Murray Newlands says, “Snapchat has been a notoriously difficult platform on which to market a brand. Content on the app, while reaching over 100 million viewers, is deliberately temporary and marketing has been prohibitively expensive for all but the most lucrative brands. Many companies abstained from engaging early on due to misinformation, ignorance, or difficulty launching a campaign that had no in-depth analytics, and Chief Executive Officer Evan Speigel has been vocally against “creepy” targeted advertising — until now. I have personally started to use it a lot and so have... [...]

Meghan Keaney Anderson says, “There’s a funny pattern of awakening that tends to happen when a technological advancement sneaks up on us. It starts with a mess of confusion. We don’t understand the technology or its purpose: “I don’t get Twitter. Why would I want to know what you had for lunch?” It then evolves into miscategorization: “The iPhone is actually a pretty crummy phone.” We get so caught up in definitions, we almost miss the larger leap that’s occurring: “Why would people use messenger apps when you can just text?” Then,... [...]

Peter Sena says, “As marketers, we fight and claw for the consumer’s attention — blood, sweat, or pixels, we will shed whatever we need to for a minute of mindshare. If that makes the self-destructing messages of social media platform Snapchat seem counterintuitive, I get it. After all, a platform built around disappearing content feels more like a tool for teenagers to hide things from their parents than it does an advertising platform. But Snapchat has gone mainstream: 100 million active users and 7 billion views, daily. Yea, that mainstream. Too much of an audience for brands,... [...]

AJ Agrawal says, “Snapchat is a social media app you’ve likely dismissed as a marketing and SEO tool in the past. Messages are extremely temporary and it caters to an extremely niche audience. But the news that Snapchat had turned down a multi-billion dollar acquisition offer from Facebook turned some heads. If Facebook was so interested in it, then surely there is more to this than meets the eye? Snapchat has become a viable marketing platform. Ads have been rolled out to Snapchat and it’s not an ideal way to reach new audiences. This guide is going to show you what you need to know... [...]

SBT team says, “Should marketers “Snap” to it? Ever since Snapchat blasted its way into the social media world in 2011, marketers have debated whether this app is a passing craze or the next big thing. In many ways, Snapchat has similar photo-sharing and video-messaging capabilities as Instagram. What makes the app unique is that Snapchat users can control who receives their messages (called “Snaps”) and for how long. (The range is 1-10 seconds.) Even more intriguing, once the chosen recipient has seen a Snap(s), and the time limit is up, then poof, it disappears! Do Brands Have... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Snapchat has emerged from its murky roots to become a popular app with 100 million daily active users. So, should marketers now consider having a strategy for this video messaging app? Check out these stats about Snapchat users from by NewsCred and Column Five. Some 54% of users are on Snapchat daily; 32% users engage with the app 2-5 times a week. “Even though Snapchat users are engaging with the app on a daily basis, most users aren’t interacting with branded features, such as Snap Live Stories, Snap Discover Stories, or branded filters,” states the infographic. Find... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Snapchat has grown up a lot since its release back in 2011. While most people know it as the app that lets you send “private,” disappearing photos to your friends, the app has a whole lot more depth to it now. It offers branded and interactive filtering options, live news stories, and even a feature that lets you send cash to a friend. Its popularity and growth all the way up until now has been impressive. In November 2015, Harvard researchers found that 36% of 18–29-year-old Americans have a Snapchat account, up from 28% in 2014. Today, the app has... [...]

Berry Levine says, “Slightly over a year since its first ad, Snapchat is actively developing an application programming interface (API) to support advertising. That’s according to a story in today’s Digiday, which cited “multiple sources.” The messaging platform is reportedly now in discussions with various ad agencies and tech firms to determine what their requirements might be, and the API could be ready for testing this spring. Snapchat has declined comment on the story. An API would allow Snapchat to expand its ecosystem of advertisers and the kinds of ads it can offer,... [...]

Jason Abbruzzese says, “If it feels like your money keeps disappearing, this won’t help. Snapchat has announced a partnership with mobile payments service Square to introduce Snapcash, a payments feature that lets you transfer money between accounts on the ephemeral photo-sharing platform. SEE ALSO: 9 Snapchat Tips and Tricks You May Not Know About Square will handle the actual cash movements in the new feature, which was announced in a blog post on Monday. The deal will also provide Square with access to Snapchat’s more than100 million monthly active users. For now, Snapcash is... [...]

The latest article on HubSpot blog is titled “Snapchat for … Marketing? What the Curious Should Know”. Anum Hussain says, “Many of you may be clicking on this post thinking, “I still don’t get Snapchat.” Don’t worry. Snapchat isn’t for everyone, and it certainly isn’t the next big social network for businesses. But that doesn’t mean the social mobile application should be ignored entirely — especially if you’re a marketer that’s up for trying out-of-the-box ideas. If you’d like to explore Snapchat for marketing,... [...]