I always advise businesses to do what is right for their brand and their audience when it comes to social marketing. Not every brand can thrive on the same social platforms. Retail businesses are thriving on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter, while b2b tend to do better on LinkedIn and Facebook.
The Misconception
When SnapChat first came out I was a skeptic too. All the mainstream media talked about was teenagers sexting their friends. Fear, fear, fear! They totally missed the point of this platform. Content vanishes in 24 hours and this is a great way to tell stories. Brands and businesses want guarantees that people will see their content. Unfortunately this will and has never existed in social marketing. Business owners need to roll with the platforms and find organic ways to strike an impact with their audience members.
The days of forcing boring advertising down a consumers throat is long dead.
Social platforms are constantly changing their algorithms and adding difficulties so that you have to pay for advertising on their sites to reach full exposure.
Not Everything Needs To Be Saved
The traditional format of social networks originated from the days of Friendster and MySpace. We all got used to their being a record of the content we put out. Someone new coming to your page could come and look at all the crap you put out there. Many sites still work like this, but they don't have to in order to tell a story.
After all, we don't need to save every television show, news segment, or movie that we have ever seen to remember it. The mind is a powerful thing, even in a growing A.D.D society, we can see something once and remember it forever.
Overprotective Parents Should Listen Up
If you have a friend that has rules about you posting pictures of their kids on Facebook or Instagram you should tell them to get on SnapChat. It is a great platform to tell personal stories only to an audience of one if you like. If my wife is working an event on a weekend or away for work, I can film my morning with my daughter in ten second clips on SnapChat so that she can feel like she isn't missing out. I can send these messages to her privately without taking up my iphone photo and video storage.
Businesses that skew to a younger audience should not ignore this platform as part of their overall marketing mix.
Forget the Likes and Shares
You don't have to have other people like and share things for it to have meaning. On Snapchat you can't share or like content. I think that is pretty excellent. We have all become too obsessed with counting likes, retweets, and shares. Going viral means nothing unless you are selling lots of products from it. Tell a good story and it will impact your audience.
Traditional Media Gets It
If you are new to SnapChat follow some traditional media brands that have been exploring storytelling in this new way. NPR (NPRNews) is doing a fantastic job. The New York Times (thenyTimes) is also doing a great job. The Washington Post (washingtonpost) and The Wall Street Journal (wsj) have Snap accounts but in my opinion could learn a few things from NPR and NYT.
Constantly Evaluate Your Content
My brother had an early website in the late 1990's called Lost Interest. He let the URL go years ago, but used the term has always stuck with me. Have your customers and audience lost interest with the content that you are putting out. Are you using social media as straight advertising? Please don't do this.
Look at your content and ask yourself if you are providing value and helping. That is the key to everything in social marketing.