January 28, 2016 10:29 am
Published by Kirsty Sharman
Every major marketing and digital communications publication has touted Snapchat as the go to for brands in 2016. But should brands be throwing their budgets at setting up channels and paying a small fortune to staff (or agencies) to maintain and run them?
Snapchat is a specialized platform
Creating content for Snapchat is no easy task. It requires someone who understands the platform but, because of the real time nature of the network, also requires someone who can create content on the fly. While content ideas can be approved actual content has to be published in real time.
Convincing your audience to add you and watch said content is also really difficult. Snapchat was and is a place for friends to share entertaining stories via images, text and ten second video. What would be the driving factor to convince that market to want to watch brand content daily?
I wrote a rather comprehensive article for Memeburn where I said that brands should not be setting up Snapchat profiles in emerging markets like South Africa. You can
read that argument here.
However, my argument is not that Snapchat should be wiped out of the marketing mix completely. Instead, I believe that in emerging markets Snapchat can be used best as part of a comprehensive Influencer Marketing Strategy. Adding Snapchat to the influencer arsenal allows your brand a chance to work with an influencer to create content that truly resonates with your target audience and communicated in a tone that resonates with them.
One of the many concerns around Snapchat influencers is that their reach and Snap views are not really measurable. We're highly reliant on them to provide us with screenshots of their views and are still unable to ascertain the location or age of the audience. That's why Snapchat can work so incredibly well as a value add and part of a larger influencer campaign.
Utilising the Webfluential platform marketers are able to run influencer campaigns and utilise content created and shared on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Blogs and YouTube. We can also add Snapchat to the campaign to ensure your brand features prominently on the new medium via influencers on the platform. This is a great way to test the waters of the new social network and appeal to new audiences while safe in the safety net of the trackable influencer accounts you're also utilising during your campaign.
Our team loves brainstorming around new Snapchat ideas and ways to incorporate it in to your campaign. Why not
contact us and test the waters?
