Your Brand On Snapchat ?

You know how it goes; a new social media platform gets some momentum and next thing you know everyone is telling you to jump on-board.

[Tweet “There are advantages to be an early adopter.”]

We have all witness how brands who adopted Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest early on saw huge returns. With the plethora of social media apps coming into the market, it can be difficult to evaluate if your brand should add  yet another social network to it’s already jam packed editorial calendar. Now, I am not here to preach that if you go on Snapchat all your business challenges will be resolved, that dubious. Instead, I hope to provide you with an informative summary of advantages / disadvantages of Snapchat.

Snapchat has been all the rage for 13 to 25 demographic. Brands like 16Handles, Taco Bell, Rebecca Minkoff, Karmaloop and others have successfully leveraged Snapchat to provide product sneak peeks to their audience. However, before you jump into the Snapchat bandwagon, you should determine whether or not, you will have time to maintain yet another social media media platform and the relevance to your brand. You also don’t want to waste precious time and resources going on social media outlets that won’t be productive to your marketing. In fact, if you open a social media account and it’s not actively updated and monitored, the results can be negative since people will view your brand as non-responsive.

Should Your Brand Be on Snapchat?

With statistics showing the 73% of all Snapchat users saying they’d open a Snapchat from a brand they know and a whopping 50% saying they’d open a Snapchat from a brand they didn’t know, this platform can be very appealing.

[Tweet “B2C brands that reach a Millennial demographic have found success on Snapchat.”]

It has helped them create closer ties with their audience and in some case expand their audience.

So if your brand is aiming for a younger crowd, you might find the success that Taco Bell, 16 Handles, WetSeal, Rebecca Minkoff and sports teams like the Philadelphia Eagles have found on Snapchat. But if you’re looking for strong lead generation, measurable metrics and other standard social marketing returns, Snapchat might not be for you—once those ten seconds are up, your message is gone forever.

Is it Worth Trying Snapchat?

If you’re on the fence about trying Snapchat, here are a few of the big upsides to creating a Snapchat account:

• Snapchat is the preferred social media platform for ages 13 to 25, with 30 million captivated users, 16.5 million of which are active daily

• Snapchat is 100% opt-in which consumers love—they aren’t bombarded with your brand, they choose to open it. And when they do, they have to keep their finger on the screen the whole ten seconds. Captive marketing doesn’t get more interactive and attention demanding than that.

• There’s a huge potential for growth and advancement since the user base is still growing and brand-friendly tools haven’t yet been implemented. The users will remember the brands that were there before everyone jumped on board.

• Low costs for marketing on Snapchat combined with a higher willingness for users to open branding means a higher ROI on marketing spend

Why are Brands Staying Away from Snapchat?

Of course, the other side of the Snapchat for brands debate has some compelling points as well:

• Snapchat is not business friendly nor is it brand friendly. You can’t tie multiple phones to one account for marketing team’s use, you can’t send custom responses to users, etc.
• There are no metrics so it’s not clear if there is a payoff beyond simple brand awareness
• The demographic is limited
• Snapchat isn’t a global market—it’s mainly in America and UK
• Many fear as brands move in, users will move out and on to the next big social platform
• Other similar apps are coming to the market and are more brand-friendly (Wickr and Selphee)
Are you currently using Snapchat for your business? What have been your findings thus far? I would love to hear your thoughts.