Should B2B Companies Be Using Snapchat? YES!
If you have teen children then you most likely know that one of their main communication channels of choice is Snapchat. For instance I have two college age children and I know that if I want to be assured that they know I’m looking to reach them I use Snapchat. Given these facts coupled with the likelihood that many over the age of say 35 probably don’t have Snapchat downloaded on their smart phone, the common question becomes should marketing and business leaders of B2B companies be using Snapchat? Absolutely
If you have no idea what Snapchat is all about, how to use it, or even how to get started with it here are some decent resources for you
- Mashable’s Beginner’s Guide To Snapchat
- Buzzfeed’s Adult Guide for Snapchat
- Wall Street Journals’s Snapchat 101
- New York Times Be the Star of Your Own Snapchat Stories
But this isn’t a how to post or a 101, but rather why it matters and how to consider use of the tool.
Snapchat is Structured for Story Telling
Snapchat provides perhaps the most personal connectivity between company and marketplace, which is saying much in the world of social media. But more importantly the platform itself is structured in order to facilitate story telling. In addition to the natural storytelling enablement of the tool it offers a full spectrum of multimedia functionality. Text, graphics, videos, gif, color. . . you name it. Snapchat serves it all up in its interface to help the author of the story communicate exactly the way that they want to.
Snapchat Forces B2B Companies to Evaluate Their Story
Use of Snapchat almost immediately uncovers whether or not the company (a) is comfortable
communicating in the form of a story and (b) they actually have a story worth telling. If a company is using content marketing, this story audit is perhaps the biggest reason that B2B companies should start using Snapchat. Sales mistrust of content marketing continues to grow, and while there are many reasons for this the root cause is typically found in the company’s inability to understand their own story.
Snapchat Automates Elimination of Content Clutter
24 hours, that is how long a snap story sticks around. No need to worry about whether or not the content remains fresh because it is gone almost as immediately as it is posted.
Snapchat Elevates Brand Discipline
Snapchat is the ultimate barometer of brand. The short little vignettes communicate tone, personality, values, and priorities better than any other social media platform that has ever existed. Regular Snapchat use will do one of two things. Shine light on the fact that you have no brand personality to speak of, or help you refine and reinforce your brand language, voice, and personality.
Snapchat Forces Creative Thought and Direction
“Marketers are not great storytellers”, says Joe Pulizzi the founder of the Content Marketing Institute in a recent interview. How do we exercise our storytelling muscles? By telling stories. Snapchat is a blank storytelling canvas, and by figuring out how to fill it up in an engaging way will help hone the ability to not only think more creatively but also to provide the creative direction that is needed to get more out of our PR agency and creative agency investments.
Snapchat is an Infant
Now is the time to figure out how your company can use Snapchat. First movers in the B2B space will most certainly carve out a differentiating position by properly making this particular piece of media work for them. Not only that, but because it is so young the time to make mistakes is also now. As you will discover once you start using Snapchat finding people to follow, and getting others to follow you takes more effort than most social media outlets. Translation: you aren’t going to have a huge audience so make your mistakes now.
The takeaway here is to just start using it. In the coming days I’ll offer up some suggestions of people to follow, but in the mean time follow me using the snap code in the post above (you’ll figure out how to do that once you start using the tool). I’m sorting it out myself, making mistakes along the way. So why not learn along with me.
