How Snapchat Disrupted Social Media

Part I, A Short Profile of Snapchat's CEO 

There is a young Millennial, who has changed the face of social media. He has 40.3k Twitter followers, but he hasn't even tweeted yet. How can this be? It's because young Millennials don't actually hang out on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter anymore, they are off gallivanting on more contemporary channels. 

These are SMS and glance channels like Instagram, Tumblr and yes Snapchat. It's the latter that we will be covering today. Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat, is a Gemini, the sign of duplicity, speed and communication. Ironically, Snapchat built its unique selling proposition on time-urgency and disappearing texts or back in the day, sexts. Don't ask me what these are, I don't actually know! 

If we take a look back at the history and timeline of Snapchat, what stands out? This is a channel for immediate gratification texters and omnichannel digital natives. Spiegel, 5 years after the founding of his company, is worth 2 Billion and is a Standford grad (well you know the drill, these kids don't actually graduate!). The 5-year mark is often the peak of a social network, when it can bask in the glory of its achievements before it too is disrupted as a contemporary channel. There are windows, and there are waves of young people that drive engagement. Even, I'd argue, has more of a iGen/GenZ flavor, in that he didn't give in to Facebook's pressure to buy them out and simply cash out. He stood up for something he believed in. 

Evan is yet another case of a CEO who did not graduate but quit college before completing his degree to follow his passion. He's youthful, edgy and his brilliant strategy and UX interface design has led Snapchat to become an uncanny darling success story of social media, maybe the rarest since Facebook.

Growing up wealthy, the son of Ivy-league attorneys, the idea of a way of communicating that his parents would not be privy to (Moon in Scorpio) is ironically what he would grow up to create. A product of white privilege (this is not meritocracy, this is all about who you know), Spiegal himself is quoted as saying: 

It's not about working harder; it's about working the system

At Stanford, he did just that, aggressively networking in order to meet influential people including Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and Intuit co-founder and chairman of the executive committee Scott Cook, who set him up with a job at the tech company while he was still a student. 

When in May 2014, the tech blog Valleywag published emails Spiegel had sent as an undergrad, Spiegal owned up to his past behavior and publically apologized. Not only sexually explicit, the missives were repeatedly misogynistic and homophobic. But these are the PR leaks that build a brand, do they not?

Snapchat was cool after Instagram had already become old 

Evan Spiegel is still an entity, a person of interest that informs the new breed of leadership. This is the quintessential silicon valley success story that in part, is about elitism and networking in the upper echelon of society. Sure the interface is great, good job! Let's not make any mistake, Snapchat is disrupting micro video and the way brands can communicate with their audience in a more direct and intimate manner and we'll cover that in another article. 

The Venice California startup has had an all-star studded cast of talent that has come and gone like a quick revolving door. A more light-hearted version of Mark Zukerburg, they both had explosive success, had litigation issues with co-founders and chose to go their own way rather than be acquired. 

I personally find it intriguing Spiegal has been tied to a model nearly 10 years his senior. I think Snapchat's branding is fresh and for a peer intercom channel, I think the tool is useful. We are starting to see B2C brands use Snapchat as a smart loyalty channel, especially if their customers are iGen. 

The sleek yellow logo is now one of the most recognizable app brands on the top lists of Android and iOS alike. Snapchat has defined itself and is one of the fastest growing networks. Read their blog here.  Snapchat has over 1 million followers on Twitter. It represents the hybrid channel of SMS/social media and video content. Where Brands learn to be authentic and reach customers with real-time offers and that feel of urgency, personalization and candidness.