Consumers are making a huge social shift from Instagram to Snapchat.
The migration to the popular self-destructing photo/video social network is happening right before our eyes.
Snapchat is a multifunctional app: People use it to communicate one to one, one to few, and one to all. They share moments, not just pretty pictures, through stills and videos with added captions, doodles and filters to make them even more fun and personal.
The social shift is official when most consumers ask followers on all their other social media networks to join them on a newer or more popular social network.
When this shift starts, I recommend that small businesses prepare a marketing strategy for that up-and-coming network. The first movers will dominate and connect with their consumers faster than their competitors will. Social-savvy small-business people know that taking advantage of social media to market their products and services can be a cost-effective way to drive sales and consumer engagement.
Using Snapchat as a marketing tool goes against everything you?ve learned about marketing from the dawn of time, which is creating repetition and staying in front of a potential customer as long as possible. On Snapchat, you have a limited amount of time for your target audience to see your promotion before it disappears forever.
Before you dive head first into Snapchat, please do your due diligence as you would with any other marketing strategy. Here are three factors to consider in determining whether your small business is ready to make the shift:
1. You target audience
Does your small business?s target audience align with Snapchat?s user demographic? Snapchat?s demographic is users ages 16 to 24, but I predict this age range will drastically shift to 18 to 40 as more people migrate from Instagram to Snapchat over the next 12 months. Snapchat already has more than 24 million adults using the social network.
If your target audience falls within the former span, then you?re right on time to take advantage of the social network before it gets overcrowded with your competitors. If it falls within the latter, you should still take advantage of Snapchat, but with a planned, more gradual rollout.
Your main focus should be on learning from other brands while getting your team familiar with the channel. This could be an upside for your business as you have more time to plan a strategic approach to using Snapchat to engage with your established customer base and attracting new customers.
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