With 100 million daily users, Snapchat is quickly becoming the biggest social media platform.

45% of users are aged between 18-24, 70% of all users are female and it’s now ranked the number 1 social media platform for teens.

I’ve been on Snapchat for a few years but only signed up as a company a few months ago.

Why? Because we all want to do what we know.

Why do businesses avoid Snapchat?

Unlike Instagram, Twitter and Facebook that move up and down, Snapchat moves left and right.

We’ve all read it's the app that is used to nude pictures, so we are hesitant to use it for business. However, effective marketers will go where the eyes balls go.

And right now, they're on Snapchat.

What are the advantages of Snapchat for small businesses?

There is a myriad of reasons that forced me to pick up my phone and sign up for a business account. It's a free business tool where I can add content easily and literally in 10-second blocks.

Snapchat brings with it what other platforms cant, scarcity. Scarcity sells, or at the very least, brings people back.

The fact that my content is permanently deleted after opening (or 24 hours at most) creates not only urgency but also a habit.

Followers return daily to get the content before its forever lost into the ether. Assuming I’m producing good content, no one will seek out your profile out for rubbish, non-engaging content.

While authenticity didn't initially strike me as the most compelling reason to get into Snapchat, after speaking with my clients who watch my snaps every day, it’s now become the most engaging aspect to making this Snapchat venture work.

Snapchat provides authenticity because it’s unfiltered, raw content. I don't reshoot many things and if I screw up that's okay, I’m human and people appreciate that.

This authentic approach allows me as a company director to showcase not just our work but also the hard work our clients put in each and every day that makes my business a success.

The importance of authentic content for Snapchat 

Our most authentic content is compromised of people in the middle of workouts who don't have stage lighting, no makeup and panting heavily.

We post free workouts, nutrition tips, my own workouts, and my own nutrition to show the people who turn up every week to listen to what I have to say that I do indeed walk the talk.

Most importantly I show my flaws, my binge meals, my days I skip a workout and the days I feel like crap, I explain them all.

Snapchat is perfect to combat the intimidation factor that comes with a gym, especially one like ours in a warehouse in an industrial estate. Potential clients can log on and watch us and our content for days or weeks before feeling confident that their starting point is not unique to our gym family.

They see our space, our staff, their likeability’s & our training style. Then they have the courage to start their journey.

The manta of my Snapchat is: add value.

Everything we post must add value to my followers. Show them something they can’t see unless they are standing in the gym.

Even Speigel turned down Mark Zuckerberg’s offer to buy Snapchat for $3 billion. You don't do that unless you know you have something much much more valuable.

Snapchat is here to stay.