Snap is the latest to jump on the ChatGPT bandwagon, launching My AI to Snapchat+ subscribers.
ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, being one of the first major AIs to gain widespread acceptance. Microsoft is incorporating a new and improved version in Bing, and now Snap is using it as the basis of My AI.
Today we’re launching My AI, a new chatbot running the latest version of OpenAI’s GPT technology that we’ve customized for Snapchat. My AI is available as an experimental feature for Snapchat+ subscribers, rolling out this week.
My AI can recommend birthday gift ideas for your BFF, plan a hiking trip for a long weekend, suggest a recipe for dinner, or even write a haiku about cheese for your cheddar-obsessed pal. Make My AI your own by giving it a name and customizing the wallpaper for your Chat.
Snap also included a caution regarding AI, and its many deficiencies, in an effort to help temper expectations:
As with all AI-powered chatbots, My AI is prone to hallucination and can be tricked into saying just about anything. Please be aware of its many deficiencies and sorry in advance! All conversations with My AI will be stored and may be reviewed to improve the product experience. Please do not share any secrets with My AI and do not rely on it for advice.
My AI is only available to Snapchat+ paid subscribers for the time being, and the company encourages users to report any issues.
TikTok’s growth continues at an incredible pace, with the app’s ad revenue set to surpass Twitter and Snapchat in 2022.
TikTok was the big winner of the pandemic, among social media platforms, growing at a much faster rate than older, more established rivals. That growth is paying off, according to Reuters, with the company expected to bring in more than $11 billion in ad revenue in 2022, more than Twitter and Snapchat combined.
“TikTok’s user base has exploded in the past couple of years, and the amount of time users spend on the app is extraordinary,” said Debra Aho Williamson, analyst at Insider Intelligence, told Reuters.
More than half of the company’s revenue is expected to come from the US, a big win for TikTok, considering how close it came to being banned from the US during the Trump administration.
WhatsApp has begun rolling out disappearing messages, taking a page from Snapchat and other services.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular forms of communication around the world, with the company recently announcing it is delivering over 100 billion messages a day.
Now WhatsApp has announced disappearing messages, in an effort to make conversations “feel lighter and more private.” The company makes the point that, while some memories should be kept forever, most daily conversations are not that important or sentimental. As a result, once turned on, disappearing messages will delete after seven days.
“We’re starting with 7 days because we think it offers peace of mind that conversations aren’t permanent, while remaining practical so you don’t forget what you were chatting about,” reads the blog. “The shopping list or store address you received a few days ago will be there while you need it, and then disappear after you don’t.”
Wong reached out to Instagram and they confirmed it was a feature they were working on, but that it had not yet reached external testing.
We’re always exploring new features to improve your messaging experience. This feature is still in early development and not testing externally just yet!
In an effort to better compete with Instagram and Snapchat, Twitter is testing a new feature called “Fleets.”
Twitter has been working to compete with newer social media platforms that have eclipsed it, in terms of monetizable users. Twitter has also received its fair share of negative press in the last couple of years, with many critics saying the company doesn’t do enough to stop trolls and online harassment. The company has been experimenting with a number of features designed to help users retake control of the conversation and give them the tools to fight trolls.
Starting Wednesday, Twitter is testing Fleets, tweets that disappear after 24 hours. Fleets are currently being tested in Brazil, but the company hopes to expand them to other markets if they prove successful.
Twitter Product Lead Kayvon Beykpour explained the new feature in a series of tweets:
“We’ve been listening to this feedback and working to create new capabilities that address some of the anxieties that hold people back from talking on Twitter. Today, in Brazil only, we’re starting a test (on Android and iOS) for one of those new capabilities. It’s called Fleets.”
“Fleets are a way to share fleeting thoughts. Unlike Tweets, Fleets disappear after 24 hours and don’t get Retweets, Likes, or public replies– people can only react to your Fleets with DMs. Instead of showing up in people’s timelines, Fleets are viewed by tapping on your avatar.”
“We’re hoping that Fleets can help people share the fleeting thoughts that they would have been unlikely to Tweet. This is a substantial change to Twitter, so we’re excited to learn by testing it (starting with the rollout today in Brazil) and seeing how our customers use it.”
At the recent Social Media Day Jacksonville 2018 conference, Carlos Gil, founder of Gil Media Company, spoke about current social media marketing strategies. In an entertaining and informative talk, Gil spoke about the challenge of getting companies like Win-Dixie to understand that they should be engaging with their customers on the device their customer is always paying attention to, and that’s the cell phone.
It’s not about advertising either, it’s about being part of the conversation, being a brand that matters. Here are selected excerpts from Gil’s talk below that highlight this challenge:
The Only Metric that Matters Is Sales
The only metric that matters today is sales. Most of us, if not all of us, know that the reason why we’re on social media is that we want to drive more revenue for our businesses. You go to any CMO or CEO and for them, social media is just nice to have. The reality is that social media is the lifeline between you and your customers.
Oftentimes, we see metrics being referred to as reach, clicks, impressions, but the only metric that really matters is the sale.
I often get asked by businesses and marketers, should I be on Instagram, Snapchat, or something else? My answer to them is very simple, go where your audience is. Each one of these social networks gives you reach and helps put you in front of people who are potential buyers or existing buyers from your brand or your competition. If you are targeting millennials, Snapchat and Instagram might be good to focus on.
Simply think about your business and go where your audience is.
Revise Strategy from One-To-Many to One-To-One
We’re talking about sales, we’re talking about driving revenue. Since the beginning of time sales has always been one-on-one. I think the biggest mistake that marketers are making is they think I’m going to get on social media and I’m gonna have access to reach all of these people. I have all of these followers, but the reality is that most people are not paying attention to the content that you’re posting. This is why you should revise your strategy from being about one-to-many but more one-to-one, and you should stop focusing on the numbers.
Recently, I was working with a client that said to me, we have 30 million social media followers globally but we’re reaching a very small percentage. I looked at the CMO and said, you don’t have 30 million followers, in reality, you have like 300 or less. Their jaw dropped and they were shocked because the reality is that you can’t touch everyone that’s out there.
Social media operates in real time, and with the way content moves, content is relevant today and it’s irrelevant 15 seconds from now.
Millennials Don’t Want to be Sold, They Want to be Engaged
Millennials don’t want to be sold, they want to be engaged. Millennials are really at the forefront of a lot of what we do. For example, I work a lot with real estate agents and they often say that you have to look at the data of who is your target buyer. In the case of realtors, 30 years old is the average age of a first-time homebuyer. You’re not going to reach that customer sending them direct mail.
However, if you run Facebook Ads, if you have any sort of presence in social meeting, you can find a way to get in front of them then. You have a much higher likelihood of promoting your brand and getting that lead. The same thing applies to most businesses.
Go Where Your Customers Are… the Mobile Phone
I work with both B2B and B2C and you have to go where the current is, you have to go where the customers are. The reality is this is your audience today. People aren’t paying attention to really what’s in front of them besides their cell phone.
I’m sure if you go to any boardroom meeting today and you look around, what do people do when they show up, they put their iPhone first thing in front of them.
When I was working at Winn-Dixie back in 2014, we’re doing this campaign where we’re trying to take market share away from Walmart, Target, Burger King and McDonald’s, I made a comment to our CMO at the time. I said why are we focusing so much on doing direct mail at home marketing and instead, why aren’t we doing SMS and push notification ads? Why aren’t we reaching people on the device that they go to the bathroom with and that they use all the time?
We use cell phones for virtually everything that we do, so guess what, the light bulb has to go off if people are using this device all the time and they live by it your marketing has to now appeal to the device itself.
It was funny because in 2014 that CMO looked at me and says huh, SMS is never gonna take off, mobile marketing is never gonna take off!
Marketing is Like Finding Your Match on Tender
You’ve got this high propensity of customers, Millennials, they’re all using social media. I think the biggest challenge that we all face is how do we reach people at the right time and ensure that our content resonates with them? This is why I say that marketing is like finding your match on Tinder.
Business marketing is very much like dating. You’ve got a lot of people out there in this digital ocean and if your content is not appealing to that audience then they’re gonna keep swiping.
According to a press release, Verizon and Snap, Inc., the creator of Snapchat, have teamed up to create new augmented reality (AR) tools and experiences.
The deal gives Snap access to 5G test equipment in Verizon’s labs, which the company can use to create and test boundary-pushing AR experiences that take full advantage of 5G speeds. Snap will also have its software preloaded on some Verizon 5G phones. This will likely lead to a large influx of new customers for Snap, and help it cement its spot in the AR race. Verizon, in turn, will have premium sponsorship placements in Snap Originals.
“5G will change the way people live, work and play and we’re partnering with leading companies like Snap Inc. to create unique experiences and new offerings,” said Frank Boulben, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Products, Verizon Consumer Group. “Our strategy is to partner with the best brands to ensure our customers have exclusive access to cutting edge technology and services. Our 5G Ultra Wideband technology should change the way mobile users forever experience places and events, evolving the way they see the world.”
“Major advances in high-bandwidth experiences are fueling the future of augmented reality,” said Jared Grusd, Chief Strategy Officer, Snap Inc. “We are thrilled to partner with Verizon to move the industry forward through the development of creative and innovative 5G experiences on Snapchat.”
Snap will also benefit from the many live events Verizon sponsors and hosts, providing AR experiences and introducing countless event-goers to the benefits of AR. Verizon alluded to the possibility by highlighting the potential “opportunities to experience live events in new ways through Snapchat.”
This new partnership highlights the importance of the technology to old and new companies alike.
Compared to the larger social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat is a bit like The Little Engine That Could. That’s because it’s been underestimated by numerous brands and marketers alike. They dismiss Snapchat as a viable advertising tool because of its reputation for being a purely social platform, used mostly by teenagers and young adults. But the image-sharing app has the potential to generate leads and keep profits rolling in.
In the first quarter of 2018, Snapchat reported 191 million active daily users—that’s a lot of potential customers. One survey also showed that 86 percent of the platform’s users fall into the 13 to 37 age group and more than seven billion videos were viewed on it daily in 2016.
Despite these numbers, businesses are still not overly fond of Snapchat. AClutch and Smart Insights study found that only 21 percent of businesses have Snapchat accounts. Compare that to the 89 percent of companies that are on Facebook, 80 percent on Twitter, and 56 percent on Instagram.
But this means that brands have fewer rivals and more room to maneuver on Snapchat. The platform is also evolving continuously, changing its user interface, featuring Stories for up to 24 hours, and adding eCommerce features. It’s also gaining popularity among older users as the teens who started using Snapchat when it launched in 2011 are becoming working adults.
Savvy marketers know that Snapchat can be a powerful tool for rising above the competition. Here are four tips to help you tap into the benefits of Snapchat:
1. Concentrate on a Younger Audience
Snapchat developer Snap Inc. designed the multimedia messaging app for teenagers. Recent data has shown that the company is doing a great job of keeping their young demographic engaged. A Pew Research Center study revealed that 78 percent of the respondents between 18 to 24-years-old are using the app. Meanwhile, only 45 percent of the same demographic use Twitter.
You can leave your competition in the dust by learning how to catch the attention of younger consumers. While a carefully worded call-to-action can be effective, creating an intriguing story or using entertaining filters in your Snap can exceedingly better.
In 2016, Taco Bell rolled out a comical Snap filter that turned the user’s head into a giant taco. The Cinco de Mayo promotion generated a whopping 224 million views. Now, image how that type of attention could change your business.
2. Launch Products and Push Promos
Snapchat has a high engagement rate. As a matter of fact, it gets almost 4 times higher engagement than Instagram. This makes it a great place to launch your latest products or to push promos. Makeup brand NARS launched their new product line to great success on the platform. The company drummed up excitement by giving followers a quick look at their new line. Snapchat allows you to create short, informal videos that look unpolished but relatable to more users.
3. Collaborate With Influencers
Influencer marketing is a very effective strategy. Companies can draw in a big audience because their content will be viewed by followers of the brand and that of the influencer. It’s a quick way of develop a large following in a short amount of time.
One company who successfully leveraged an influencer’s popularity was Audi. The car manufacturer partnered up with the popular show Pretty Little Liars and quickly amassed 115,000 followers on its Snapchat account.
You can also have an influencer take over your Snapchat account and make posts on your behalf for a specific time frame. For instance, music producer Pharrell once took over one of the Adidas events.
4. Keep Followers Interested Longer
Snapchat is all about drawing people in and engaging them. You’ll have better sales results the longer people stay on your page or account. Other social network platforms keep followers engaged by having them take additional steps, like clicking on a link to send them to another website.
Snapchat keeps followers interested much longer because they have integrated eCommerce features in the app itself. For instance, users can use the app to call people, make dinner reservations, grab an Uber, or explore brands and their locations.
With its impressively high engagement levels, business-friendly features and low competition from other brands, incorporating Snapchat into your marketing strategy could prove to be a worthwhile investment.
Snapchat is seeking to expand its horizons and utilize its camera to go beyond social media with a new visual search feature. This novel search capability and a team-up with Amazon could open a new revenue stream for the company.
According to reports, a new Snapchat version for Android smartphones includes a secret code for a new “Visual Search” feature. This new feature, dubbed Project Eagle, can allegedly utilize Snapchat’s camera to send a barcode or product image scans to Amazon. The retail powerhouse will then display the results of the product search.
The secret code was reportedly discovered by Ishan Agarwal, an app researcher. Agarwal then tipped off TechCrunch about his discovery. On their end, the company was quick to spot a source code in Snapchat that had a pop-up text with the lines — “Press and hold to identify an object, song, barcode, and more! This works by sending data to Amazon, Shazam, and other partners.”
The discovered code doesn’t really explainhow the visual search feature will work. However, the application’s code enumerates the capacity to bring “reviews” and “sellers” to the surface, “Copy URL” of a specific product as well as “Send Product” or “Share” it with friends. These actions could be done through Snapchat Stories or simple Snap messages.
Project Eagle will undoubtedly change the way people see Snapchat. Instead of being just a social media app, it could become a clever tool for navigating retail. It can also provide the company with a new revenue source if it works out an affiliate referralsdeal with Amazon.
This is something that Snapchat desperately needs at the moment. The company has suffered a loss of $385 million in the previous quarter, with its missing revenue pegged to be at $14 million. Snapchat’s stock also closed Monday at $13.65 per share, way below the $17 offering price.
Amazon is so far keeping mum about Snapchat’s visual search feature. It should be pointed out that there’s no definitive proof to indicate that the retail giant is working with Snapchat or if it’s just the end destination of the search results. As for Snapchat, mother company Snap Inc. just issued a “no comment” when asked about the rumored visual search.
One thing is certain though, a solid visual search feature could turn Snapchat into something more than a selfie aficionado’s favorite app. It could usher in a groundbreaking way for consumers to search for products to purchase.
Snapchat has just introduced a shoppable augmented reality feature designed specifically for its Lens. The new shopping AR is geared towards companies who want a novel way to further advertise their products.
The company rolled out Lenses in 2015. The machine learning-based feature enabled users to add different effects to their images. This feature was later expanded to include sponsored Lenses for advertisers. The Lenses allowed users to superimpose ads on their selfies, essentially pushing the brand in the snap they shared with friends.
The new “Shoppable AR” feature pushes existing boundaries further by extending Snapchat’s Lenses to include a button that offers users three actions—visiting a brand’s homepage, installing an app, or watching a promotional video.
These new tools are now live with four brands—Adidas, Clairol, King, and STX Entertainment. The first two brands are utilizing the “website” lens to promote their products and direct potential customers to a website. For example, the Clairol Color Crave filter gives users the chance to play around and change their hair into different colors. Snapchat users who then tap on the Shop Now button will be taken to a Target page to purchase the chosen hair color.
Meanwhile, King is using the “install” lens to drum up interest in Candy Crush while STX Entertainment is using the “video” lens tool to let consumers view a trailer for the I Feel Pretty movie.
Similar to other Filters,options for the Shoppable AR can be used just to send a Snap. Links are not saved inside any of the selfies snapped using the filter. These links also open up a browser inside the app.
Checkout for the Shoppable AR isn’t on the app, as the feature presently doesn’t use the Snap Commerce Platform. It will be up to the advertiser to enable options like sign in, autofill, or Apple Pay.
Snapchat is hoping that the new AR feature will resonate with younger users, the main market for the lenses. The majority of Snapchat’s user base are young, internet savvy individuals who tend to block online ads. Hopefully, the three new tools will get products in front of more users.
Advertisers won’t be experiencing any price increase with the new Lens feature. There’s also no doubt that it will be easy to capture the interest of companies already using Snapchat to market their brands.
Ensuring users stay inside the app is also a brilliant move for Snap since it doesn’t feel like companies are actively advertising. The ads offered and product sales have a more organic feel. Plus, it will prompt users to become more engaged with the app, which is what Snapchat wants.
It appears Snapchat made a few changes to its redesign when some users noticed their friend’s Stories reverting to the chronological order. The algorithmically sorted feed, similar to Facebook and Instagram, has frustrated the app’s most loyal users since its launch.
Thenew tweak shows the most recent Stories in reverse order, making it easier to keep track of your friends’ recent activities and know what’s relevant now. It’s more logical to browse with the old system since users aren’t exactly interested in something that happened hours ago.
Snapchat is back in chronological order and stories have their own tab now WIG OFF pic.twitter.com/lSScBBLOrh
— Dr. Gerald Bader,PhD (@gerald_bader) April 7, 2018
Despite the clamor for it, chronological feed prioritizes users who post often and can put your friends’ posts out of sight. You’re more likely to miss their content unlike for feeds driven by algorithms. Under the algorithmic ranking redesign, people you often interact with will be placed at the top of the feed.
Before Snapchat took its cue from other platforms, algorithmic sorting has helped Instagram and Twitter boost their growth. When Snapchat rolled out its algorithm-driven redesign in the Q4 2017, itsrevenues improved and daily user count increased to 187 million from 178 million. In its bid to gain more users, the interface was tweaked to improve the experience and made morepersonalized.
Snapchat’s redesign included theDiscover page. It contains your subscriptions to celebrities and brands, as well as Stories you might be interested in based on your app activity. Because of its separation from the Stories section, there’s less clutter on your chronological feed.
The algorithmic approach made it easier for casual users of the app to connect with close friends and see more relevant content without wading through acquaintances. But with the classic chronological feed, Snapchat’s most loyal and engaged users get to be updated right away.
It’s unclear whether the update is for testing, part of a full-scale change, or completely something else. As of writing, Snap hasn’t commented on the reported change.
The popularity of various social media platforms these days is a heaven-sent trend for all advertisers; their brand can potentially reach millions of users at lightning fast speed with just a single post. On the negative side, these platforms will also ensure that any social media faux pas get circulated just as fast.
Despite employing teams of experts to handle their posts, cases of celebrities and companies posting something they shouldn’t have—and suffering the sometimes costly backlash—continue to rise. But even social media companies themselves are not exempt from committing blunders as proven by the recentplunge in Snapchat’s value which fell by around $800 million after the company allowed the posting of an offensive ad on its platform.
The offensive post was an ad for a game called “Would You Rather?” where users are given the option to either “Slap Rihanna” or “Punch Chris Brown.” However, the ad’s content is particularly a sensitive topic for Rihanna since it is obviously alluding to the 2009 domestic violence incident involving her and ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.
Rihanna was physically abused in 2009. And now Snapchat is allowing an ad of her that makes fun of domestic violence. pic.twitter.com/0SqJSuzUki
Rihanna promptly issued a statement in response to the tasteless ad. In her Instagram story post, the singer expressed her shock why the platform allowed the ad’s posting and even wondered if it was because she is not a Snapchat fan.
“Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain’t my fav app out there! But I’m just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess! I’d love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb!”
While the platform quickly pulled the ad and issued an apology, it failed to placate the singer. Rihanna even pointed out that Snapchat seems to be making a joke out of the very serious issue.
“You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV victims and made a joke of it!!! This isn’t about my personal feelings, cause I don’t have much of them…but all the women, children and men that have been victims of DV in the past and especially the ones who haven’t made it out yet…you let us down!”
Wall Street was also not pleased with Snapchat’s lapse of judgment. On Thursday, the company’s sharesfell by 5 percent followed by a 2 percent decline the next day before it rebounded. The stock’s net decline for the two-day period was a massive 4.7 percent.
They say humans are creatures of habit which explains why most people are a bit resistant to change. And Snapchat’s recent redesign proved to be a bit too much for its users to endure. A reported 1.2 million Snapchat users have now joined hands in a petition for the app to revert back to its old ways.
However, it seems that Snapchat is bent on making those redesigns permanent. In fact, thecompany issued an official response to the petition by explaining that the changes are meant to enable users to “connect with the people you care about most.”
Snap responds to all the redesign haters but they’re still really angry https://t.co/NTvwG1WEEr
While Snapchat said that it understands that some users might find the changes to be uncomfortable at first, it still maintains that the redesign is the best way for the app to be more “approachable to a wider audience.” The company did not stop there and even hinted of anew feature that will soon be coming to Android and iOS users.
“Beginning soon on iOS, and with Android in the coming weeks, we are introducing tabs in Friends and Discover, which will make it easier to find the Stories that you want, when you want them,” Snap Inc. responded to the change.org petition. The company promised even more customization options in the future by saying that “once you receive the update, you’ll be able to sort things like Stories, Group Chats, and Subscriptions, allowing you to further customize your own experience on the app.”
Nic Rumsey started the petition toremove the new Snapchat update,a move which proved to resonate with most of the apps users. It seems that the features introduced in the update only made the app more difficult to use and some believe they may even defeat the purpose of Snapchat altogether.
Facebook, the long-reigning king of social media, could be facing some serious challenges to its dominance up ahead. Apparently, the popular platform is no longer as popular these days; it is actuallylosing users to its rival Snapchat.
Aside from increasing its user base, Snapchat surprised Wall Street estimates by churning out better than expected fourth quarter financial performance for 2017. Last week, the company reported a72 percent increase in its fourth quarter revenues compared to the previous year.
This increase in advertising revenue has something to do with Snapchat’s demographics which is considered to be ideal for advertisers. The app, which is known for its disappearing videos and messages, still remains a favorite among millennials and younger audiences compared to its rival, Facebook-owned Instagram.
A new report finds that Facebook will lose 2 million users under 25 in the U.S. this year while Snapchat will gain 1.9 million. https://t.co/I0acVoeDrc
According to estimates by the research firm eMarketer, Snapchat will add another 1.9 million new U.S. users under the age of 25 this year. Meanwhile, rival Instagram will only lure 1.6 million users of the same age group for the same period.
One Snapchat feature that is especially attractive to advertisers is its “Discover” tab, which is a section dedicated to showing content from reputable outlets like The New York Times and ESPN. With this feature, businesses have some assurance that their ads will be paired with “professionally developed shows.”
“Snapchat can provide a highly controlled environment for advertisers to reach an audience,” Nick Cicero explained. Cicero is the CEO of Delmondo, a firm that specializes in social media advertising and branding.
Meanwhile, Instagram’s Explore tab just can’t compare with Snapchat’s Discover tab content. In addition, Facebook introduced a Watch tab, but it is still unclear how users will receive the feature as it is still less than six months since it was introduced.
Snap’s shares rallied by nearly 50 percent during Wednesday’s trading reflecting the company’s fourth quarter performance. For the first time since July last year, the company’s stock traded above its IPO price.
In a surprising, but welcomed, development, Snapchat finally pulled out of its slump to post a boost in revenue and new user growth. The increase beat investor expectations and invigorated the company, with stocks going up by as much as 25 percent.
Snap’s mother company, Snap Inc., reported on Tuesday a revenue of $285.7 million for Q4. It also indicated that it also had a 13 cents loss per share in the same quarter. That was a marked improvement to what analysts had previously predicted—revenue around $252.9 million and a loss of 16 cents per share.
Snapchat stock is up nearly 30% in after reporting its first good quarter since going public. Story to come. pic.twitter.com/Lkatenncru
Snapchat also defied expectations regarding its user numbers. The photo-sharing company saw a surge of 9 million new users, pushing its daily users to 187 million. Wall Street analysts had pegged Snapchat to add at most just 6 million new users during the last quarter of 2017.
This led to a majordemand for the company’s shares during after-hours trading. Stocks of Snap Inc. went up 25 percent to around $17.60 per share, which was more than its IPO price.
The new development has certainly given investors and Snap’s stakeholders room to breathe. The company has been laboring with uninspired sales and slow user growth in the past three quarters since it went public. But now it seems Snapchat has bounced back.
The question now is whether the company cansustain this growth. Snap has already made massive changes since its initial public offering. Its software was fixed and updated, and a new auction-based advertising scheme was launched. Snapchat’s design has also been revamped in a bid to make it more user-friendly and to appeal to older users. At the moment, the app is more popular among the teenage crowd and millennials.
Spiegel acknowledges users have to adjust to Snapchat’s redesign (which got negative reviews) but says it causes Discover publisher Stories viewers to increase 40% and users over 35 to show better metrics https://t.co/EZMaEZTBY9
Snapchat’s new look is currently being tested in Australia and the UK. However, reviews about its new design have been less than enthusiastic. The new and improved Snapchat is expected to be released globally by the end of this year’s first quarter.
Is Snapchat trying its hand at eCommerce? That just might be in the works with its launch of a new feature that would essentially enable the company to sell merchandise through the messaging app.
Snapchat Inc. justopened up the Snap Store today, a new feature that lets users buy merchandise. Currently, it appears that the company is still testing the waters as the online store does not yet offer a lot of items for sale. For now, you will be able to purchase a Dancing Hot Dog Plushie that costs $20 and Dog Lens T-Shirt costing $30 among others
The new store can be accessed on the messaging app’s media section, which is called Discover. Before the store’s arrival, the section was reserved solely for video and articles of channels run by media companies such asBuzzFeed, Conde Nast, Hearst, and Vice. Channels for the National Football League, NBC, and ESPN can also be found in the Discover section.
It is not Snapchat’s first time selling merchandise under its own brand. Previously, the company sold branded items via Amazon such as the Spectacles, a video-recording pair of sunglasses. However, with the introduction of the Snap Store, it would be its first time selling items inside its own app.
But Snapchat is not really expected to make serious money from selling these items. An unnamed spokesperson for the company confirmed that it did not open the store to see some serious revenue stream but rather it is something it did for the Snap community. It’s mainly a strategy to drive loyalty to the brand and get some free marketing courtesy of the people wearing the branded merchandise.
But of course, the company could just be testing out the eCommerce potential of the app. A more serious revenue stream could be coming its way if the idea catches up and it could start charging other brands for selling their stuff through the app as well.
Twitter may soon be introducing a new feature to its platform as part of the company’s strategy to boost user growth. The San Francisco-based social media company is reportedlyworking on a feature that will mimicrival Snapchat making it easier for users to post videos.
The rumored Snapchat-like feature willcut down the number of steps required to open the camera inside the app. Currently, posting a video on the Twitter platform requires users to make several taps on the compose tweet icon before accessing the live button or camera. On the other hand, Snapchat has a more streamline video posting process as users only need to tap or swipe once to access the smartphone’s camera in the app.
Twitter already hasa working demo for the upcoming camera-focused update, according to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. However, the same report cautions that since the final design of the new feature is not yet available, the tool may be significantly altered by the time it launches. In fact, the timing of the rumored feature’s release is still uncertain at the moment.
The report also did not specify just how similar Twitter’s new feature will be to the Snapchat app. Snap videos are available only for a very limited period of time but disappearing content may not be suited to its rival’s platform since viral videos are a big part of the Twitter culture.
This new Snapchat-like feature is definitely in line with Twitter’s efforts to improve user experience on the platform. For instance, the company recently doubled its character limit and also added a threading feature allowing users to post multiple consecutive tweets.
At the moment, Twitter has declined to comment on the matter.
Snapchat, the popular video and photo-sharing app, has been having a slew of bad luck recently. In the first quarter of 2017, Snapchat suffered a loss of $2.2 billion in revenue and just this past September watched millions of users abandon its platform. In an effort to rebound, Snapchat rolled out a redesign aimed at making the site easier to use, encouraging more engagement. On Thursday, it went live in a few countries including the U.K., Australia, and Canada. However, it still has yet to roll out to its largest market, the U.S.
Unfortunately, Snapchat’s redesign was met with a firestorm of complaints mainly over the merger of the original ‘Stories’ screen with the page that shows individual messages and snaps. At the moment, app store reviews have been overwhelmingly negative, with around 83 percent of users giving it a score of one or two stars. (Mashable)
It appears that Snapchat users are not really snapping up on the cool features recently introduced on the messaging app. Leaked data point out that subscribers are not enthusiastically making use of some of its features like the Snap Map and Discover section. What’s even more troubling is that based on the leaked metrics, the messaging app’s Stories feature seems to be heading towards zero growth territory.
The mobile messaging business is an intensely competitive segment where players need to fight tooth and nail in order to survive. Even the popular photo and video-focused messaging platform Snapchat is feeling the heat and has introduced what it thought to be cool new features last year as a way to boost usage and lure in new users.
Snap Maps Usage Declining
However, it seems that those added features did not do what they were supposed to. For instance, daily users of Snap Maps, the feature which lets you share your location, has been steadily declining since it launched.
[Graphic via DailyBeast.com]
When it launched in June of 2017, Snap Maps posted a substantial number of daily users which were tallied to be more than 30 million. According to leaked company figures, however, the daily number of users by September was significantly lower at only 19 million, around 11 percent of Snapchat’s 178 million daily users.
Snapchat Discover Usage is Also in Decline
Meanwhile, the figure for Snapchat Discover section is not very encouraging either. In fact, its decline in usage should probably cause a lot of worry among publishers.
Launched back in 2015, the Discover section is Snapchat’s content hub where big news organizations such as BuzzFeed, Daily Mail, The New York Times and Vogue provide magazine-style content specifically formatted for the platform. In return, these publishers hope to tap a significant portion of Snapchat’s more than 178 million users.
[Graphic via DailyBeast.com]
The figure, however, is less than hopeful. In fact, the Edition section only peaked at 38 million daily users last July, a minuscule 21% of an overall number of users. Eventually, it settled to around 34 million users or 19% of the total user base. The leaked data contained statistic during the period of April to mid-September of 2017.
Stories Growth Nearing Zero
Meanwhile, figures for another Snapchat feature Stories is very disheartening. Back in the second quarter of 2016, the feature enjoyed a higher usage rate with 17.2 percent of Snapchat subscribers using feature daily.
In the leaked data, however, only 2.9 percent still use the feature. Well, it is possible that rival Instagram’s own Stories feature, which was launched later, might have stolen its thunder. Nevertheless, there is no escaping from the figures; Snapchat Stories is facing a dead end.
Messaging Function Develops Core, Loyal Users
But despite those negative figures, there is one aspect that could be good news for Snapchat. According to the leak data, users are 64 percent more likely to send a snap to friends that to post stories.
In fact, daily Snaps view rose from 3.9 to 4.6 billion during the period, which translates to an outstanding 17.9 percent growth during the period. This is surprising since user growth was in a steady state of decline during the same period.
[Graphic via DailyBeast.com]
Despite declining user growth, users on average sent 34 messages daily. What this suggests is that the messaging app has finally succeeded in developing a loyal group of core users.
Does this mean that the Stories feature could be on its way out? At the moment, Snapchat declined to comment on the leaked data.
Snapchat is looking to reinvigorate its brand with two new ads—Promoted Stories and AR Trial Ads. The company is hoping these new ad designs will capture the user’s interest and reduce skipping. If they’re successful, it could give the company an edge over Instagram.
It’s easy to understand why Snapchat wants to stir things up a bit. The company has had a challenging year so far, with a hundred thousand of its Spectacles units reportedly unsold. They also lost about $30 million worth of revenue so far in 2017.
Snapchat’s ads are largely comprised of short ads that appear either after the last video in a Story or during Discover or Lenses content. Now advertisers will have the option to book an AR Trial ad or a Promoted Story.
Promoted Stories can give companies the chance to develop more detailed ads featuring anywhere from 3 to 10 images or videos. It works like a Story but will stream throughout the country for one day as sponsored content. HBO has the distinction of being the first to use Promoted Stories in the US. The company used the new ad format to showcase six Snaps that users should watch on Black Friday.
Meanwhile, the AR Trial ads are described as a more robust version of Snapchat’s 3D World Lenses. The app’s users will remember that Snapchat previously rolled-out Lenses promoting Blade Runner and Bud Light. But those ads were more for fun than function.
That’s not the case with the AR Trial program. This time around, companies can push for an immersive experience by giving users the chance to get a closer look at their product. For instance, BMW’s AR Trial offering will permit users to place the vehicle model of their choice in their chosen environment. The user can then walk around the AR model and check out its details. They can even resize the image or change the product’s color.
Snapchat is hoping that companies that opt for AR Trial ads will also gain more exposure through users who will share their experience with the AR ad via Stories or private messages.
Snapchat has been on quite a roll. In 2016, the image and multimedia messaging app become the fastest growing social media company in the US. But this might not be so surprising considering that over 10 billion videos are watched on Snapchat daily. A Nielsen study even revealed that the app reaches 41% of the country’s 18 to 34-year-olds. More importantly, millions of its users are creating their own content.
Snapchat still hasn’t oversthrown Instagram, but it is nipping at its heels. The intense engagement of the app’s users and followers can only mean good things to companies as they can have greater access to various demographics, even those seemingly hard-to-reach groups.
The question now is how to tap into this goldmine and grow your audience with Snapchat. Here are two effective ways to do it:
Arrange a Takeover
Arrange for aninfluencer to take over your Snapchat account. This means an influencer would literally take over your account for a period of time and create content for you. Takeovers are proving to be a very effective way of growing your Snapchat audience.
One reason for this is that it gives your brand a humanizing element. Seeing a favorite influencer using your product and your Snap account creates a sort of relationship, as the follower gets an honest look at another person’s perspective. Aside from the established connection, it also introduces your account to new followers.
However, influencers don’t usually come cheap. In some cases, this type of marketing might cost a hefty sum. Bear in mind that most influencers work with a limited amount of brands as too many deals might leave their followers disgruntled. They are also very careful with the companies they work with as they only choose brands that reflect their image or message.
Use Other Social Media to Cross-Promote
Snapchat is still a baby when compared to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. So if you have existing accounts on these platforms, it’s logical to assume that you have more followers there as these accounts are older. Take advantage of those followers andcross-promote your Snapchat account in these channels.
A prime example is YouTube personality Shane Dawson, who has shown an aptitude for cross-promoting his brand. The author and sketch comedian tends to promote his Snapchat account to his more than 8 million viewers on YouTube by keeping his Snap handle up in most of his videos. He does the same thing on his Snap account by posting updates there whenever he has a new video up.
There’s no shame in indulging in some self-promotion on your own channels, as long as you’re providing decent content most of the time. To ensure that your audience doesn’t tire of too much self-promotion, try to keep it at 80/20 – 80% entertaining content and 20% self-promotion.
Now would be the best time to create a Snapchat account and start building followers. If you already have an existing account, try incorporating it with your other social media accounts or find someone to do a shout out or takeover. You might have to shell out some cash or offer a sweet deal in return, but it will be worth it.
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