How to Use Snapchat in Business

In my article, “The Paradox Of Snapchat: Is it worth my time?” I explored if Snapchat really was a good investment of my time and energy. I wanted to explore the investment from a first time user’s standpoint and someone who understands the ROI of social media. In that article I came to the conclusion: “yes Snapchat is worth the time investment.”

This is definitely the case from a community-building standpoint.
How about business and marketing though?

How do we use Snapchat as a business platform?

How do we sell our products and services with Snapchat?

Thankfully I can tell you I have had a lot of success selling exclusively on Snapchat products like “Snapchat Mastery.”

To use Snapchat as a business platform we must understand some fundamental concepts.

Where are your customers in the buying cycle?

Simply speaking every customer goes through a cycle of knowing you, liking you, trusting you, then paying you. They must know, like, and trust you before they will buy from you. If you are looking at Snapchat as a mechanism for business, you must know where your customers are in this cycle.

Here is the tricky part, each customer can be in a different part of the funnel while on Snapchat. Some of your audience may have just recently discovered you, while others know, like, and trust you.

If you understand where each of those customers are, you can create segmented stories for each of those customers. To figure out how to created a segmented story check out this amazing article.

Understand the KPI of each story

KPI or key performance indicator is the metric we are measuring that lets us know if we are winning and successful. Every story you create can have a different KPI, because every day you are starting with a blank slate.

Maybe your KPI is total viewer count that you are tracking from a weekly by weekly basis. Your goal is to increase this “count” as much as possible.

Maybe your KPI is screenshots taken to track the amount of influence you have on your audience.

Maybe your KPI is engagement. How many people engage with a story and give you feedback?

Each KPI must and will play differently into your overall strategy on how to use Snapchat as a business platform.

Master the art of Storytelling

Just because you have a lot of people adding you and “following you” doesn’t mean you have people’s attention. It just means you are doing a good job raising awareness that you are on Snapchat.

Maybe you are even gaming the system a bit and spreading your QR code to all 4 corners of the globe.

This doesn’t mean you have attention, this just means you have the potential for attention.

Storytelling is how we capture attention and hold the attention of our audience to create a lasting effect. Without mastering the art of storytelling, you will never master the art of using Snapchat as a business platform

Storytelling = Storyselling

If you want to use Snapchat as a business platform that means you want to sell stuff with Snapchat. If you create a story and don’t tell a story, you just come out and say BUY MY PRODUCT.

If you do this, your audience and viewer count will be cut in half. People will stop watching your content because you will come off as a sleazy car salesman in need of a breath mint.

On the other hand, if you come out and tell a story, you create a fun and interesting native Snapchat commercial, like the one below. People will love your story, share your story, and buy your product, because you respected them and entertained them.

Build a community of raving fans

Snapchat is unique because it’s the only social media not natively designed to build a community. It is designed as a one on one messaging app.

That being said, because there is inherent friction in building a community, when the community is actually built, it’s extremely strong and loyal.

Community building is a cornerstone in using Snapchat as a business platform.

With a solid community, your business will excel on Snapchat. Your raving fans will bring in more customers and followers for you without hassle.

Create the best content you possibly can for the people you currently have and your community will naturally grow.

[bctt tweet=”Create the best content you can for the people you currently have & your community will grow naturally”]

If you are looking for all the other amazing ways to build a community, story tell, and use Snapchat as a business platform, then maybe you’re ready for Snapchat Mastery.

Snapchat Mastery is the #1 Snapchat course designed to help you master the art of storytelling and community building (as well as all the Snapchat interface!).

There’s over seven hours of video tutorials and content that will kick your Snapchat game into high gear.

Looking to start growing your Snapchat following… right now!? Then head on over and download 30-days of Snapchat, a free worksheet.

Are you following me on Snapchat!? I give away loads of tips on Tuesdays to crush your Snapchat. Follow the Snapcode and let’s connect. Find me on Snapchat, at austiniuliano.