Snap, snap, snap, snap… snap

My Grampa spoke many languages. The internet was not one of them. I speak Facebook, tried to learn Twitter, got fluent in Instagram, but Snapchat?

It’s hard. There’s no denying it. The most counter intuitive social media platform I’ve come across. It requires, to some degree, throwing many of the “cookie cutter” approaches to digital media out of the window.

This week, I was tasked with taking over the Havas Lofts Snapchat handle for a day. Oh dear. It was not going to be easy. For someone who had downloaded the app, let it hibernate for months, I needed to pivot quickly and become a power user for 24 hours.

The good news. The internet. Or should I say Google. There are over 53M results for “how to use snapchat”. I needed instructional videos for the world’s most popular social platform amongst teens and young adults!

I did get all the help I could scramble. A meeting with Snapchat and the Socialyse team meant I could ask many stupid questions. How do I use multiple filters? Can I save snaps? What do I do if I don’t like the video? Can I make my snaps private? What is tailgating? Oooh this filter is awesome!

The insight for me was, unlike Twitter, or Facebook, Snapchat was built for power users. The legions of hardcore fans. The faithful. This was fascinating. Snapchat is hard, because it’s meant to be hard. It’s not meant for the lazy. It’s meant for the devoted. Once you are in. You are hooked.

Why? F O M O

No, I’m not mouthing off obscenities here. Although if you thought I did, I can empathize with you. Stories on Snapchat only live for 24 hours. You can download them. But you must check in everyday.. otherwise you will miss out. What a lot of pressure! I was transported back to high school. No one wants to be the kid who is out of the loop. This is the crack-cocaine of the social space.

You need to know the ins and outs if you want to get your fix.

Dabbling with Snapchat, and hosting 24 hours of it was stressful, exciting, a bit awkward, and downright fun. I was a dog, a mime artist, puked rainbows, drank Starbucks coffee and wore an octopus for a hat. Yes, you heard me. I wore an octopus for a hat. Strong look.

Zooming out from the experience, I started thinking about how, as a digital marketer, I had tried, and failed, and tried again to speak to millennials. And then I had my light-bulb moment. If I wanted to speak to millennials, I should, from time to time, embrace what they do. This does not mean I start planking in strange places. No sir. I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to.

Embracing what millennials do, like spending time on Snapchat, is the first step in better understanding them. Understanding before advertising sounds like a sensible move to me. And why not? It’s fun.

I will not be elaborating on the wonderful advertising opportunities on the platform but I can already see how brands are successfully having conversations with this hard to please, banner blind audience.

Should you want to see my snaps. I will not be posting them here. Sorry. Do yourself a favour. Sign up to an account.

And Instagram, you are still my favourite. Love that filter.