Is Snapchat For Your Brand?

maybe yes, maybe no.

February 26th, the University of Michigan launched our Snapchat account. Being that the audience is comprised of mostly high school and college students, in theory, it makes sense. But, is the popular selfie app really a good marketing tool?

The University of Michigan has had great success connecting with our students on Twitter and Instagram, and we were even the first university to utilize Instagram DM, but Snapchat was a new territory.

Truthfully, I saw Snapchat as a scary place, probably full of unsolicited dick pics (which, in fact, less than 10% of Snaps sent out by college students are sexts). I didn’t even have my own account. My interns, on the other hand, raved about it. They knew we had to come up with a creative way to utilize this channel — one that 77% of college students use daily — so we started doing research, and it turns out, they were very right.

Almost half of college-age Snapchat users said they would open a Snap from a brand they’d never heard of, and 73% said they would open one from a brand they did know.

Close to 70% of students said they’d even add a brand as a friend if they also followed them on a separate social network like Facebook or Twitter.

Those numbers are why we knew we had to find a way to use Snapchat. Why we knew Snapchat would be a fun way for us to connect with our students, and why it made sense for brands (with the resources) to connect with this audience that was right there waiting for them.

Brands like Taco Bell, 16 Handles, Rebecca Minkoff, WetSeal, and even pro sports teams like the Philadelphia Eagles are using Snapchat. Whether it’s sharing info on a product, or giving fans a behind-the-scenes look, using Snapchat for marketing opens up endless options for brands to get creative.

To start out, the instructions were simple. Follow us, Snap us, see if you win a free tshirt. You can read more about the launch on the UMsocial blog.

Of course, there were skeptics. Why does a university think they have a place on an app like this? What is the point? What will come out of this? Why should we care?

Overall, looking at this app as a tool, we’re simply connecting with our students. We want to humanize our brand.

In a matter of days, the University of Michigan has received over 1100 followers, and close to 700 snaps —and the numbers keep growing.

So far, we’ve sent out a handful of snaps to our followers, both contests and fun hellos. We’ve even had some great exchanges with the University of Houston — one of the first universities to join Snapchat.

I’m not saying, by any means, that Snapchat is for every brand. In fact, Snapchat is probably not for most brands. There are a few things that Snapchat lacks as a platform, that “traditional marketing channels” provide for brands.

Analytics: How did I find out how many followers and snaps we have? I counted them. Manually. On an Excel sheet. Not recommended.

Little/no lead: This is the fun of Snapchat, but also the reason it may not appeal to brands. Once those 10 seconds (or less) are over, it’s gone forever.

Screenshotting is poor form: With the above in mind, while it is possible to save photos by taking a screen shot, this is — what students call— “being a bad friend.”

Still, we love our new Snapchat audience, and are excited for whats to come on our channel. Think Snapchat may be for your brand? Here’s a few tips:

Plan ahead. Seriously. The nature of Snapchat as a platform is to be spontaneous, and super active.

Know your demographic. Are you trying to reach high school and college students? Do you know how to speak to this audience? Case in point:

Get Snapchat skillz. Coming into this as a non-avid Snapchat user was a serious handicap for me. Snapchat is HARD! So many options! So many ways to mess up drawing or writing something with your finger!

Know when to say no. Listen, I know I just raved about how well Snapchat is going for us, but it might not be for your brand. That’s okay! I’m sure there will be 30 new social channels out in the next year, and you can jump on those.

Have fun! Snapchat is ridiculously fun (and addictive). Get creative, take risks, and remember — it’s all gone in 10 seconds anyways.