From the Marketer: How To Create Conversations Like a Caveman using Snapchat
For more information about Julius or our blog, please contact Russell Wilde Jr.
By: Stefanie LaHart, BoomTown Marketing
When my 16 year old niece showed me SnapChat 4 years ago, I plain out said, “that is stupid, what are you a caveman? You simply send pictures back and forth, how is that a conversation?” I didn’t get it. How could I possibly convey the levity of what was on my mind with a photo of my face, maybe an emoji and some text scribblings.
That was 4 years ago and while Snapchat has grown and expanded in some ways, it is still at its core a simple image based messaging tool. Now, we need simplicity more than ever. Our digital communications have matured and in many ways become too much work and a burden. We have hit email overload and social media saturation, but still need ways to stay connected. So back to the cavemen, because they were onto something.
About 40,000 years ago, cave paintings were more than just decorations. In fact, most evidence shows they were not in residences, but in easily accessable public areas. These paintings were created to tell a story and people first began recording communication through a visual medium. Photos messages are really old school by a few thousand millenniums. Humans are visually motivated beings, so it makes sense that an image is one of the most powerful ways to convey meaning. Whether that image be on a cave wall or on your new smartphone, there is no denying that a picture really can say a thousand words.
Enter Snapchat, the visual medium for the new millennium. Snapchat is the mobile app that helps you communicate with your friends, family and anyone else you choose with small collages of photos, videos, emojis and limited text. Conversations are primed for quick delivery to our brains via our eyes in nanoseconds instead of minutes of reading. The nature of the Snapchat interface is geared toward encouraging only small and quick image sharing which can seem limiting at first use, but the quick rise of Snapchat popularity has shown that this is actually getting people to connect more often and intimately. Rather than reducing the meaning of our communications it has actually increased the value by visual immediacy. Now when someone asks ‘can you see what I am saying?’ in the Snapchat world, the answer is yes!
This works because Snapchat is easy to use. This simple app while first used by tweens and teens has now expanded to a full age range and vast socioeconomic sphere. This seems like a quick jump to such an array of users, but it has taken some time. There are limitations that make using Snapchat a challenge at first. Snapchat has no discovery, no search, no directory native in the app. In most cases you have to look outside the app to actually find another Snapchat user to follow.
Many people and now businesses have taken to publishing their unique Snapchat ghost code on their own websites, social channels, and in emails in order to grow their networks and followers. This limitation of discovery is actually one of the features that made this messaging app so popular to the younger audience. It was a way to control their environment and friend circle in a way that is not possible in the real world. Even now while there are a few third party apps that allow for easier user discovery, for the most part you have to really search for a user’s code.
Add that to the fact that all Snapchat messages are under time constriction. When you send a photo snap, you can set the time limit for the photo from 1 to 10 seconds. Video is more limited in that it plays through once. Two features introduced this year are Story and Geofiltering. The Story feature creates a storyline of content that you choose to be viewed multiple times for 24 hours and then it is gone. The interconnected feel is further enhanced with geofiltering which as described by Snapchat are special overlays that communicate the “where and when” of a Snap in a fun way, whether you’re sending it to a friend or adding it to your Story.
That is one of the reasons that this seemingly young app has grown up so fast. Kids were drawn to it because it was a fast and fun way to talk to friends plus each message once read simply disappeared. Now adults are seeing the benefit of this too and its user base has tripled over the last year. This lack of content history has shown to be a huge stress relief to adults and combats the burden of digital hoarding we see on other apps and social media tools. While fun factor motivates the younger ages, it is freedom from the burden of managing their digital history that has adults hitting their snap streak stride.
Businesses can now leverage the sense of immediacy and intimacy of the the app by building quick snippets of content that can tell a story, promote a brand, create a conversation or simply entertain. The lack of user history means that you can create different conversations and promotions that exist only in the now. But lack of history does not mean lack of impact. This builds excitement for every frame of your conversation story and takes the audience on a trip that feels special rather than campaigned. And once it is over, the conversation can change and the next interaction feels fresh and new.
As a business or advertiser using Snapchat, this also means you are going to have to choose, plan, and execute your content with more precision and planning. Don’t let the fact that the content disappears fool you because in the world of Snapchat you are only as good as your last snap. Each of your Snaps should tell an individual story as well as keep continuity when added to the storyline.The fact that the conversation can change on a daily basis does not mean you can wing it if you really want to engage your audience. Some helpful tips are to map out your campaign using storyboards and follow a traditional story arc in three acts for this untraditional medium. This formula is universally accepted and easy to follow and will help to maintain consistency and relevance throughout your brand story or ad campaign.
What makes this app especially attractive to businesses now is the addition of the aforementioned geofiltering. Geofiltering allows you to interact with users in a very specific area on a specific date. In a nutshell a geofilter is like a normal Snapchat filter (a design you can overlay onto a photo you take in the app.) But Geofilters are only available when you are in a certain predetermined location and can provide context and information to an area, event or cause.
What kind of business would want to use a geofilter? A good example is a local gym is having a community day open house. The local gym is looking to increase neighborhood awareness and incentivize new people to try them by hosting a community day where all workouts that day are free. The gym could create a filter that would have the name of the gym, the date and a fun incentive title like Workout For Free. This filter would then be offered through the normal Snapchat interface to any user in that area and create an opportunity for this local gym to be discovered by a larger customer base. Filters are widely used on Snapchat and having one that is branded with your business is an excellent way to introduce yourself to potential new customers and stay connected to existing customers.
Geofilters were previously only offered to limited larger brands and advertisers but are now open to all businesses and events no matter the size. Plus people in general can also create a personal filter to highlight a birthday, wedding or other personal event for small fees. Artists can also submit a free Community Geofilter for their city, university, a local landmark, or another public location. While the community filters are free, the cost for local advertising remains very attractive to small businesses with its low cost entry point. You can easily test the waters of the OnDemand filter through the Snapchat website to experiment with times, dates and geographical areas to find out if this is a tool you want to add to your local marketing budget.
Stefanie LaHart is president of BoomTown Marketing where as a professional conversationalist she spends her mornings breaking a sweat and the rest of the day building bottom lines for fitness studios, sports brands and and health & wellness facilities. She uses proven online marketing strategies with a creative edge and crafts social media stories to help her clients engage their customers and get results.
Julius, a Thuzio solution, is a SaaS influencer marketing platform that provides marketers with rich social data, advanced search capabilities, and the campaign management tools required to organize a successful influencer marketing strategy.
For more information about Julius, our influencer marketing software, or our blog please contact Russell Wilde Jr.
