they are personally choosing to utilize them. That’s brand power like never before!
So if you’re not on Snapchat yet, either for personal or brand reasons, there’s no time like the present. With the network still considered ‘emerging’, we have yet to see the full potential this platform has to offer marketers. Only recently have they introduced their new paid advertising platform, complete with a toolbox of analytics to make our senses tingle.  Creating content on the platform is perhaps the cheapest of all social media networks because you don’t need high quality designs or surveys – just day to day activity. If all else fails, you came up with some cute new photos to share.
Image Credits
Image 1 VIA MarketingLand
Image 2 VIA SearchMarketingExpo