5 Ways to Use Snapchat For Business
Are people really going to use Snapchat for Business???
What??!!
I mean seriously!?!
I just assumed this was some quick 10 second share your selfie video or selfie photo with your teenage friends app.
Clearly you can see why I wasn’t that intrigued. But, after witnessing our two teenage girls glued to their phone every waking moment, I decided to see what the excitement was all about.
So I decided to download the Snapchat app on my iphone. Once downloaded I signed up and and immediately I was promoted to consider adding my friends that were stored in my contacts on my phone.
To my surprise I found my good friend and mentor from 2010, Mark Hoverson snapping away. (wait…is that even a word?)
Anyways….after spending a few hours trying to figure out how to get from one screen to the next, I gave up.
I have to tell you swiping left to do one thing and up to do another, tapping twice to respond, clicking this button icon and then that button icon was lighting my brain on fire.
That’s when I called in help…..two very qualified Snapchatters in my life.
If you haven’t already guessed it, that would be our two teenage daughters. After our brief and humorous tutorial of our two girls showing me how to successfully navigate Snapchat, I was ready to go.
At first I just started with random pictures throughout the day then ventured out a week later with a few short 10 second videos of cool things I came across during my day. Such as….a few bobcat sightings in our neighborhood.
See below:
Awesome huh?
Well not realizing what exactly I was doing I began watching other people in my story section and found myself really enjoying peeking into their daily life through short video clips and images along with some text within those images and videos.
I felt a connection with these people and thought to myself this is pretty powerful for brand building.
What better way to bring your audience closer to you than to allow them to experience your day through short videos clips and images.
I watched Gary V. wake up at 4;30am, head to the airport, land in Vegas, attend a tech conference, have lunch, enjoy some time with friends, interview people, shoot his Gary V. show, talk on the phone, share Snapchat tips, share his thoughts on entrepreneurship, dinner with friends, and much more….all in one day captured through images and short video clips.
So here I am sold on Snapchat and full time on Snapchat. Using it as a way to invite our audience to peek into our lives and business on a daily basis.
My friends…..
It’s not just for kids anymore. Just ask Gary V. who was actually the first person that got me thinking more about using Snapchat for business. He does an exceptional job and I want to encourage you to follow him as he is the person that inspired me to start using Snapchat for business and of course my kids inspired me to use it for fun.
Oh and while you are there make sure you are following me, mpesco (that’s where to find me) or you could always just scan my personal Snapcode below:
Now, let’s dive in and talk about the 5 ways you can use Snapchat for business.
Content – With Snapchat you can create short 10 second destructible videos and post them to your story for all of your followers to see.
You read that right destructible. Yes, anything you post on your story in Snapchat will only last for 24 hours. Now don’t let this turn you away, because one of these strategies works really well with the 24 hour time limit.
Start to share tips that will help people within your marketing niche. One thing I see GaryV. doing is sharing Snapchat for business user tips to increasing your brand awareness.
You can also share behind the scenes of your business or consider creating short teasers to something you are working on in your business.
If you are a blogger, talk about a blog post you just recently wrote and give your followers a way to read more.
Participation – Start asking your followers to reply back via the chat feature in response to your short video clips or images.
You can even start asking your audience questions to get them engaged and encourage them to reply back.
If you have a product that you sell or an online course, ask your followers for a snapchat image of them using your product and then feature those images within your story. Be sure to share that you will be sharing their images with your audience so it’s a win / win.
Remember it’s not all about taking it’s also giving back. If you are going to ask someone to do something be sure to offer something valuable back to them for their participation.
You can also ask your followers to respond to your question on another social network like Facebook and have them share your Snapchat user name as a tag within that response.
Get Creative – Take a picture to share on your story and use some of the creative overlay templates or filters that Snapchat provides users. You can even take it a step further and use the draw pen to write something across your picture such as a question, a statement, a drawing, etc.
Start sharing a story of behind the scenes of your day in your business in a series of short video clips and/or images. By the end of your day your story will be filled with behind the scenes of your business and be sure to share the fun too, which will be chronologically laid out for your followers to see.
Build a Following – I have to admit it’s a bit hard to build a following on Snapchat just by using the Snapchat platform but you can easily run over to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and ask people to come on over to Snapchat to share the experience with you. Be sure to share your user id or grab your Snapchat code and of course reciprocate and follow them back.
As of writing this post I recently saw an update that Snapchat will be releasing their advertising platform soon, so I am hoping this will help in building a following.
Discounts, Giveaways, & Contests – Remember I said don’t be discouraged by the 24 hour destruction of your videos and/or images you share on your story?
Well here is where it can create more buzz for you. If people start to see that you are giving discounts to your products they will be more excited to show up each day and watch your story to catch the latest discounts.
You could also give something away by asking your followers to reply back with their name and email. If you do this be sure to let them know that you will be adding them to your subscriber list if you intend to use that information beyond your giveaway.
Finally contests are another great way to create buzz around your business. I think having a Snapchat scavenger hunt would be pretty cool.
You could announce the scavenger hunt at the beginning of the week and set out the rules such as write down the magic word I share in my story for 5 consecutive days and make sure you reply those words back on Friday, for your chance to win a 30 minute coaching session or something of value.
See what I did there?
I got my followers engaged and not just engaged one day but for 5 days.
There are so many creative fun things you can do if you want to build your business by using Snapchat for business.
See it’s not just for kids anymore. It’s fun platform and a great place to share your story.
If you are into building your brand online because you understand the value of increasing your brand awareness which will result in more leads & customers then using Snapchat for business is a great place to start and add in as another means of increasing your brand awareness.
We are really just in the beginning stages of marketers discovering the Snapchat platform. Just as we did with Facebook when they were just getting discovered by marketers we jumped on board.
Facebook turned out and still is very profitable for us and with the addition of us using Snapchat for business we are hoping to see the same success.
I will say this….Snapchat shouldn’t be used as a platform to pitch, pitch and pitch your products. Just like any other Social Media platform it’s all about the user experience, keeping them engaged, and leaving your pocket book at home.
It’s Attraction Marketing and that’s the exact strategy you should also be using on Snapchat. Keep it light and fun and sprinkle in your business throughout your story giving your followers the opportunity to peek into your life.
Curious, if you are using Snapchat for business also what other tips do you have or that you are using in your own business? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.
