Trying to decide whether to integrate Snapchat into your core social media presence?
Does your ideal customer avatar include a rapidly growing millennial audience?
Did you know that Snapchat users in the age range of 25 and up is growing at twice the speed of users 25 and under?
Knowing which social media platforms are the best for you and your target business audience can be a tough choice.
It shouldn’t all be guesswork so we’ve compiled some info to help you make an informed decision.
Who’s There? – Snapchat Demographics!
[insert eye-roll at my knock-knock joke reference] I mean who’s there – on Snapchat?
Who actually uses Snapchat? See whether they stand up to your target market profile or whether it looks promising to try and reach a new market.
- Snapchat is young. And as a common act of online symmetry, Snapchat users are also young. A Whopping 37% of Snapchat users are between the ages of 18 and 24. Only 2% are boomers, over 55 years of age.
- Users in the 25-35 age range are increasing fast. This is useful if this age group fits your market and you want to reach them as they begin adopting Snapchat.
- Recent data on gender isn’t available when it comes to Snapchat, but there is a stat from 2013 that 70% of Snapchat users were female. It’s unlikely this has flipped in only a few years.
- The Global Web Index places Snapchat in the hands of the Irish more than anywhere else.
- Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and India followed, with the U.S. ranking fifth.
- The United Arab Emirates, Canada, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and France followed, giving us a top ten list.
- If you’re trying to reach college students, this would be a great place to find them. Reportedly 53% of college students have a Snapchat account, according to a Harvard study.
- The same Harvard study found that users have no particular political affiliation. Between 35 and 39 percent of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents reported having Snapchat accounts.
- Finally, the same study says 40% of Snapchat users identified as white, while 34% identified as Hispanic, and 25% identified as black.
- The most likely change forecasted for Snapchat is the size of its audience. With double-digit growth year over year for five years, the trend is pretty clear. The age group will increasingly be older and while more men are likely to join Snapchat, women as the primary user is expected to remain.
Snaps
If you’re completely new to Snapchat, know that this is the original feature of the app.
A snap is just a picture you take, but it’s only available for a one-time viewing by your network.
After being viewed, it disappears. They can be customized with messages and doodles, but the fact that they disappear became a major limitation and frustration.
The major limitation of the platform continues to be that it is time-bound, although the real-time snaps are now also accompanied by 24-hour Stories.
Stories
A Snapchat story is a photo or video message that is viewable for a full 24-hours. Perhaps more importantly, they can be viewed an unlimited amount of times during that 24-hour period.
Snaps disappeared after being opened, so they were only seen once (assuming you didn’t get distracted by something like getting an email from the Spencer Institute on the latest, industry-leading online health and wellness coaching certification programs).
Stories are useful for businesses because if you have time to catch the attention of the viewer.
And as we know, repetition helps viewers to familiarize themselves with your brand and makes the message more believable. Here are a few quick steps to take while you create your first story.
- Check your security settings! You’re a business, so make sure stories are set to “Everyone” to maximize visibility.
- Take a snap, meaning take a picture or a video.
- If it’s a selfie, add a lens to make it fun and interesting. A lens can add interest, personality, and even mark an occasion.
- Press the ‘post-it’ icon to add emojis and stickers that fit your brand message.
- Don’t forget to add a caption, whether typed or hand-written. If it’s hand-written, it’s call a doodle.
- Add a filter. To keep it interesting, there are geo-filters. These are specific filters available according to where you are located. Take advantage of these. They offer a way to personalize your snap in ways others can’t.
- Decide how long your story will play by choosing the duration in seconds. The maximum time is ten seconds, but you can add snaps to your story to make it longer.
- A key figure to remember here is that the average Snapchat user attention span is 8.5 seconds, so if you story isn’t hugely engaging, making it longer than ten seconds won’t reveal more attention on your brand.
- Save & Send! It will be available on your profile for 24 hours.
- A fun alternative is to submit a Live Story. This is a collection of Snaps submitted by users. This can be a great way to increase visibility, encourage user engagement, and celebrate an event.
Memories
While all social platforms help people communicate in different ways and with different people, Snapchat’s utility is focused on the camera feature.
Originally, Snapchat was a way to capture moments, or snaps. Because those moments were lost immediately after being viewed, Snapchat had to find a way to let people share more and not be so time-bound.
As with all platforms, this one has grown and evolved. One change is the switch from moments to memories.
Memories are being rolled out so you can save your snaps and Ben Shepardson give some quick clear directions on how to create a memory for beginners.
You’re not saving these to your Camera roll. You’re saving them on the app in the content section so they are available with a simple upward swipe. How’s that for simple?
Andrew Hutchinson has some great pro-tips on the topic. You can not only share memories with the public or with your network, but you can send memories to specific friends. This might be especially useful if that memory was made with that friend.
For business purposes, think about the ability to send memories to specific audience segments.
If you’re growing your online business as a Certified Personal Trainer , send high-quality images or short video stories from your most inspiring morning workout routine to the early birds in your network.
Send simple instructional demonstrations or quick high-value health and wellness coaching tips to the newbies in your network.
Share highlight video segments from your favorite speakers at live events your attending or when you do high-impact public speaking at conferences or major industry events.
Consider sending your best inspirational moments to those you believe could use a quick pick-me-up!
The ‘Snap’ Judgment
[insert eye roll for bad pun] The final word on Snapchat is that it is evolving to better meet the needs of its rapidly growing user base, which means more opportunities will open up for businesses too.
With a growing user base, we’ll see an increasing ability to find the right people there and share our messages.
A rapidly growing millennial Snapchat population will mean lots of new customers and clients if they’re a big part of your target market, especially if you take the time create truly, inspiring and value-creating short video content.
Snapchat is a great place to experiment and see whether you can capture your market with the right images, videos, and customizations. It’s fun, it’s new, and another fun way to be you!
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