Why You NEED To Start Marketing On Snapchat

A look at some of the numbers behind Snapchat's growth and why you need to start marketing there.

I’ll never forget the fight that my first cellphone caused with my parents.

It was back in the 90’s and our family plan had something like 5 text messages a month. Remember those days?

One afternoon, my mother called me on my cell and I ignore her call and responded with a text – “what’s up?”

Her response? “When your parents call you – you pick up the phone.”

“Ok. Cya at 5.”

My parents raised hell. Not long after, they were also texting.

Look at where we are today. I have family friends in their 70’s and 80’s texting me (granted IT’S IN ALL CAPS AND A PAGE LONG FOR EACH TEXT MESSAGE). But you get the point.

How about Facebook? Started out with college students. The parents followed. The demographics have shifted. A May 2015 study found that 73% of people 30-49 are on the platform, 63% of those 50-64 and 56% of those 65+.

So the students went to Instagram. And the parents followed. The fastest growing demographic on Instagram? 40-60.

So much for your “my demographic isn’t on social” card.

Now that the parents are on Instagram, where has everyone gone? The social platform that’s going to absolutely explode in the mainstream this year: Snapchat.

Let’s dive into some of the numbers of the company that launched in September of 2011. 

• As of May 2015, there were 100 million daily active users - a number that’s said to have exploded since then.
• Of those users, 65% contribute content daily.
• 11% of Snapchatters admit to checking Snapchat while driving (we estimate 89% of people surveyed lie).
• As of July 2015, 8,796 photos per second are shared.
• As of November 2015, there were more than 6 billion daily video videos on the platform. That’s more than FACEBOOK.

Ladies and gentlemen – you want to be in front of the eyeballs, yes? You want a competitive edge over the competition, right? You want to land grab ahead of the trends when it comes to social marketing and advertising opportunities, correct? Then you NEED to listen to me.

Snapchat is entirely about engagement. You can effectively use it in a couple of different ways:

• A personal level of engagement- Send people messages directly. Pictures, videos, coupons, promotions. But tread lightly on the sales pitches – that’s not the kind of content that fosters a strong “social” relationship”. After people view them, they disappear (pictures last for a certain number of seconds and you can encourage followers to screenshot them).

This is a great opportunity to engage one on one with followers. Be personal. Send them specially tailored content. Be unique and engaging. 

• My Stories- This is where it gets fun. Your followers can view your story for up to 24 hours. Properly string together a story with behind-the-scenes, tips, tricks and more and you start really boosting your engagement. You can also see specifically who viewed your content and what they did with it.

You can also give access to live events to your audience. Think about special events, tradeshows and more. Just because your audience can’t BE there doesn’t mean they can’t be there. Bring them where they can’t go on their own.

In less than two weeks, we brought in nearly a dozen leads through Snapchat. How? Every day, I offer a behind-the-scenes in the day in the life of a business owner. I’ve “brought” my Snapchat followers into meetings with business executives, happy hours with clients, late night meetings with prospects, investor meetings, company parties and more. I’ve shared tips and tricks on marketing and more. I’ve offered what we call our “Snapchat Short Stories” where I do brief interviews with business owners (videos on their own can only be 10 seconds long – but string them together in a story and BOOM).

Social media – any platform – is only as good as your ability to innovate and provide tremendous amounts of value to your followers.  It's time to start marketing like it's 2016.

Want to see how we're rocking Snapchat?  Make sure to "add friends" and add username "dasilentpartner" - then check out our stories and give us your thoughts.

Are you already on Snapchat?  Leave your username in the comments below...along with your thoughts!

POSTED BY

Kyle Reyes is President and CEO of The Silent Partner Marketing.  He's also an acclaimed Keynote Speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing and social media.  You can find him on Facebook and Twitter.