What is Snapchat?

Snapchat is a popular messaging app that lets you exchange pictures and videos. These pictures and videos are called snaps and are meant to disappear after they’re viewed.

Snapchat is primarily used to take a picture or video. You can add filters, lenses or other effects and share them with friends. Hence, it is advertised as a “new type of camera”.  Snapchat provides you with all sorts of filters and photo editing tools to adorn your images.

Snapchat is popular with Generation Z. So if you have them as a target audience for your business Snapchat is your platform. To know how Snapchat works, it is important to familiarize and understand some important features it offers.

• Snapstreaks: A streak is established when two users have snapped back and forth within a 24-hour period for three days in a row. The streakers’ names have special statistics and emoticons displayed next to them. This shows you how long you’ve maintained a streak. 

Streaks matter because they add to your overall Snapchat score. A score reflects how much you use the app. 

Kids and teenagers use this feature to measure the strength of their bond with each other.

• Snapmap: Snapmap can only be shared with friends on Snapchat. It displays your location on a map in real-time. You can see your friend’s location too if they’ve opted into Snapmap.
• Snapchat Story: Snapchat started with this story creation tool and was followed by other social media like Facebook and Instagram. It narrates a story using pictures and videos. These stories appear as circles, and when tapped, they autoplay the pictures or videos collected. These stories can be viewed by your friends for a period of 24 hours.

If you want to share the story public you can share it with Our Story. Our Stories contain short documents of events, holidays or other things happening in the world on a specific day. This is a good way to promote your business ideas and products.

• Snapcode: Snapchat gives you your own unique QR code when you sign up. It is easy to make friends on Snapchat. All you need to do is share your unique QR code with your fellow Snapchat users.
• Discover: Discover is another tool that can be used to promote your business. It offers content created by celebrities, news and entertainment outlets, and other users. 

You can subscribe to the feeds of different Discover sources and get your target audience via these feeds. Discover stories often feature promos prompting which usually leads to ads or prompts kids to take a quiz, which is usually a marketing tool.

How to use Snapchat to boost your business:

If you use the above-mentioned tools correctly you will be able to boost your business and be found by your target audience. All you have to do is

• Post your story often
• Create a ‘sponsored lens’
• Use social influencers to promote your business
• Offer discounts and promo codes
• Promote a new product
• Reply to your followers
• Post relevant content
• Promote an upcoming event

If kids and teenagers are your target audience, Snapchat is one of the best social media platforms for you.