Snapchat. Just Do It.

My younger sister first showed me snapchat a few years ago and I thought it was ridiculous. Flash forward a few years to having a craft brewery client with more content than I knew what to do with… Snapchat totally saved me.

It’s a great tool to show more of your brand’s day to day activity. It also adds an even higher level of authenticity because the content posted is happening in real time. To help ease your Snapchat fears, I’ve put together four easy ways to use for your business using real examples.

Live Event Coverage

This is such a fun way to engage with your fans and customers and give them a peek at real-time events. Think festivals, trade shows, and product launches. I work with Upland Brewing Co. on their social media and we do events all year long so instead of posting multiple instagram photos, I’ll take one and then in the caption direct followers to head to our snapchat for more with the ghost emoji and username. This specific post was for a brewery expansion that happened earlier this summer. We were dropping a new tank through the ceiling of the production brewery so I wanted to make sure to document this event in real time. To drive people to the brewery snapchat, I posted this picture with along with our username so people could watch what was happening in the brewery.

Behind the Scenes

https://youtu.be/COdPMdgIi2g

Not every moment is gram worthy. Snapchat is great for little moments of your day that you don’t need on your Instagram. If you follow Upland Brew Co on snapchat, you’ll often see puppy breaks because we have a dog friendly office.  Other ideas for behind the scenes footage: coffee breaks,  sneak peek at your workspace/moodboards, and happy hour. Don’t forget to train other members of your team so there can be different perspectives and create a more authentic vibe.

Private Content

Give your Snapchat followers an exclusive! One of my fav snapchat accounts is the clothing line Everlane and they recently shared their instagram tips on their snapchat story.

Partner with Influencers

Bloggers and influencers are all over social media channels including snapchat. They can help bolster your brand awareness by reaching a broader audience.

Mandy Rye of Waiting on Martha recently traveled to the Golden Isles with The Southern C (so fun!) to collaborate with other Summit alums and has been sharing her adventure on snapchat.

On my travel blog, Em’s on the Road, I partnered with 21c hotels for a weekend getaway to their fabulous Louisville hotel. I posted one photo of the hotel (below) and directed people to my snapchat where I had been documenting my entire weekend.

Do you use Snapchat? How do you use it? Sound off in the comments. It may sound scary and time consuming but go for it. You may even have fun!

BTW – The Southern C is now on snapchat! See what we’re up to @thesouthernc.

Emily Hines is a blogger and social media manager hooked on cruising backroads, photographing old houses, and loving all things local. For more check out her blog Em’s on the Road. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat (emsontheroad).