Have only been on snapchat for a few weeks but it has become my favorite app to check every morning, noon and night (basically on it throughout the day!!). It has also become one of my best sources for news and updates on events and local happenings. It has also, in a nanosecond, made both instagram and facebook seem slow, stodgy and boring!!

I’m definitely still a newbie but learning quickly from people I follow. Some of my favorites include Kate Hudson, Liz Plank, Man Repeller, RB Umali (skateboard videographer), The Verge and the White House. I also love following the local Live stories. And huge brag: one of my posts from Easter Sunday (above) was picked up both on NY Story and Easter Celebrations and got 4.5MM views. My snapchat handle: irmatz

Read on below on some of the most interesting ways that snapchat is being used – including for hiring! Also, a big tip on using the brand new snapchat 2.0 update that was released on Tuesday.

USING SNAPCHAT TO LAND A JOB

Space150, a digital agency, is using Snapchat to hire interns for the summer thru Snapchat’s custom college campus filters. The filters urge the potential interns to follow the Space150 Snapchat channel where they will be given a task, which serves as their application. The brief is that the students will each have to create a Snapchat story for one of the agency’s clients with the theme 2020 in mind. Those clients include Sony, Disney, Nike, Amex and many more, so these students will need to be on form.

More on this from thenextweb.com.

 

EPHEMERALITY PLAYS A HUGE ROLE

Researchers from the Cornell Social Media lab interviewed students about how they use Snapchat. Since “snaps” disappear after they are viewed, participants described the app as “a lot less formal” than Facebook and other social networks.

The study affirms that young people are less interested in looking back at the past. Snapchat’s story feature, which allows them to share snaps of their day with all of their followers, deletes content after 24 hours.

“I won’t look back at someone’s old photos,” said one student. “I’m just interested in the moment and I don’t care about it after I see it. In a week from now I don’t really care what someone did last weekend, but in the moment it’s nice to see what they’re doing.”

More on this study from Cornell here.

 

4 WAYS TO BOOST YOUR BUSINESS USING SNAPCHAT

1. Give customers a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look.

What differentiates Snapchat is that the picture disappears. Therefore, the content generated is typically less “staged,” and more organic. For example, instead of seeing a perfectly edited picture of a model wearing your product, you’d see a picture from behind the photographer at the photo shoot.

2. Offer exclusives.

When the snowpocalypse hit one company’s headquarters, they offered a free shipping “snow day” promo code but only on Snapchat. The promo code was included in the picture of the snap, so people had to view it in order to access the code. They then announced on their other channels that there was a Snapchat exclusive offer, leading to a boost in their number of followers.

Your own exclusive doesn’t have to be an offer. It could also be a sneak peek of a new collection. So give your followers on Snapchat the first chance to view your new products before you release them anywhere else.

3. Give people a live stream of your company.

Are you at an event? Attending a trade show? Give people a live stream of what’s happening with your business. With most social channels, you put all your energy on to one post. But, Snapchat gives you the opportunity to take your followers through “a day in the life.”

4. Change the voice of your Snapchat.

Partner with influencers to do Snapchat takeovers, where someone posts your content for a day. This influencer could be a celebrity or an entrepreneur or creative who brings followers to you.

More details from entrepreneur.com here.

 

CELEBS AND INFLUENCERS PROMOTING BRANDS

There’s a fair amount of this going on but generally it’s really irksome (e.g. DJ Khaled constantly waving around Ciroc bottles is crazy especially when he’s doing this major 22day vegan diet!).  Also recently saw Miologie and friends making Coca Cola Mocktails – I’m sure this has been tested to appeal to “the kids” but it felt forced to me.

Kate Hudson for Kiehl’s new Face Mask, on the other hand, was great – felt authentic and not crazy to see her actually using this product.

Brands are clearly moving onto snapchat fast but I would advise them to make sure they’re doing it in a way that fits the platform. Vans, by the way, is running really cool ads on snapchat that pop but are subtle. Zoo York, likewise, did a fantastic skater tour in Barcelona earlier this month with snapchat coverage by the awesome RB Umali.

SNAPACHAT 2.0 UPGRADE

The most important thing to keep in mind about all these fantastic new optionsis that the videos or stickers or text you send to friends go out INSTANTANEOUSLY – while you are still doing it!! You cannot take it back or change it!!  It’s exactly as tho you’ve blurted out something in a conversation – so have fun but be careful.