{"id":6134,"date":"2016-05-18T13:19:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T13:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=6134"},"modified":"2016-09-07T19:15:03","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T19:15:03","slug":"is-the-brand-love-affair-with-snapchat-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/is-the-brand-love-affair-with-snapchat-sustainable\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Brand Love Affair with Snapchat Sustainable?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The buzz surrounding Snapchat for brands is definitely at a high decibel level. And just like other new social apps, there are lots of tutorials and how-to articles being created on a daily basis to show you how to get the most out of the platform. But what happens after the \u201cshiny new toy\u201d syndrome wears off? Is the millennial audience going to get disenchanted and be looking around for the next new thing? Perhaps not, if you play your cards right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Storytelling is the Secret Sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over 7 billion (yes, billion) stories are viewed daily among Snapchat\u2019s hundred-million-and-climbing global users. But as with any social platform, being able to tell a good story<\/em> is the key to driving engagement. Snapchat\u2019s visual, short-lived content platform is uniquely suited to today\u2019s busy, mobile-centric consumers with short attention spans.<\/p>\n

Brands are using Snapchat\u2019s story feature<\/a> using photos (enhanced with text, drawings and overlays) and intriguing, short video clips to tease followers with footage from events and peek at upcoming product lines. However, I think it pays more to think about telling stories that show the \u201chuman\u201d side of your company, such as people experiencing your brand, or an inside look.<\/p>\n

For instance, on SnapChat\u2019s Discovery channel I took a look at what the Winter X Games was publishing\u2014people enjoying the event! Screenshots below:<\/p>\n

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Some are video clips and some are images, but they definitely pull you into the excitement of the games. What ways can you think of to share your brand\u2019s customer experience or inner-workings by changing up your Snapchat story?<\/p>\n

Build Audience with Cross-Channel Exposure<\/strong><\/p>\n

Building audience can feel like a \u201cchicken or the egg\u201d issue with a new channel, and there\u2019s no getting around the fact that you\u2019ll have to share your Snapchat profile around to get your stories seen. From customizing and using yourSnapcode<\/a> on packaging graphics and other offline collateral to spreading it across the web and social, it takes a significant push to get noticed<\/strong>. However, the results can be well worth it, especially if you\u2019re consistent about frequently sharing your Snapchat presence on social channels. Be creative!<\/p>\n

Sharing your Snapcode is just one way to build audience. A feature I love about Snapchat\u2019s disappearing content is that when you\u2019re publishing fun, interesting content, people on Snapchat naturally want to share it with friends, and they\u2019re compelled to do so quickly before it disappears! However, you can still save your content before it goes away and repurpose it in other places. Use it on your blog, syndicate it on Tumblr, create a tab for it on Facebook, upload it to YouTube\u2014the sky\u2019s the limit on the many ways your Snapchat content can be recirculated to external audiences, which grows your visibility.<\/p>\n

Co-Create with Influencers\/Customers<\/strong><\/p>\n

A technique that\u2019s getting lots of play these days is having Snap-savvy influencers and customer advocates \u201ctake over\u201d a brand\u2019s Snapchat channel for a period. When we see people like ourselves snapping on behalf of a brand, that\u2019s pretty powerful. Takeovers are like reviews or testimonials on steroids.<\/a> You\u2019ve got to partner with the right people (and have guidelines and contracts in place), but handled correctly, they can be a way to scale your reach in a fun, engaging way\u2014building trust with other people\u2019s audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cPure Social\u201d at its Core<\/strong><\/p>\n

To me, Snapchat is the ultimate in pure social media, because it\u2019s built for in-the-moment, one-on-one engagement. However, it takes resources for a brand to sustain the kind of presence that\u2019s required to keep audience attention and interaction. If you\u2019re not consistently storytelling, communicating and engaging, you might as well not be there. It\u2019s definitely a commitment of people, time and effort, but I think every brand needs to encourage their employees and brand managers to experience it so they can build an understanding of what \u201csocial\u201d really is.<\/p>\n

Snapchat isn\u2019t like Facebook, Twitter or visual mediums like Periscope and Instagram, either. With other platforms you can fool yourself into thinking you\u2019re properly leveraged by simply \u201cposting\u201d and ignoring engagement.\u00a0 Also, its paid advertising is a bit rich for most ($100k for an ad on its 3V platform\u2014down from $700k last year).<\/p>\n

But for pure social engagement, I think it deserves close consideration, especially for retail brands who cater to its 13-34 age demographic.<\/strong> If you have the resources to build audience and are willing to stick it out for the long haul by communicating and creating new stories consistently, Snapchat can be a powerful, sustainable brand builder with younger audiences.<\/p>\n

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Previously posted at TedRubin.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The buzz surrounding Snapchat for brands is definitely at a high decibel level. And just like other new social apps, there are lots of tutorials and how-to articles being created on a daily basis to show you how to get the most out of the platform. But what happens after the \u201cshiny new toy\u201d syndrome … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1965],"class_list":["post-6134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tedrubin","tag-ronr-noletup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6134"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6191,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions\/6191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}