By TE Cunningham & Sofia Thompson
Social media can seem overwhelming to the small business owner just starting out. If you don’t have a marketing employee to take the reins for you, here are some brief guidelines to get you started.
Create your Snapchat profile and fill out every possible field.
Be consistent in your branding and make sure all posts include some indicator of your brand. Although there is no profile picture on Snapchat, content within your stories should be consistent with content from other platforms and easily recognizable.
Turn on Snapchat Insights to gain information about your story views as well as audience and demographic data.
Audience at a Glance:
Who is using it in the US?
97.55 Million Users
13-24-year old’s make up 90% of Snapchat users, and only 3% of users are 65+. 78% of internet users between 18 and 24 use Snapchat, and 70% are female. When it comes to income, 27% of users make less than $30,000 and 22% earn more than $75,000. Also, 29% of users live in urban areas, 20% live in suburban areas, and 20% live in rural areas (Source: socialmediadata.com).
Now you are ready to start posting; here are some quick tips:
Number of Snaps per Week: 4 or More Snaps
We recommend a minimum of four on the posting frequency of Snapchat, which includes posting a story or sending out a short video or image. This frequency is recommended because content only lives 24 hours on this network.
Best Posting Times:
Industry experts recommend your company’s snaps post late at night – between 10 PM and 1 AM. Snapchat users access the app aggressively during the night.
Best Posting Days:
Fridays and Saturdays, especially later in the evening.
Types of Content:
Video or image plus a story that appeals to the key user of this network – millennials and Gen Z’ers. Here are some tips on content:
- Draw over a Snap
- Write captions on the Snap
- Add information: date, time, location and such
- Add background music to Snaps.
- Add at least one filter – you can use several
- Add a lens
- Attach links to sites
You can also create a poll on this network, which can be an excellent feature for highlighting your business’ products/services.
Feel free to utilize some of the tools Snapchat provides to make your life a little easier. This includes:
- The Focus feature – lets you blur out everything except faces
- The Grids feature – helps you take photos using the rule of thirds
- The Timer feature – makes it easier to take selfies and take pictures from various angles
Additional Engagement Tips:
If you are interested in taking your Snapchat feed and engagement to the next level, allow social influencers to take over your account for the day. This could expose your account to a whole new audience since influencers already have a pretty steady following on their social media accounts.
If you run a brick-and-mortar company, create a Geotag for the location of your business so that others can use and post it when they are in or near your store! This spreads awareness about your business and encourages customer engagement.
Hopefully, this will help you to get started on Snapchat. If you feel overwhelmed by content creations, posting schedules and time commitments, we can help! Contact us at tlcmarketingconsultants.com today!