Does Snapchat have a role in your engagement strategy?

It’s fast. It’s fun. It’s frivolous. But is it sensible to sprinkle a pinch of Snapchat magic into your marketing mix? It’s definitely worth investigating.

Snapchat posts hold the user’s attention with (at maximum) 10 second ‘self-destructing’ posts. So why should brands use Snapchat? In short, it’s light, it’s self-organising for users and, most importantly, it provides brands with a cash-light way to engage with the audience.

The fleeting nature of the posts is one of its main strengths. Think of the recipient. The Snapchat arrives. It needs to be actively opened. Its lifespan is tantalisingly short. This means there is a higher level of concentration and engagement. Ultimately, it forces the person consuming the content to actually give it the valuable seconds of attention it deserves − far more so compared with posting on a scrolling, passive newsfeed as experienced on Facebook or its photo-sharing cousin, Instagram. Snapchat gives you the opportunity to gain someone’s attention in a very noisy world.

This higher level of concentration required means it’s an ideal space for showcasing new products and deals. This is an opportunity that agile, early adopting brands have realised − giving rise to frequent ‘Snapchatting’ of discount codes, new products and offer deals.

Others have capitalised on Snapchat’s ephemeral nature that permits the ability to give posts a sense of exclusivity. MTV’s Geordie Shore showcased ‘exclusive’ highlights, both in picture and video form, of the upcoming 6th series – all the while reminding them to tune in to the upcoming series.

The main negative of the app, for marketing purposes, is the difficulty in tracking engagement from your posts. Currently, the app is yet to have an official way to manage and track users’ activity. Of course, you can still track engagement through the uptake of unique promotional codes.

The recent addition of Snapchat Stories has added more possibilities. It offers, in sporting parlance, extra time − 24 hours of viewing time to be precise. Now, through a series of posts, you can deepen your audience’s experience. There’s a tale to be told. A connection to be made. Suddenly Snapchat doesn’t seem so throwaway.

Stop press: Slingshot vs Snapchat
With news of Slingshot, Facebook’s own ephemeral app, launching this week. What does this mean for Snapchat and more widely, brands using instant photo-sharing platforms for marketing? Possibly quite a lot as at first glance.

Whereas Snapchat is more focused on 1-2-1 engagement, Slingshot isn’t. It encourages participation by only allowing you to view a message by sending one back, leading to a higher level of engagement that you have with Snapchats.

Also from a brand point of view it addresses a massive issue users have when sending to mass audience on Snapchat – it has a ‘select all’ button.

Watch this space.

By DMA guest blogger Ben Peachell, Marketing Executive, Indicia

This an edited version of a blog that first appeared on the Indicia website