Snapchat Marketing: What Businesses Need to Know

Are you on Snapchat?

Do you use it for marketing?

To learn how to use Snapchat for your business, I interview Gary Vaynerchuk and Shaun McBride.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode I interview Gary Vaynerchuk, the CEO of VaynerMedia, host of the AskGaryVee Show and author of Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, and Shaun McBride, also known as Shonduras, a celebrity on Snapchat and artist. Shaun is one of Snapchat's power users and has represented brands like Disney and Taco Bell on the platform.

Gary and Shaun will share what marketers need to know about Snapchat.

You'll discover why marketers are using Snapchat and how to use it for your business.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Snapchat Marketing
Why marketers use Snapchat

Gary believes marketers need to be where people are paying attention. As a platform, Snapchat has the attention of 15- to 25-year-olds in America. If that's the demographic you're trying to reach, you need to be on Snapchat. A bonus of Snapchat is that the grounds are very fertile, Gary adds. It's so new, brands haven't "ruined it yet."

According to Shaun, a lot of people think that since Snapchat content disappears, it's not valuable. He says that's not the case.

On many social media platforms, viewers scroll through content quickly. And even though those posts will be there forever, viewers will never see it again. Marketers are only grasping for 50% of users' attention at a time, and those users never look back.

Snapchat users can't look back. However, marketers have 100% of their audience's attention for the length of the content's life.

Shaun explains that on Snapchat, you send out pictures or videos for a certain number of seconds (1 to 10). As the consumer, you absorb that content and then it disappears off your screen. Your never see it again, unless you screenshot the frame of a movie or a picture, which gets reposted.

Gary believes the younger generation gravitates toward Snapchat, because parents have infiltrated Facebook and now Instagram. "Snapchat created a haven that parents didn't know about," Gary explains. "Plus, the content itself just disappeared. The holy grail for teenagers."

Listen to the show to hear Gary's 80s analogy for Snapchat.

What marketers are doing on Snapchat

Shaun uses Snapchat to involve and engage his fans in projects.

For example, Shaun created a Jurasnap Park, playing off of Jurassic Park, full of all of his friends. He invited them to take a selfie, draw themselves into a dinosaur and send it to him. He then took screenshots and reposted all the dinosaur snaps of his fans for the world to see. They felt involved because it was a group project, rather than a project he just did on his own.

Gary explains that what Shaun did with his Snapchat story is a way your business can interact with everyone who follows you, instead of just engaging one to one.

Creative people think of stories in a linear sense, Gary shares. They put out 7 to 15 collections of images to tell a 150-second story instead of just one 10-second story. Depending on how you want to tell a story, Snapchat offers options. You can share a long narrative, like snapping your entire night at the Super Bowl, or just add one snap at a time. Snapchat has enormous creative potential if you understand context.

Shaun created a platform for himself, Gary adds. Many people engage with Shaun because he gives back. Some enjoy getting acknowledgement from somebody they deem famous. Others are building their own profiles and engaging wi...