As Snapchat continues to bolster its position in the social media game, business owners are taking notice and figuring out how they can best leverage the app.
Everyday, the platform attracts 100 million users who receive photo ‘snaps’ and watch 10 billion snapped videos.
But can your business make money from Snapchat?
Sibling-entrepreneurs Jess and Stef Dadon are the creators of the How Two Live blog and have spent the past few years building their brand through social media.
The sisters recently launched their Twoobs shoe range at New York fashion week, and are among an emerging group of new founders making a serious break into Snapchat; each piece of content they share on Snapchat is opened 7000 times on average.
“Through that we were able to create hype around the launch of our shoes,” the Dadons told SmartCompany.
Teeth whitening startup HiSmile recently invested in a full-time Snapchat curator, while Showpo founder Jane Lu snaps her own content regularly and religiously to boost customer loyalty.
But when it comes to selling products on Snapchat, you should skip the sales pitch altogether, the Dadons say.
“Because Snapchat is so unpolished, your audience really feels like they’re getting a true, authentic look into your life,” they say.
“The more organic it looks, the more people are willing to buy.”
Here’s five ways to use Snapchat to boost your business’ sales.
With brands and businesses still trying to figure out how best to use Snapchat, it’s prime time for new founders to collaborate.
“The best way it could be utilised right now for brands is by jumping on the other people’s Snapchats,” the Dadons say.
This approach has helped the How Two Live sisters be much more effective on Snapchat.
“We were able to utilise the following of other people,” they say.
Snapchat is also a good place to find more affordable influencers, according to the duo.
“Most Instagram followers these days will automatically come back with set rates but because Snapchat is so new, there are no set rates, people aren’t charging as much if they’re charging at all,” they say.
“We work with brands on our Snapchat through just promoting their products.”
When sharing content on Snapchat, you may choose to post it on your own channel or to other story streams.
By posting to “Melbourne story” or “New York story” there is a chance your snaps may get picked up and seen by a much larger audience.
After reaching out to major fashion blog site The Zoe Report, which they have worked with before, the Dadons were able to share moments and backstage footage from their shoe launch through Zoe Report’s Snapchat channel.
“We broadcasted the whole launch on 10,000 opens on their Snapchat,” they say.
The sisters also shared some of the content on “New York story” and three clips they posted were picked up and shared by New York Fashion Week’s Snapchat channel.
The Dadons recently threw a party in Los Angeles to promote their brand and to encourage their 400 guests to get snapping, they decided to try out a geofilter.
Snapchat geofilters are specially designed overlays that businesses and followers can use to share branded snaps.
“Anyone can just apply for it,” she says.
“From the outside, it looks like this big expensive process.”
But it ended up costing the How Two Live founders just US$30 ($40) for their very own branded Snapchat filter, which let guests in the area share specifically branded snaps for a whole day.
“People loved it,” they say.
It’s something they’ll be trying again when they host parties in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
The Emoticode app by Popsugar allows businesses to share their website through snaps.
Similar to a “shorten URL” code, Emoticode lets users copy and paste URLs into Snapchat or Instagram photos.
Followers can then screenshot these images and open them via Emoticode to be taken to the link.
This can help businesses direct some of their Snapchat followers back to online stores and other platforms.
The Snapcash feature developed in collaboration with payments tech company Square enables US-based businesses on Snapchat to sell products directly through the app.
Small businesses can offer Snapcash as an option then share video or photos of products, which followers can click and purchase directly on Snapchat.
While this may be where the app is headed for businesses around the world, the Dadon sisters say there is a raw, rough and authentic feel that Snapchat users are accustomed to and love in the app.
“Snapcash will almost detract from that,” they say.
Dinushi Dias is a freelance journalist and a former StartupSmart reporter and multimedia content producer. She is the co-founder of Melbourne-based production house Dinushi & Power.
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