Snapchat: The Pictures Disappear But The App Is Sticking Around and Moving Towards The News Industry
It’s almost mind boggling to realize that Snapchat has been around for almost 5.5 years. It doesn’t seem like it’s been around that long, and yet it’s become such a prominent figure; with millions of daily active users.;
SnapInc; the company that owns the young social media tool; completed a filing at the end of December last year in which they also the released the demographics of their users.
There have been rumors circulating around the web that Snapchat won’t be around for long and that only a fool would invest in their stock market. However, based on the national and global scales we are seeing above; with 69 millions daily users in North America and 53 million in Europe, these seem to be inaccurate predictions. In fact SnapInc stated that users spend “more than eighteen times per day and spend twenty five to thirty minutes on Snapchat everyday”. Within these statistics is the President of the United States himself, Donald Trump who has made the move to Snapchat earlier this this year.
Based on this; as well as being an active Snapchat user, I believe that this is completely inaccurate and I believe that Snapchat is being integrated in a variety of ways such as schools, promotions and daily news.
Looking at this app, it looks to be just an entertainment tool between friends. However, I think that it is rapidly involving because of the fact that it is a social media platform so drastically different than the ones we had before. Democracy Now! has a Snapchat and I (of course) follow them; and I will admit at first I was very weary but interested in how they were planning on using this social media tool for their newscast.
I have to say, the way Democracy Now! uses their Snapchat is very impressive. This is a screenshot of one of the video they have on their story. The clip that was shown, was informative, passionate and interesting. This automatically drew me in, and as a now interested potential viewer; I am also given the information of how to view this episode. Democracy now!, informs their snapchat viewers who; studies have shown prefer to get their information in small clips; so they are providing information, but are also making a commercial for their show that day. I think this is a great marketing and journalism move as a way to gear towards their younger viewers. With most of Snapchat’s users being between the ages of 18–34; Democracy Now! has found a way to interest their younger viewers without losing the older viewer who might use Facebook or Twitter.
Following Democracy Now! on Snapchat, heighten my curiosity and instilled a belief that this social media tool can be a valuable tool for all types of news organizations. With this new belief; I set out to find local news stations who use Snapchat to connect with their viewers. Let me tell you…this was a lot easier said than done! First I tried reaching out to the local news organizations I would watch back home based out of Albany, New York; however not a single one of them have a Snapchat account.
However, I was able to find a local news station in Houston, Texas that does have one, so despite living on the other side of the country; I added them as a friend on my personal Snapchat account.
^^This, is an incredible and riveting story…..but I think they missed their chance to use it on Snapchat. This was on their Snapstory; which stays on their account for 24 hours, yet they have still pictures of a story not relevant 12 hours from now. I think instead of pictures, they should have stuck to videos; got soundbites from bystanders etc. This would have been the perfect opportunity to use videos, and soundbites that wouldn’t have aired on their story. I also think they should have used the Snapchat locator tags (That say Houston etc), that way viewers know there they are, and lets the reporter focus more on what’s happening without having to waste time saying where they are.
I think that Snapchat will continue evolving (some teachers are even involving it within the classrooms) but I think unfortunately, local news stations just don’t understand how to use it. I think that the biggest point to get across to news stations is that Snapchat is not the same as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and should not be treated the same. Snapchat is on an entirely different platform and should be used to try out different techniques and innovated ideas.
