Strategy
Snapchat: What It Is and How To Gain More Engagement
Snapchat has been a staple resource within influencer marketing since its initial launch in 2011. The platform is also very popular with the acclaimed demographic of Gen Z with 82% of 18-24-year-olds using the app daily. As the platform continues to become associated with great success, it is important that influencers and brands are using its features to their fullest potential. In order to analyze this further, Netinfluencer explains how you can easily boost your engagement on Snapchat.
Why Is Engagement Important on Snapchat?
Engagement is vital across all social media platforms but has a more nuanced impact on Snapchat. Since a lot of its content expires after 24 hours, influencers must consistently create content in order to build up a secure following. Therefore, Snapchat often relies on an abundance of users and content in order to maintain its popularity.
The platform also has to compete against other short-form giants such as TikTok and Instagram. In turn, influencers are forced to cater their content especially for Snapchat in order to see the same results as they would on other platforms. This has helped the platform to become extremely diverse and unique in the wider parts of the market.
10 Ways to Gain Engagement on Snapchat
- Post regularly across the 24-hour timeline
The content that you post on Snapchat is very time sensitive and will disappear after 24 hours. Because of this, the platform allows users to post very frequently, without harming their visibility or engagement rate. Experts suggest that users should post around 4-7 times a day, with a majority of those posts being released in the evenings and weekends. This is when your audience is most likely to be using the app so have a higher chance of viewing and interacting with your content.
- Use Stories to promote your personal brand
Snapchat Stories are possibly the platform’s most intuitive feature as they allow influencers to post content in an easy fashion. Although a single Story can only be a minute long, this can give influencers enough time to really let their talents shine through. Whether it’s a simple update for your followers or a quick daily vlog, Stories can help you to produce an amicable personal brand. This type of branding can also lead to more profitable opportunities, such as marketing campaigns and brand deals.
- Activate Snapchat Ads for higher conversions
If you are operating on behalf of a brand, using Snapchat Ads can be a great way to monetize your existing engagement. Ads Manager allows users to craft, share, and track an advertisement all within one platform. If your ads continue to see a high level of traction, you may also see an increased level of engagement. This could be defined by more sales or even just more visits to your page or website.
- Implement Geofilters to find your target audience
Geofilters were launched back in 2014 and provide influencers with a varied assortment of filters that are only accessible when a user is in a certain geographical area. For example, influencers can implement filters based on the city they reside in or for certain occasions. By using these filters, you can determine where your target audience lies and can help you interact with people from your local area. Consequently, Geofilters can also help to strike up a conversation with local fans or can grab the attention of potential customers who live close by.
- Follow trends using Lenses and filters
Snapchat is also well known for its collection of Lenses, a series of augmented reality filters that can change your appearance or your surroundings. An example of this is the Dog Filter, which gives influencers the illusion of having ears and a nose that are similar to a puppy. The platform is continuously updating and releasing new Lenses, quickly creating new trends and inspirations. You can even create your own Snapchat Lens, supporting you to build your own viral trend.
- Encourage audience participation
Like any other platform, Snapchat focuses heavily on the relationship between a content creator and their audience. The platform has also created a range of stickers and creative features to help boost a sense of interaction. You could apply an ‘Ask Me Anything’ sticker or even just add a simple prompt using the app’s native editing features. This will help encourage your audience to interact with your content and can also offer more information about your current follower base. These features can also be used to find inspiration for future content as you can ask your followers what they would like to see in upcoming posts.
- Create a Premium Snapchat account for your most devoted followers
A Premium Snapchat is a platform that requires audiences to pay a small fee to access the content provided. This may not be to everybody’s liking but a Premium Snapchat is often a good alternative to the membership schemes seen on other platforms such as YouTube and Patreon. In addition, if you are only creating content for Snapchat, a simple paywall can help keep your content exclusive to that platform. As a result, you can easily build a small community of devoted followers and have access to an additional revenue stream.
- Reply to your audience
As an influencer, it is important that you do not allow your platforms to become isolated or one-sided. Snapchat is intended to support communication from both sides, making it very easy to respond to your followers. How you interact with your fan base is entirely up to you, but it is good practice to reply to a collection of Snaps. You could see this as a way to show gratitude for their continued support or even just thank them for their engagement. This type of interaction is possibly the easiest way to boost engagement as you are helping to build a positive sense of community on your platform.
- Implement a CTA into your Snapchat strategy
CTAs can push audiences to interact with your content in a more subtle way. These prompts can be implemented in a variety of different ways such as a ‘Swipe Up’ button on certain ads or a visual signal that guides users to an important link. Influencers can use CTAs to encourage their fans to share their content and promote it on other platforms. All of these actions can help to boost engagement levels and can help businesses to create a profitable sense of brand awareness.
- Share your content across all platforms
Snapchat may eliminate your content after 24 hours but that should not stop you from sharing it elsewhere. Influencers can upload their Snapchat Stories to their Instagram Story to help increase visibility over the course of a single day. The platform also allows you to save both your shared and private stories, helping you to build a backup of your content. These Snaps can then be uploaded to other sites, allowing influencers to boost engagement accumulatively, regardless of the platform.
Snapchat has always been a household name and seems to be growing in popularity as time goes on. Although it can be tempting to overlook the platform, especially with the growing number of platforms entering the industry, Snapchat is seen as a very accessible way to gain more engagement. To learn more about using Snapchat’s array of features, visit our website.
