Facebook Changes 2016

As you may be aware, Facebook has introduced some pesky layout changes recently, and more significantly it has once again tweaked its algorithm over the past few months. Some of the major changes that came into effect in April in particular have been causing headaches for businesses as they have impacted how business pages operate. On Wednesday here at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre, Mags our Centre Manager delivered a comprehensive workshop on these changes and how to work around them. In case you missed it (shame on you!), here’s a run-through of what was covered.

The Basics

These are some of the basic design and layout updates which Facebook has implemented.

What has happened to my Page feed?!

·         The change:

This was the first change which caused many of us to scratch our heads thinking that the news feed for our business page had simply disappeared. You used to be able to access the News Feed for your page (as opposed to your personal profile) by switching to your page using the dropdown menu in the top right-hand corner of the page. This would enable you to use Facebook as your page.

·         The workaround:

Now, if you want to access your news feed, you simply go to your business page and select “See Pages Feed” from the options menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

Cover Photo Dimensions

·         The change:

The dimensions of your cover photo have been changed slightly from 851x315px to 828x315px. If you’ve noticed your header looking a little squished of late, this is why.

·         The workaround:

If your cover photo is an ordinary picture, you probably aren’t having much of a problem- at least nothing that repositioning it as usual won’t fix. If you have been using your business logo, or any picture that was specifically designed to fit the original cover photo dimensions, you might be affected. You can correct your cover photo easily in an image editor. There’s a range of free image editing platforms online to meet your needs- we recommend PicMonkey.com

Instant Articles

·         The change:

Instant Articles are a new feature on Facebook. It’s an important one for publishers as it enables them to create smart, interactive articles on Facebook. Instead of leaving the Facebook app and loading the article in a different window, the articles can now open within Facebook itself. This means that they have a faster loading time than before. Videos within articles will now play automatically and photos will appear bigger.

·         The workaround:

No workaround needed here as Instant articles is a new feature as opposed to a change. You do need to submit a minimum of fifty articles to be approved for this feature though, so get writing!

Facebook Advertising: The 20% Text Rule

·         The change:

For Facebook marketers, one of the most difficult aspects of using Facebook as an advertising medium is getting your message across in a concise way while following all of the guidelines. Facebook has finally made the decision to change the 20 percent ad image text overlay rule. This change is currently being tested in the U.K and Ireland.

·         The workaround:

To replace the original system, Facebook has introduced four new categories to help advertisers define the level of text overlay in their ads: OK, Low, Medium and High.

The OK category typically encompasses images with no text other than a company logo. With a low classification, which is roughly defined as a company logo with some text, your ad reach may be slightly restricted. Images with a medium classification will have an even more restricted reach, and images with high text volume won’t run. Fortunately, there are some exceptions to this rule: Book or album covers, event posters and product images are also won’t be penalised. Since Facebook is testing and rolling out the new options gradually, the changes are not yet in place for all users. You should still include as little text as possible on your images and leave the promotional details for the actual post.

Algorithm Changes

Here we’ll go through the slightly more complicated algorithm changes which Facebook has recently implemented.

User Diversity

·         The change:

Facebook reports that users enjoy reading articles from a wide range of publishers, so they have tweaked the algorithm for greater diversity of page posts. This means it will reduce how often people see content from one source back-to-back, or content from the same page.

·         The workaround:

Because Facebook generally won’t show a user several posts in a row from your page, it is now more important than ever to space your posts out over time. This isn’t always ideal as most businesses tend to post during business hours, but you can make use of the “Schedule” feature to keep your posts evenly spread. You might have noticed that you can’t schedule posts when sharing- you can get around this most of the time by copying and pasting the link to the post you want to share and then posting it as usual from your page’s Timeline.

There is also a good side to this change, which is that if you have multiple platforms for your business besides Facebook, for example websites, blogs, newsletters and so on, Facebook will be glad to see content coming in from several different sources and you will be more likely to reach the news feeds of your audience.

The Importance of Quality Content

·         The change

There are also some changes in how posts are picked for a user’s news feed; Facebook wants to phase out content that isn’t meaningful or useful to its users.

There are a few important implications of these changes. If you run a small business, the most important thing here is probably that ‘Like&Share’ competitions have been targeted. Facebook sees these as spammy behaviour so these types of post will really struggle to gain position in the news feed from here on out.

·         The workaround

Fortunately there is a way around this, although we’d strongly suggest brainstorming ways of promoting your business by working with Facebook instead of against it- it’s only going to get harder as time goes on. But if you really do want to run campaigns such as ‘Like&Share’ competitions, it appears that for the time being, Facebook’s main red light for detecting spammy posts are currency symbols such as € or £. Including these symbols in your posts is likely to damage your post reach, and annoyingly this does include cases where you have a currency symbol in a completely ordinary, un-spammy post. Instead of typing these, for example “Win a voucher worth €80!”, type something like “Win a voucher worth 80EUR”. This should stop your posts being penalised for now.

·         The change:

Audience Optimisation: Introduced in January and known as the Audience Optimization tool, this new feature allows publishers to set preferences on each new post to target a specific audience based on interests, demographics, and geographic location.

·         The workaround:

This tool makes it easier for you to direct a post to your intended audience, but there are some things to bear in mind. Most importantly, don’t be tempted to include too many target groups. Keep it specific- the more tags you include, the more likely you are to simply confuse Facebook and reach nobody at all.

·         The change:

Live Video: We know that Facebook prioritises rich media such as video in its’ news feeds, and that it introduced a live video-streaming service late last year. It turns out that live videos are watched three times longer than ordinary videos, so in March Facebook tweaked the algorithm to prioritise live video in user news feeds. Facebook previously prioritised stories that it deemed “best,” not necessarily the most current. This live video update changes that. It also helps Facebook keep up with Twitter’s real-time post, and to cash in on the “right-now” phenomenon that has catapulted platforms such as Snapchat to such instant and massive popularity.

·         The workaround:

Get filming! This is a fantastic time for small businesses to use the live-video feature, as so far it has mainly been picked up by bigger companies. Chances are, if you start introducing live streams now, your followers will watch out of curiosity as they won’t have come across Facebook Live very much yet. Any engagement you get from going live will be a boost for your Page’s track record and will help show your followers that you are current, exciting, and willing to go out on a limb.

As far as content is concerned, small businesses also have a window of opportunity to stand out from the crowd and gain a loyal following. We’ve talked previously about how much people love to get a glimpse behind the scenes of companies (see our article on Snapchat- many of the tactics employed in a Snapchat strategy will also work for live-streaming). Obviously it isn’t a good idea to go Live without planning in advance- Murphy’s Law deems this a recipe for disaster actually, but you could do a weekly spot at whatever time your followers are most active- you can find this out from the ‘Insights” tab of your page.

Some other things to bear in mind about Facebook Live Video:

•          As the video is shooting, you see how many people are watching the video as well as their names and comments.
•         As soon as it’s over the video is automatically saved to your timeline.
•         You can share it, tweet it, embed it in blog posts or delete it.
•        Unlike Periscope videos or Snapchat stories -- these videos are not going to disappear after 24 hours.

**Hack: Launch your “Like&Share” competitions from a pre-announced live video! You can ask for likes, shares and mention money as much as you want- Facebook won’t penalise this- in fact, you’ll be launching competitions from the most desirable platform on Facebook at the moment. So you can boost your page engagement while sneakily promoting your page!

·         The change:

Time is of the essence: This calls into play yet another update to the News Feed that’ll change the prioritization of what users see in theirs. Interacting with a post (liking, commenting, or sharing) is a good indicator for what users are interested in. It is not the only way of gauging interest however. Users are less likely to interact with a sad news-related post or a serious current event, but that does not mean they do not want these stories in their News Feeds. In lieu of an algorithm change in April, Facebook will now measure the potential interest in a post based on the following criteria: user interest in the creator, post-performance among other users, past content performance of the creator, type of post the user prefers, and how recent the post is. When a user clicks on a post or link, Facebook will measure how much time they spend on the post, even if they don’t like, comment, or share. This will help Facebook in its algorithm when predicting and prioritizing which posts a user is most interested in.

         The workaround:

Unfortunately, there isn’t really a quick solution to this one, folks! All we can do is try to take advantage of all the information we have on how Facebook works to try to keep our performances persistent and build momentum. There is a silver lining though, in that if a follower views or engages with your page or its’ posts, for a short time your posts will continue to show up on that user’s feed as Facebook will have deemed your page of interest to the user.

·         The change:

Trending: Similar to Twitter, the News Feed will now show stories about things that are trending as soon as they occur, so the user can immediately know what friends or favourite Pages are saying about the stories of the day. This means that when a Page posts about something that is currently a hot topic of conversation on Facebook, that post is more likely to gain a good position in users’ feeds. Early testing has shown that this update on average leads to a more than 6% increase in people engaging with these stories (e.g., more people share, comment, like or click).

·         The workaround:

Unlike some of the other changes which can be a little tricky to work around, the solution to this one is so obvious that chances are you’ve already been doing it all along: All you need to do is try and draw links between current events and your company and post about them! So if you sell hats, for example, and the hot topic of the day is Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to Ireland, you could take advantage of the fact that the internet has consistently poked fun at his comb-over and post about providing with a specially designed head covering!

….Okay, it’s probably a good idea to steer clear of political commentary unless it’s actually relevant to your page- the idea is to gain followers rather than alienate them. In fact, one of the deciding factors behind this particular algorithm change was to help Facebook steer clear of political bias after Mark Zuckerberg got into a spot of bother with conservatives. But you get the idea. Another great facet of what’s Trending is that small, local businesses can easily get in on the action of trending local topics, and we know that local news, particularly good news, tends to be very successful on Facebook. If you mentioned last week’s beautiful weather on your Page at all, you’ve probably seen this in action quite recently!

That’s all folks- if you’re still reading, congratulations! There’s a lot to think about but the ever-changing landscape of social media is the bread and butter of marketers in this day and age. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for other news about marketing and social media as well as upcoming workshops and events at the Centre. And (because I’m free to mention it here!), don’t forget to like and share!

Are You Stuck For An Idea?

Are You Stuck For An Idea?

Innovation is key in Business. Without new innovations businesses would suffer greatly and would most likely be left behind in our fast paced society

Many small companies feel that innovation is for much greater and larger corporations, but what they must remember is that those large companies began as small business who just started with a new innovation which led them to be the huge, successful corporations that they are today. However, what small companies must remember is that they have the upper hand on many of the larger corporations. Smaller businesses have more contact with their customers and would have a better idea of what they need and want. Smaller organisations can make decisions much quickly than larger business which means that they can get their ideas out onto the market first and small business can develop a team culture which allows everyone to get involved in innovation, however larger businesses would be unable to do this as there are too many employees.

A great example of a small company who came up with a brilliant idea would be “Snapchat”. Snapchat is a photo messaging app which is now a multi-billion corporation, however at the start they were just a small company who came up with a new idea. When they became popular Facebook tried to buy the company but the owners of Snapchat refused to sell. This led Facebook to create their own photo messaging app, however their app didn’t take off and it ultimately failed. This example proves that smaller companies can rise up and inevitably become one of the world’s most popular and powerful companies.

The “Idea Factory” is a company which helps business to develop and to think of new innovations which will help businesses to grow and succeed. The company was established by Joe Fitzgerald who has studied innovation at MIT and Harvard and Michael Cagney who has over thirty years’ experience as a manager in HR, Finance and Operations. They offer many services at the “Idea Factory” such as, idea generation, innovation training, creative training, innovation consulting, facilitation and workshops. They believe in the innovation funnel, that is if one idea is launched that many more will come. Their ultimate goal is to help business succeed.

 On Wednesday the 22^nd of June the owners of the “Idea Factory” are coming to the Dungarvan Enterprise Centre to speak about innovation. The seminar is free and all are welcome. 

Writer; Siun Morrissey,

Currently studying Business in Cork Institute of Technology going into my 2nd year. For the summer I am volunteering at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre.

Beat the Spam Filter - Things to Bear in Mind

Last week we talked about trigger words and phrases and how the wrong subject line can see your carefully constructed emails idling in their recipients’ Spam folders, never to be seen. Knowing which words and phrases are likely to earn you the proverbial red card is the easiest way to avoid this. However, Spam filters are becoming more and more sophisticated and there are a number of

reasons, besides the inclusion of key offending phrases, that this unfortunate fate may befall your emails.

Not to worry however, as DEC will be running a series of articles on Spam filters and how to get past them. This is the second of the series, and I'd like to talk a little about why spam filters are important, as well as giving you some examples of behaviour that may cause you to end up on the wrong side of them. 

Remember Who the Enemy Is

As a marketer, it’s easy to see spam filters as the enemy and an obstacle to our own ends. Before you get too annoyed with them however, here are some things to bear in mind:  In 2011, the estimated figure for spam messages was around seven trillion, and conservative estimates suggest that spam comprises 80-85% of all the email in the world. Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and the costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge.

Moreover, spamming really lowers the bar in advertising and trivialises your efforts to deliver quality, useful content that your audience will want to read. We have a responsibility as marketers to keep our standards high and tackle this problem rather than contribute to it. The rewards of striving to always deliver valuable content are two-fold; we raise the bar for legitimate advertising and we build a great reputation with our customers so that they actually read and engage with our emails in future.

“But *my* content is always valuable!”

I'm not saying that one or two faux pas in your mail-out puts it into the same category as those dodgy “Meet Singles in Your Area!” emails we all get from time to time. But even if I'm to judge solely from the spam folder of my own personal email account, it would appear that an awful lot of legitimate marketers don’t realise how “spammy” their emails actually are. The key, really, is to avoid jumping the gun and shouting at your audience. It sounds like a no-brainer, but we are all guilty of

jockeying for notice from time to time- we know that our recipients likely receive hundreds of marketing emails every week and are desperate to have ours noticed in the chaos. Understandable, but it’s precisely this whiff of desperation which tips off the spam filter and lands us in trouble.

Here are a few classic mistakes marketers make which inadvertently “spammify” their emails:

1.       USING ALL-CAPS

Inside voices, people! Nobody likes to be shouted at. Using all caps in your subject line might get people’s attention, but this looks spammy and can really rub people the wrong way. In fact, a study by

the Radicati Group found that more than 85% of respondents prefer an all-lowercase subject line to one in all caps. This might sound like a no-brainer, but when you consider that 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line, you'll want to stay away from triggers like this as much as you can.

2.       Exclamation marks!!!!! 

These are another seemingly obvious thing that can make your subject line or email look unprofessional. It’s a faux pas of writing as well as marketing to try to make punctuation do the job

that words are supposed to do. If your words are not enough to get readers excited about our content, it’s time to get back to the drawing board.

3.       Using video or Flash in emails

Most email providers automatically disable rich media like Flash or video embeds anyway, so it’s not worth trying. Instead, use an image of your video player (with a play button) that links to the rich media on a website page.

4.       Including attachments

If you want to send your recipients something like a PDF or a Word document, don't attach the file to the email -- otherwise your email could get blocked by spam filters. Instead, upload the attachment to your website and link to the file location in your email using an effective call-to-action button. This will minimize the chance of it being blocked by spam filters and decrease the load time of your email.

      5.       Spelling and grammatical errors

That Radicati Group study I mentioned earlier also found that for 80% of respondents, spelling and grammatical errors are the worst offence possible. But in addition to being unprofessional, these errors are also a spam trigger. Everyone slips up from time to time, so always run a spell-check as well as proof-reading your emails yourself.

      6.       Too many images

Emails jam-packed with images, or which contain excessively large images, tend to end up in the spam folder as filters can’t read images. This happens especially if the email is heavy on images but contains little text.

7.       A few other things worth mentioning:

·         URL shorteners are often used within emails to hide malware so are a big red flag to spam filters.

·         Designing a HTML email in Microsoft Word is another mistake; the code is sloppy and scores highly within spam filters.

·         Sending tests multiple times to recipients within a company can also get you into trouble because of firewall issues.

8.       …And of course, avoid trigger words and phrases.

See last week’s article for information on how trigger words work and our list of top offenders.

Adapted from this Hubspot article.

Beat the Spam Filter! Trigger words to avoid

Writing a great marketing email can be a difficult feat at the best of times. Audiences are becoming ever more cynical, inundated with hundreds of emails a week from companies claiming to offer something that will improve their lives in some way. So when you have managed to draft the perfect email to share your message with your potential customers, the last thing you want is for it to end up sitting in their spam folder, never to be seen- let alone opened. Thankfully there is a wealth of information out there to help you come up with an engaging subject line that won’t doom your hard work to obscurity.

Spam filters are becoming more and more sophisticated but you can beat them if you know how they work and what to avoid. There are a lot of reasons an email will be redirected into a Spam folder on arrival but when it happens, it’s usually because the subject line contained a trigger word or phrase. Most spam filters work on a point-based system so that having just one offending phrase won’t trigger rejection- except for some phrases which the filter considers irredeemable. SpamAssassin 2.43 for example assigns default points for these top offenders: 

Reverses aging Compare rates ‘Hidden’ assets Compete for your business Free investment Promise you Stock disclaimer statement Free Preview Multi-level marketing Compare rates

The above phrases are almost certain to nab you a one-way ticket into the dreaded spam folder, but even if you avoid them, other suspect words and phrases can add up. Here are some of the top offenders for each category of business email. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

(Just for the record, avoid the word “Free” in your subject line at all costs!)

Commerce: “As seen on”, “Shopper”, “Clearance”

Employment: “Additional income”, “Be your own boss”, “Compete for business”

Financial – General: “Affordable”, “Credit”, “Cheap”

Financial – Business: “Credit cards”, “Hidden Costs”, “No investment”

Financial – Personal: “Out of debt”, “Child support”, “Your income”

General: “Satisfaction”, “Freedom”, Lifetime"

Greetings: “Dear [name]”, “Friend”, “Hello”

Marketing: “Increase your sales”, “Marketing solutions”, “Member”

Medical: “Hair loss”, “Diagnostics” “Snoring”

Numbers: “Join millions”, “Guaranteed”, “100%”

Offers: “”Deal”, “Per day” “Trial”

Calls-to-Action: “Compare”, “Sign up”, “Apply Now”

Descriptions/Adjectives: “Congratulations”, “Amazing”, “Certified”

We’ll be running a series of articles on Spam filters over the coming weeks so watch this space for more tips on how to make sure your emails reach their intended target!

Adapted from Hubspot's great article here 

Using Snapchat to Boost Your Business

In the five short years since its inception, Snapchat has defied its humble origins to become one of the world’s leading social media platforms. Launched in September 2011 from the living room of co-founder Evan Spiegels’ parents’ house, the app resonated with millennials in particular for its simple but unprecedented concept: Once viewed, gone forever.

Living in the Age of Social Media means that most of us are keenly aware of the lasting power of material shared online. For an entire generation of people who have suffered at least mild embarrassment when confronted with the ghosts of statuses past, Snapchat was a revelation. Over the years it has built on that single popular feature to offer a range of services such as Stories, video-sharing and instant messaging. Snapchat now enjoys over 100 million daily active users and 7 billion video views per day, with many major brands getting in on the action and turning to Snapchat to boost their marketing campaigns. The limited life-span of its posts makes Snapchat a valuable tool for creating exciting and urgent calls-to-action for your customers.

Unfortunately, unless you are part of Generation Y and were therefore weaned on technology, Snapchat is known for being somewhat user-hostile.  Here’s a guide to getting the most out of Snapchat in your marketing campaign:

Getting Started

One of the most important things to understand before embarking on your Snapchat marketing journey is that your audience here are a different breed to your Facebook or Twitter followers. Snapchat’s user base may be growing and expanding beyond the teen audience who were responsible for its initial success, but its culture of casual communication still prevails and will likely continue to do so. The fact that Snapchat’s users are not typically looking for professional content means that a marketing campaign here can’t necessarily be approached in the same way as on Facebook or Twitter. Don’t let this put you off though- this in itself creates opportunities to reach a new audience, and in some ways Snapchat marketing requires less effort than other social media platforms. For a start, Snapchat’s casual environment and the fleeting nature of Snaps means that people tend not to be quite as condemnatory of posts as they can be on other social media platforms. It goes without saying that you should strive to be professional in all your business posts no matter what platform they are on, but Snapchat presents an opportunity to show your customers the fun side of your organisation which will in turn humanize your company and help build customer loyalty.  

Creating a follower base

When launching a Snapchat account, many businesses use promotions to garner an initial following to build on. New York-based frozen yoghurt chain 16 Handles are known for being the first company to successfully implement a Snapchat marketing campaign. In early 2013 the brand launched their “Snappy New Year” promotion where they encouraged users to participate by visiting select locations at certain times and snapping photos of their friends enjoying their frozen yoghurt. In return, snappers received a coupon for anywhere between 16% and 100% off which they then had just 10 seconds to show the cashier. Although 16 Handles didn’t measure the results of their campaign, the exposure they received in the media for their strategy and the amount of businesses flocking to Snapchat since then speak for themselves.

As well as running promotions and giveaways from your Snapchat account, use your other, more established social media accounts to promote Snapchat. The time limit on snaps means that you’re unlikely to reach as many people if they aren’t forewarned of an upcoming offer. Let your Twitter and Facebook followers know that you will be making an exciting announcement on Snapchat at an appointed time, and encourage them to add their friends as well. You can use a simple hashtag to track new followers, as sports ticket provider Chat Sports did with great success back in June 2013.

Chat Sports used Snapchat to offer their community a chance to win tickets to a game. To enter, users had to have five friends add Chat Sports on Snapchat. Then those friends had to send a unique image to Chat Sports with the username of the fan who wanted to win the tickets and the hashtag #gimmietickets. The result was 150 responses in 48 hours.

If you run a smaller business, you might not be able to offer expensive giveaways like Chat Sports did, but don’t let that put you off; merely HAVING a Snapchat account will earmark your company as being on-trend and fun.

Tip: If you are a small or local business, there are so many ways you can use Snapchat to create a sense of community with your followers and get them to engage with your snaps and your business. If you’re a restaurant, for example, you could send out teaser snaps of specials each day coming up to lunchtime. If you’re a retail outlet and you want to promote a new product line, offer discounts or freebies to the first ten people to send snaps of them using your product. If you offer a service instead of a product, you can still get in on the action- if you’re a dentist, for example, you could offer a free clean to first ten people to send you a snap of their smile! You get my drift. The possibilities are endless and the only thing limiting you is your imagination.

Once your Snapchat account is properly established it can become your main platform, and you can use your Snapchat content on your other social media profiles as well. In this way, Snapchat needn’t become too much of a draw on your valuable time and will actually simplify the running of your other social media accounts.

Continually promoting your Snapchat account on Twitter and Facebook should help to draw in followers, but what to do with them once they are there?

Creating Content

The key to creating content that your followers will want to open is to offer them a view of your company through Snapchat that they can’t get anywhere else. People love to get behind the scenes, and this is mutually beneficial as it is so easy on Snapchat to humanize your brand. Post snaps of day-to-day occurrences, your team, and office moments such as staff birthdays or new equipment, and keep it fun and light-hearted. Don’t worry if your snaps don’t look too polished; in an interconnected communication framework like today’s social media environment, being real can trump being perfect. You can use the Stories feature to create fun compilations of the goings-on at your company. You can also schedule Snapchat events throughout the week to keep people coming back.

Tip: Traditional marketing wisdom says that to establish a brand, you must drill the same message into your audience over and over to reinforce a narrative of what you want people to associate with your company. Snapchat turns this convention on its head because the draw of Snapchat is novelty. The only way to make your brand's Snapchat worth caring about is to make it change every day- make your brand an evolving story.

Promotions, as mentioned earlier, are a great way to encourage continued engagement with your posts. Previews, similarly, are a great way to establish a buzz of excitement, especially with the time limit on snaps creating a sense of urgency. The New Orleans Saints implement this strategy to its full potential by regularly sending out stories that include behind-the-scenes footage, a look at kits for the game and images of new Saints products.

One of the easiest and most effective ways of keeping up-to-date on Snapchat and encouraging engagement with your posts is to participate in every live event that you can. Thanks to the advent of hashtags, social media is becoming an integral part of participating in live events and there are a number of benefits to getting in on the action. Your followers will become accustomed to “seeing” you at events, creating a sense of familiarity with your brand which in turn encourages customer loyalty. It also shows your followers that your brand is up-to-date and on trend. Live events are easy because you needn’t be physically present at the event to take part. If you are, even better, but live-snapping is great because it allows you to create a presence at social events even if you are just sitting at home watching them on TV.

You can also keep things current and exciting by running “takeovers” of your Snapchat account. Chipotle, for example, grabbed their followers’ attention by announcing that the band Walk the Moon was going to be taking over their Snapchat account for a day. Many brands team up with celebrities or popular figures and let them be “in charge” of their account, sharing exclusive insights to get people talking. Like promotions, this may not always be feasible on the same scale as the examples listed here; If you’re a small-town coffee shop, Kim Kardashian is probably not going to come and take over your Snapchat account for the day. But if you use local talent- whether it be community figures or popular local musicians/artists- as influencers, they will appreciate the publicity and you will be able to boost your brand. In this way, you can build up your reputation with minimal effort, all the while supporting your local economy which will in turn help to grow your business. Win/win.

Tip: Beat the character limit! Snapchat’s 31-character limit is strict even by today’s social media standards. If you’re finding the limit too constricting, you can simply Copy & Paste text from your clipboard and the limit will not take effect. Remember the time limit though, and don’t include so much text that your snaps lose their impact. This currently only works on Snapchat for iOS.

When you’re not snapping your latest merchandise, promotional offer or local guitar-playing heartthrob, you’re going to need filler posts. We’d all avoid them if we could, but when you are trying to establish or maintain an online presence, you have to be.. well, present. We all have slow news days where we find ourselves grasping for relevant material to post on social media so that we don’t fade into obscurity. Fortunately, filler posts are easy on Snapchat, which is built on the desire for novelty and instant, fleeting gratification. For this reason, Snapchat users tend to be less critical and so you can post pretty much anything as long as it’s not offensive and you can connect it to your business. So snaps of your cat using your merchandise are fair game on Snapchat. In fact, they’ll probably do very well!

In conclusion

If you’re still unsure of whether there’s any value to using Snapchat for marketing purposes, consider some statistics. There are currently over 100 million daily active users on Snapchat and 7 billion video views per day. If Snapchat isn’t a part of your social media strategy, you could be missing out on the opportunity to connect with dozens of people who fit into your target audience. However, there’s more to bridging the gap than just downloading the app. If you’d like to know more about Snapchat for marketing, watch this space- Dungarvan Enterprise Centre will be expanding on this area soon!

Do you use Snapchat as part of your marketing strategy? Tell us about your experiences in the comments section below!