About them:
SnapChat was started in 2011 under the name Picaboo and was rebranded the same year. At the core it is an application for mobile devices to take, post and share pictures (the ‘snaps’). Snaps have a limited lifetime and are typically shared with a friend or group of friends.
Who is there?
SnapChat reports over 280 million user with about ⅓ located in North America. About 200 million user engage daily and create upwards of 5 billion snaps with over 18 billion views. About ⅗ of the user base is female identifying making them the slightly stronger segment. About half the users on SnapChat are in the 15 to 25 year age group which may make SnapChat the MOST popular network amongst teenagers (and into their early twenties…).
Is it for us?
If you’re wondering whether a meaningful segment of your audience spends time on the platform, the answer is yes for reaching a younger market segment and if you understand that you can reach mostly friends/subscribers with a time limited picture (or video) message. You Should Prioritize SnapChat if:
- The user base meets your demographic
- You have frequent fresh content to submit daily or multiple times daily
Suggested Content
Content that may work best on SnapChat:
- Pictures (‘snaps’)
- Video
- Video/audio chat
Caution:
You are spending your budget on a website and want visitors to come “here”. Thus, we strongly suggest to use social media links sparingly! The example you should note on our sample sites is
- SMALL icons
- FAINT colours
- DON’T use their bright colours!
- DON’T put links prominently in the header region or anywhere ‘above the fold’!
You want to attract user to YOUR site to read YOUR content and perhaps buy YOUR product. So, WHY would you present them with an invitation/opportunity to leave right at the opening/loading of your page (when those links are placed in the header region and made prominent with their brand colours)?
Notice also that on our sample sites the icon link to these info pages. As a result we can capture the attention of our visitor one more time… Alternately we could direct hem to the contacts page (where the real links to social media exists) or some other preferred flow…