All the kids are doing it, so you must need to get your small business on Snapchat! Not so fast; just because everyone is clamoring on the Snapchat train doesn’t mean you should. Answer these five questions and start building a social strategy before you take the plunge on Snapchat for a small business. Remember that taking on the responsibility of yet another social platform is a big commitment.
- Who is my target audience?
If you answered teens and / or young adults, then Snapchat could be for you. Yes, we are way beyond Snapchat being just for kids,[1] with 200 million monthly active users and 400 million snaps per day,[2] but it still trends to a younger audience. Remember that teens might be the instigator, “Mom!” (It’s possible that parents/aunts/uncles are your typical buyer, but that your product appeals to teens.) If yes, forge ahead! If you aren’t sure about your target market, read our earlier blog to narrow your audience.
- How am I doing on my current social media platforms? Am I including video and lots of visuals?
If you just hung your head in shame, let’s get back to the basics. Before launching a new platform, ensure you are following best practices on your current platforms. If you are already providing dynamic content but not seeing an expected ROI, consider that it may be time to put one of your social platforms to rest so you can direct resources and time to Snapchat. If you see social media making a positive business impact, then adding another platform could be for you. Continue to question 3!
- Do I have timely, quickly changing updates to share with my audience?
Examples include limited time sales or quickly expiring coupon codes. If you’re a brick and mortar store, are you willing to do quick sales, free samples and prizes? Alternatively, can you use the Stories feature to link together many pictures or videos to engage with your audience? Remember that one of the biggest benefits to Snapchat is that the message doesn’t go away until the user selects to open it. Then it disappears after 10-15 seconds. This means that unlike Twitter or Facebook, your message is much less likely to be lost in the sea of posts or pushed down the newsfeed. Success on Snapchat means taking a fun, lighthearted and interactive approach to social media. Actually, that applies to most social media, but if your brand hasn’t yet embraced that attitude, then Snapchat probably isn’t for you.
- Am I ready to invest? According to Forbes, Snapchat is not an easy platform to manage and upload content to: “Snapchat is perhaps the most different of all and maybe the hardest to figure out.”[3] Snapchat can’t be scheduled out with most management tools, it requires a hands-on, mobile approach.
- What will success look like? Setting your goals, time commitments and planned number of snaps per week will help you measure your campaign. On Snapchat, you’ll want to consider the number of unique views, the number of completions (views of a full story), and how many images are being saved with screenshots.[4]
Still not sure what the right next step is for you? If you are looking for more tips for using Snapchat for small business, check out this article by the Social Media Examiner.
Sources:
[1] "Use Stapchat: A Small Business Guide." Brian Solomon. Forbes.
[2] "4 Important Snapchat Metrics Your Brand Should Be Measuring." Convince & Convert. Nick Cicero.
[3] "25 Snapchat Influencers Who Are Doing it Right." Inc.com. Joel Comm.
[4] “Snapchat is the Fastest Growing Social Network.” SocialTimes. Kimberlee Morrison.
Topics: Marketing, Social Media