The Biggest Mistake Businesses Make On Snapchat
Snapchat is an intimate social network.
Unlike Twitter and Instagram, Snapchat doesn’t put an emphasis on how many followers you have. It is much more focused on engagement with those you choose to follow, and who follow you.
I’ve run dozens of On-Demand campaigns with Geofilt. They vary in almost every aspect: the graphics, the event type, the day of the week, the duration. But there is one constant: For every use of a geofilter, there are roughly 50 views.
What does that tell me? That the average Snapchatter has somewhere around 50 friends. Is this a very rough estimate? Sure. But I haven’t found any evidence to the contrary (and I’ve done quite a bit of Googling trying to answer that question).
That means that any individual account has an average reach of only 50 views.
Which is why the trend of business accounts of Snapchat is, to me, totally unviable.
As a Snapchat user, answer me this: how many brands are you friends with on Snapchat? One? Two? Compared to other social media platforms, Snapchat is unique in that the focus is on individuals. It’s very tough for a brand to establish a following on Snapchat.
Why are businesses unable to develop a reliable following on Snapchat?
For one, authentic content is hard to generate consistently. If you’re a bar or club, how many times can you show your same venue over and over again before it becomes stale? It might work well on other social media platforms, but Snapchat demands attentiveness, and in our ADHD society, it is extremely challenging to be consistently relevant on Snapchat.
That doesn’t mean I don’t understand why businesses create Snapchat accounts. They know that Snapchat is extraordinarily popular. They just don’t understand how to leverage that popularity in an engaging, sustainable way.
The proper way to advertise on Snapchat is with a geofilter. Sure it doesn’t offer you the ability to interact with users like Twitter or Instagram, but geofilters offer their own unique advantages.
First, they are totally passive. Set it and forget it. No need to continually refresh content and try to drive people to follow your account. Rather, you can place your logo in front of their face.
Second, you aren’t limited to your direct network. When you post on Snapchat, you only reach your followers. With a geofilter, you reach everybody in the vicinity. You can reach tens of thousands of people in a single night with a well-timed and well-executed geofilter. Don’t believe me? Well, I did it, just the other day.
A lot of businesses are still trying to figure out Snapchat. It’s understandable that when you have social media experts who are familiar with the models of Twitter and Instagram, you’d try to replicate their success on Snapchat. But the truth is that it is a unique platform that requires a different approach to creating a sustainable, viral brand.
TL;DR: Don’t bother with a business account on Snapchat. Focus that effort and funding on Snapchat Geofilters. Target who you want, where you want, when you want.
Have you had success with a business geofilter? Want to share an alternative opinion? Write a guest column? Have a question for me? PLEASE reach out. I love interacting with my readers, and respond to every single email.
Until next time,
Matt
matt@geofilt.com
www.geofilt.com