3 Strategies Every Brand Should Follow for a Successful Snapchat

Snapchat is one of the fastest growing social media platforms and continues to gain in popularity with young millennials at incredible rates. With over 150 million daily active users, its unique approach of disappearing content successfully grabs the audience’s attention for a full 10 seconds—creating a huge opportunity for brands to reach consumers.

But getting started is easier said than done.

Many companies have struggled to get their brands across on the platform, with multiple complaints against Snapchat, starting with the inability to post links which prevents brands from driving traffic to their websites. In addition, without measurement capabilities, brands have difficulty tracking their audience and engagement analytics. Finally, it’s clear the platform doesn’t offer the same ease when it comes to attracting followers or sharing content, like on other social platforms.

Of course there are brands that are truly rocking Snapchat, here are two examples:

Sour Patch Kids (@SourPatchSnaps)

Sour Patch Kids did a great job at going off of their existing “First they’re sour, then they’re sweet” TV commercials. They posted a series of Snapchat videos of “real-life” sour patch kids and Vine comedian, Logan Paul, pranking each other across NYC. Sour Patch Kids worked with the fun message of their brand and partnered with a social media influencer for a successful Snapchat campaign.

Cyrene Quiamco (@CyreneQ)

A very talented graphic designer, Cyrene Quiamco, has made herself into a Snapchat star. She initially began using it to create art and it quickly developed into a fandom. Brands have offered her up to $30,000 for a single story to feature them. She has even created her own blog, The 11th Second, which she uses to share content of other “Snapchatters” and give tips tricks.

While Snapchat doesn’t like to share their analytics, using Snips is a perfect workaround. Simply create a short, memorable URL created using Snips, then include the link in your snap. We can easily track each engagement, click, and more. Test it out using one (or ALL!) of these three strategies:

Attracting Followers

Snapchat can be difficult to attract followers as compared to other social media platforms, but it's not impossible. Use your other social media to promote your Snapchat account. Screenshot your QR Snapcode and share it on all social accounts. Make sure to send a welcome snap to all new followers and add them on your other social media accounts. Keep an excel document of all your followers, add anyone who screenshots and replays your snaps to a “Fans” list.

Contests

Exclusive contests on Snapchat are a great way to drive engagement to your account. Utilize the limited time of stories to hold a 24-hour contest. This could be having your followers send a snap of a drawing of your product and give the winner a freebie. Or, send your followers on a mission to go to your business and the first one to send a snap outside receives a coupon for your product. Brands have used the #SnapHunt tag on their Twitter to give their followers a clue about their current contest on Snapchat. For a successful contest, make sure to keep it simple and have clear guidelines.

Behind the Scenes

Let your followers take a look at your brand with an exclusive sneak peak. Have someone in the company take over the Snapchat account for a day. This gives a behind the scenes look at the daily activities and can feature any new products being released. Hint: This is a great job for the graphic designer in your company who can make detailed drawings on the snaps. With this, the followers feel a sense of inclusion with the brand which can lead to becoming loyal customers. This is also a great strategy for bloggers and celebrities that have a big fanbase.

When in doubt, don't treat Snapchat as just another marketing platform, instead use it as a place of fun and pump in lots of creativity throughout your brand to further engage with consumers.