Since its release in September 2011, teenagers have made Snapchat wildly successful. Now, businesses are beginning to see the social media platform – which lets users share photo and video content for up to 10 seconds before it disappears – as a new way to interact with their audiences.
Snapchat has partnered with publishers to offer branded content in new forms and channels. Content isn’t limited to a brand’s followers either. Because users can share articles and other content to people in their network, publishers are willing to pay to be featured on the mobile platform. McDonald’s just became the first company to have branded geofilters, which is a visual tag that users can assign to a post that is relational to their location. For example, if a user is standing outside a McDonald’s franchise users can now swipe to include a logo and french fries to their post.
While consumer brands are the ones that have predominantly begun to leverage the platform, B2B brands should still take note. Remember, Twitter and Facebook started with consumer brands as early adopters and now these platforms are vital in having a social media presence for all businesses.
One of Snapchat’s most popular features that may be adopted by B2B companies is ‘Stories’, a curated stream of snaps from a single location submitted by multiple (sometimes millions) of users. The use of ‘Stories’ is relevant for a company because it can act as the status or profile for the brand.
Another way B2B brands can leverage Snapchat is by using the platform during conferences and events. Similar to Periscope, Snapchat lets users share their world in real time- something that could prove to be valuable during a conference to share and comment on the experience and learnings as they happen.
Although once only seen as a fun way for the younger generation to connect with each other, Snapchat is proving to be a powerful platform for promoting branded content to a targeted audience. B2B professionals should take note and start thinking today about how they can strengthen their communications with this emerging tool.
–Olivia Ludington