Welcome to Influencer Marketing, Snapchat!
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Snapchat is one of the most popular and fastest growing companies in the world. Since its debut in 2010, the mobile app has evolved from a simple photo sharing concept to one of the largest global content mediums out there.
More frequently, and especially in 2017, we are seeing a push for organic branded content in the form of influencer marketing. Up until now, the vessels at the forefront have been Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook; with Snapchat shying away from brands and influencers and focussing more on overall users. As of last week, that’s all about to change. The self-proclaimed camera company over the last few weeks and months has been rolling out new features constantly, including Snapchat Map, which allows users to see their where their friends are via their Bitmoji (with permission), Voice filters without an accompanying visual filter, and a customizable Backdrop filter. The most important feature, however, is the new Paperclip feature, which allows users to attach a link to Stories they post that viewers can simply access by swiping up on the story.
This opens the door for influencer marketing in a way that wasn’t possible before, and is currently limited on other platforms. Snapchat has always been a more personal platform in the sense that only the people that you allow can see what you send or post to your story, and nothing is publicly saved for more than 24 hours. One of the best aspects of Snapchat is being able to follow celebrities and influencers to see their public stories. It becomes more personal in that way, it’s videos and pictures they are creating, and posting from their phone. That’s not always the case on other forms of social media.
Influencer marketing has been around for a while, but brands and influencers up until now have had to use unconventional methods on Snap to try and replicate the engagement they get from other platforms. These methods include Snapchat takeovers, or simple snaps of them using the product, without any way of providing a concrete next step for an interested viewer. You know the drill by now, influencer marketing is all about being organic and authentic. Having the ability to subtly attach a “next step” in the form of a link is an efficient way to appease both brands and influencers who have been pleading for Snap to get in the game.
So why is this such a leap ahead for Snapchat? For now they’re the only ones with this feature. Only on theInstagram story feature is it possible to attach a link, and only if the user has over 10K followers. Some of the best performances of influencer marketing come from micro influencers, some of which have less than that minimum.
On traditional Instagram posts, the only way to add a link is for the user to add it in their profile bio, and add the usual “link in bio” message in their caption. Now that any Snapchat user can use this feature on both stories and individual snaps, this could potentially put them ahead of Instagram.
The only thing missing from this new feature, and Snapchat as a whole, is engagement data. There is still no way to gather any demographic data on Snapchat story viewers other than the total number of viewers. Hopefully if the Paperclip feature catches steam, Snap will provide brands and influencers with data on who, where, and how many people are visiting their link through the story. Only time will tell if this addition will bode well for Snapchat and their users, but in the realm of influencer marketing it’s a step in the right direction.
Julius is an influencer marketing platform leveraged by brand and agency marketers to connect with creators and manage campaigns.
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