I’ve definitely been guilty of being one of those people that uses Snapchat for the fun filters. There have been times where I’ll take a picture and burst into laughter as I forward it to friends. It’s pretty easy for me to get carried away, as you can see below!
I’m definitely a fan of Snapchat and recently noticed that many businesses were becoming advocates as well. With my curiosity piqued, I decided to take a look at how some of today’s leading companies were utilizing this fun technology to grow their businesses. What I found were some very clever ways these companies were using Snapchat and three strategies you can put to use in your own business.
Hold a Contest
The idea is to host a contest or challenge that will appeal to your audience. Keeping your followers engaged is the name of the game here.
I’ve seen some really interesting examples of companies holding contests over Snapchat. I’ve seen salons asking their clients to take a snap of their favorite hairstyle and the salon will pick the winner. I’ve seen a regional magazine asking followers to submit a photo of how they’re staying cool to win a gift card to a local (air conditioned!) mall. However, one of my favorite contests was done by GrubHub. The company asked their followers to submit a food doodle to win gift cards/free food. (see below)
In each case, these companies received engagement, content, and free advertising from their followers.
I would like to see our video industry taking more advantage of these types of contests, as it’s a great way to interact on a more personal level. Hmm…maybe we have something up our sleeves here at LDV!
Do Q&A Videos
The Snapchat Q&A is such a simple, but genius concept. Similar to the contest idea, the followers are informed that a new Q&A video is in the works and are prompted to send a video snap of themselves asking a question to be answered in the video.
The first time I saw this was in a YouTube video by a famous YouTuber and friend, ChelseaLifts. A young entrepreneur in her early 20’s, she managed to turn her video-making hobby into an extremely successful business by leveraging the power of social media.
The dual incentive is clear. It keeps the followers engaged on both social media networks. Additionally, the followers get a chance to be seen by nearly 134,000 YouTube subscribers and over 3 million Snapchat followers.
Imagine a Q&A with your customers talking about the features of your new video collaboration product!
Promote Events
Have an upcoming webinar or maybe you’re a keynote speaker at this year’s Infocomm? Tap into your network and promote these events even further. Covering events on social media allows you to broadcast your event and make it available to those who may not live close enough to join.
Use your Snapchat story to post videos of yourself explaining the importance of an upcoming event, as well as the date, time, and location. You can also direct your followers to your other channels, such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, for more information or simply provide a registration sign up link.
Follow-up these promotions by posting snaps to your Story during the live event. Your viewers who couldn’t make it will love getting a peek into the action, while those who are in attendance will likely be happy to make an appearance in your Snapchat story!
These are just a few of the many useful tips on using Snapchat for business. There are so many other genius ideas out there, we at LDV would love to hear more. Please comment below and share your ideas!
