Will Snapchat be the next Facebook for small businesses?
I've recently been interviewed by BusinessDay.com.au for their Small Business section to gain some high level insights on Snapchat. Never heard of it? You're probably not a twenty-something into sending random pictures to your mates. But many people think it's the next big thing for social media.
If you decided not to use it, would you consider using Snapchat down the track? What would change your mind?
I personally think SnapChat is a "phase"! Snapchat doesn't have that feeling of community..its just an instantaneous, spontaneous thing that young people use to when they're bored. It doesn't get across any message, and isn't a platform for building or maintaining stakeholder relationships and family/friend networks. with FB, users can engage interactively on a two way basis with greater content sharing. excellent tool for businesses (when used correctly). I don't think I could say the same for SnapChat.
Great points, but I think SnapChat never was meant to create those relationships or be a business tool :) It's mainly to send mostly unimportant snapshots of your life to chosen people and not have to worry about being blackmailed with pictures afterwards :) For that purpose I'm quite confident it has done its job! But I do agree there is almost no application in a business or a brand building context.
Great question Cassidy!! I'd love to answer this one with I personally LOVE SnapChat!!! At first it took a bit of getting used to since it was unlike any other social media channel, but sometimes you just want to give a quick update to your friends without having a deep long conversation. It's a way of keeping up with them even though you can't physically be there (since we're all super busy these days).
I also love the fact that none of it can be used to incriminate you in the future, or used to blackmail you in some way. Unfortunately this kind of things happen a lot with the invention of the smartphone (ability to take pictures quickly and where-ever) So you can still send you fun party photos to your friends without your future clients finding it on Facebook the next day.
It gives you a freedom and privacy you can't have in a public forum like Twitter or Facebook.
Another thing I love about it not being stored is that I tend to run a fine line in regards to my storage on my phone. SnapChat allows me to see what my friends are doing without having to save a photo of a half eaten hamburger onto my phone and me having to go and delete it later. This replaces SMS and emails which is great because sometimes the things you want to send you friends is really for that moment and most likely not important to keep.
I'm pretty sure snap chat was never invented as a tool to replace online forums - just another great channel for close friends to share short bursts of moments and information instead of sending a sms or an email.
It has a huge potential, because I'm sure more people send private sms and messages than posting on public social channel, and therefore there is more opportunity to make use of it :)
Ling Lee at Digital Marketing and Personal Branding
True, it is a very spontaneous platform, and highly inappropriate for businesses. Snapchat is a very intimate service. That being said, I loved it. The only reason why I'm not using it anymore is because I have a windows phone :'(