If you’ve been paying attention to tech or business news lately you know that Snapchat is one of the fastest-growing social networks out there. Now I know you’ve heard this before, but you’ve got to know by now the market moves so fast that there are new opportunities to get in front of your customers every week. Snapchat now boasts 100 million active users every day and is a gold mine if you’re targeting the younger demographic, ages 13 to 34. Up until now, they’ve had a very unique platform that has operated purely on organic content. It’s basically a social media network that allows you to post pictures or video content with a little bit of text thrown in there that people have to watch within 24 hours or else it disappears. Another unique thing about Snapchat is there’s no real way to push out your content into other platforms. You have to use your other networks like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to drive people into following you on Snapchat in order for them to see your content.
All this organic content has been doing really well for people with established brands or people with a knack for getting people excited about their content. The big news is they have recently come out with their first ad product, something that is a bit of the old saying, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s definitely something businesses want to start to pay attention to even if the demographic approaches higher age ranges like 40. As social media networks become more popular the demographic gets a little bit older. This new ad product is very small and isn’t what you think but is something smart businesses can really make use of.
Now on Snapchat, there’s the ability to use geofilters to stamp where you’re posting a picture from. A lot of times people will film a short video or take a picture and use a geofilter that represents the city or neighborhood they’re in.
Recently, large brands or entertainment companies have started to release geofilters based on movies or TV shows that are going to come out. Until now, small to medium-sized businesses haven’t been able to do any type of advertising on Snapchat until now. Brands and individuals now have the ability to release their own geofilter. Now, in order to do so, you have to design your own geofilter with very specific dimensions and requirements, upload it to the Snapchat ad site, tell Snapchat the geographical area that you want to show this geofilter to and then associate a cost that you’d like to pay for space. You also have to set a time limit that you want the geofilters to show up. At first glance, businesses might look at this like it’s just a small, little fun thing that might not really drive any attention to the brand, but this is the contrary.
Take a local business, a bar, for instance. They could set a geo-location or geographical area within a 10-mile radius around their bar. They could set a geofilter that has a brand logo, as well as a small saying, saying how much fun the bar is. Then when people take snaps and send it to their friends or their audience in a 10-mile radius around that bar, and they’re swiping, looking for the geofilters, the bar’s geofilter will come across the screen effectively marketing to that person how fun the bar is. It also gives them the opportunity to use that geofilter and send it to their friends.
For instance, if the bar’s name is Joe’s Happy Bar they could put the logo on the filter and then have a saying underneath like “Come to the most fun place in Brooklyn, New York.” People snapping to their friends could be looking for places to go that night, that Friday night or that Saturday night, and as they’re swiping through geofilters sending snaps to each other, the brand could come across their geofilter, and they could send it to their friends, saying, “Hey, want to go?”
They could even use their logo and then have a saying that is applicable to anybody, something like a question, “how much fun are you going to have tonight?” for example. They could use that geofilter on fun little snaps to their friends or their audience, but the logo will be on there to effectively brand the bar. There are endless opportunities, from local companies to national brands to use geotagging to be able to effectively get the attention of a 13 to 34-year-old demographic. The opportunities are endless, and Snapchat is certainly not done building valuable aspects into their ad platform.
Our Good Monster team is certainly paying attention and already putting these strategies into motion. We suggest you do the same!
