We’ve already taken a peek at Twitter in 2017 and now we’ll look at the often perceived juvenile world of Snapchat.
Teenagers, filters and the little white ghost is usually what we associate with Snapchat but there’s more to this platform of social media than meets the eye. Here we take a snapshot of Snapchat in 2017, to see where it came from, what’s happening and what the future may hold.
THE STORY OF SNAPCHAT.
It all began in 2008 when Evan Spiegel met Reggie Brown during their freshman year. The two of them joined Kappa Sig where they both met Bobby Murphy. But this was all before Snapchat existed!
Fast forwarding to Spring 2011 and Reggie had a dream where the photos he sent to a girl would disappear. As superficial as this idea seems, this is essentially where the seed for Snapchat was planted.
In Summer 2011, the multi-million-dollar idea of Snapchat was born and they named it Pictaboo which had only 127 users so a rebrand was undertaken and in the Autumn of 2011 the team changed the app’s name to Snapchat with the hope that it would become more popular.
By Spring 2012, Snapchat had grown to 100,000 users and it continues to grow with a whopping 350 million users who are active monthly. This overtakes the number of users on Twitter in 2017.
As they invest heavily into their business to keep up with their social media rivals, Snap Inc. is working at a loss and warns that it ‘may never achieve or maintain profitability’.
Sadly there are no filters to gloss over the truth that underlies this multi-billion-dollar business.
NEW FEATURES
Snapchat have updated their beloved stories, so they now they have a story for everything. This aims to provide behind the scenes Snaps from interesting events all over the world. The stories use advanced machine learning to understand what’s happening in the Snaps which is submitted to ‘Our Story’. You can now search over 1 million unique stories on Snapchat.
We’ve all experienced the frustration of not being able to fully enjoy a Snap because the timer has ran out.(even after replaying it.)
The limitless Snap allows you to enjoy watching the Snap for as long as you like.
As the popularity and accessibility of Augmented Reality grows rapidly among the digital sphere, Snapchat have decided to jump on the band wagon and put its own mark on it therefore enabling users to paint the world around them with lenses to create new 3D experiences.
Geofilters for Snapchat is becoming a hugely popular thing to add to your personal, community and business events. With prices starting from £5.99 it’s a fantastic way to increase awareness of your brand or event with the custom filter.
Snapchat is slowly following in the footsteps of Instagram and Facebook where you can access everything on just one site. Snapchat have teamed up with Shazam allowing you to find out what track is playing. You can also use their explore page to scroll through some of the biggest news outlets and popular social channels, such as National Geographic or Buzzfeed.
How to use Snapchat for businesses
With 60% of Snapchat users being between the ages of 18 and 34 this it is a great way for a business to target the young adult audience.
With the variety of different marketing options Snapchat offer, you’re spoilt for choice and may well find it difficult to choose the right one for you and your business.
Here’s an overview of all of the features that Snapchat offer and how you’re business could best utilise them.
Snap Ads build brand awareness
Snap Ads are a 10 second video advert that appear in between Stories with an option to swipe up to view more information.
According to Snapchat, Snap Ads receive a rate that is 5 times higher than the average click through rate comparable to social media platforms.
Increase engagement with Geofilters
The aforementioned Geofilters have been proven to be a highly effective method of creating new leads.
Your Geofilter can be cleverly designed by your own creative teams and become a campaign in itself, alongside special events such as National days.
Support your account to be Taken-over
Allowing celebrities and influential people takeover your business account can boost your connections and spread awareness to a demographic that would be hard to reach with traditional forms of media.
Take a look at Alexa Cheung’s takeover for Vogue in London Fashion Week. It’s pretty much filled with Alexa and her fancy photo effects with behind the scenes shots and front row seats.
What’s not to love?
IS SNAPCHAT KILLING IT?
Snapchat is killing it with their features. They’re not only following trends but they’re becoming the trend setters. With Instagram and Facebook clipping at their heels, they’re fighting to stay relevant every day.
Check out their idea of having photo and world filters. Both Instagram and Facebook were sure to be following that soon after Snapchat.
However, in the financial side of things Snapchat is truly flopping. Even their CEO predicts that they may never be profitable.
This may suggest that Snapchat is investing heavily into their business in order to keep up with its competitors and if their revenue begins to decrease, Snapchat could become a sinking ship.