If you are looking to reach 18-34-year-olds then Snapchat is the place to be. However, the platform’s quirks can make it hard to grow your audience. With no suggested users list, no in app discovery, and lack of hashtags or sharing, Snapchat offers some unique challenges to growing your audience.
Growing your followers doesn’t need to be difficult, but it will require work.
Cross-Promotion
Sometimes you have to go old school, and Snapchat is one of those times. Growing your audience requires you to promote your account on other platforms. Your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles likely have more followers than your Snapchat. Encourage those who follow you on other platforms to add you on Snapchat.
- Add your Snapchat handle to your Twitter and Instagram bio
- Use your Snapchat profile URL to made following you easy (https://www.snapchat.com/add/yourusername)
- Add your Snapcode to your ads, share it on other social sites, put it on your business cards, etc.
- Have a great Snapchat story? Tease your Snapchat content on other platforms. This lets your followers know what they missing out on
Work With and Be an Influencer
Working with influences is a two-way street, and when done right it can help both parties. Actors and musicians appear on SNL to promote their latest movie or albums. In turn, their fans, who normally might not have tuned in, also watch. Both parties benefit. In the same way working with and being a Snapchat influencer can grow your audience. You can be SNL having celebrities take over your profile, or you can be the celebrity on other people’s profile.
- Work with those who already have an established following to get shout-outs
- Have influencers take over your profile for a day and promote the takeover to their fans
- Take over someone else’s profile for day, and encourage them to follow you
Exclusive content
Add value to your followers by producing educational or entertaining content. You also want to give your fans a reason to follow you on more than one platform. Make sure you are not reposting the same content from platform to platform. Instead, focus on creating unique content. There is nothing wrong with being self-promotional, but keep it limited. Focus on creating value.
- Offer exclusive deals or coupons to your followers
- Give behind the scenes look at your office, newest product, or process
- Provide instruction on how to setup your latest product or how to navigate Instagram’s latest features
Create Geofilters
Snapchat geofilters are a great way to do ambush marketing and are very low cost. You can geo-target anyplace on the map and have your filter show up for a predetermined time frame. Usually filters only cost a few dollars per hour, based on how many square feet you want to target. You can design your own filter in photoshop or Snapchat offers tools to create you own.
- Create a geofilter for an industry conference
- Are you the new pizza place in town wanting to reach college students? Create a geofilter for one of the college’s football or basketball games
- Create a filter people actually want to use
Snapchat’s lack of discovery features make it difficult to grow your audience, but not impossible. Therefor you need to focus on cross-promoting your profile on other mediums. Working with influences also be great way to grow your audience. When creating stories focusing on adding unique value. Lastly, consider how you can use geofilters to reach your target in unique ways.
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