Entrepreneurs are starting to pop up on Snapchat. One of Tai Lopez’s recent stories on Snapchat was about a mastermind retreat he was hosting at his house in Hollywood. Gary Vaynerchuck’s story on Snapchat on the same day followed him as he went from place to place, met up with friends, and ranted about “the hustle”. According to Gary, in fact, people like Eva Longoria, Kate Hudson, and Casey Neistat are also “crushing it” on Snapchat. Although Snapchat currently appears to be a social media app used primarily by teenagers, Gary predicts that the demographic of people using “the ghost” will expand to people who are older than the current Snap age bracket of 15-25 years old. Facebook, for example, used to be used primarily by teenagers, but now it is a hub for middle-aged and elderly people. Instagram, too, probably seemed like a place for teenagers to post embellished selfies and sunsets, but today, adults of more mature years are using it. Both platforms are essential platforms on most business-owners’ social media marketing tool belts. Snapchat, which can only be used on smart phones, is quickly overtaking Facebook and Instagram. Gary predicts that it will be just as important of a tool as the other platforms. Its disappearing Snap feature creates a sense of urgency that doesn’t happen with other platforms, and it allows its users to manipulate their content in a wide and creative variety of ways.
There are three features that you use to interact with people on Snapchat.
1) Snaps
Snaps are pictures and videos. The main screen of the app is a camera. As with Instagram, to use the camera, you either tap the round button on the bottom to take a photo or you hold it down to take a 10-second video. Once you take the photo or video, press the arrow icon on the bottom right corner to send your Snaps either directly to your friends or to your Story. Before you send a Snap, you can add filters by swiping right or clicking on the different icons on the top right hand of the screen. Once your friends view what you send to them, the photo or video disappears. Your Snaps disappear after 24 hours.
2) Stories
Your story is a collection of your Snaps. All of your friends can click on your Story and view the snaps you took throughout the day. You Story disappears after 24 hours.
3) Chats
You can find the chat box on Snapchat by swiping left on your main screen. As with Snaps, messages disappear after they are viewed or within 24 hours.
A lot of us don’t quite like the idea of disappearing content, but luckily for us, there is a download button that appears at the bottom of the screen after you take a photo of a video, and you can also save your stories by pressing the download button that appears when you tap your story. This is just a basic overview of how Snapchat functions; there are other aspects to the app that I haven’t gone into. But if you want to try your hand at Snapchat, I recommend following Gary and Tai (for example) and seeing how they use it. Gary also has a host of videos on YouTube about Snapchat, and his latest article about it has more detailed instruction on how to get the most out of it. Happy Snapping!
