In the digital age, where social media platforms are continually vying for user attention, one app has managed to stand out from the crowd with its unique approach to content sharing. Snapchat, an app launched just over a decade ago, has captivated audiences worldwide with its ephemeral content and innovative features. With over 10 billion daily views, this platform has become an intriguing player in the social media world, surpassing platforms such as Twitter and Pinterest, and still providing a unique outlet for creativity and connectivity.
This article will guide you on a journey through the exciting world of Snapchat, delving into the specifics of what makes this platform different, and how savvy users are leveraging its features to make money. If you're a freelancer, a budding entrepreneur, or just curious about how to harness the potential of this app, this article is a treasure trove of information. We will also introduce you to Indy, an app that enhances your entrepreneurial journey, making your freelance business management seamless, organized, and efficient. So, buckle up and prepare to discover the magic of Snapchat and how it can become a potent tool in your digital toolbox.
What Is Snapchat?
Launched in early 2011, Snapchat seemed destined for success from the outset. Content that quickly vanished appealed to the attention spans of Gen Z users, who have since also adopted TikTok.
Rebranded as Snap Inc in 2016, the app shows no signs of slowing and now boasts more than 10 billion daily views. In a ranking of all social media platforms, Snap is ranked 12th. This ranks it above other social media platforms such as Twitter and Pinterest but below Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok.
However, it's difficult to compare to the competition, such as Facebook and Twitter, because Snap registers a viewing when playback starts, while Facebook and Twitter viewings are reported once completed.
New markets for Snap constantly emerge, and the over 50s have become the latest rapidly growing segment, possibly overcoming their reluctance to open a Snapchat account with the new presentation Snap offers.
Its potential as a potent promotional tool for business has also gained recent traction, where marketers regularly create Snapchat ads so that marketers are now 32.7% of regular users.
What Makes Snapchat Different from Other Apps?
The time-sensitive display of pictures, messages, and stories on Snap set the app apart from other social media platforms for the first Snapchat users. With images and messages that disappeared within 10 seconds, it wasn't long before all manner of mischief made the best use of the feature.
Snap Stories, meanwhile, upped the ante even more by staying live for 24 hours. Snap is a highly visual medium which enables users to keep in touch with friends and family while letting their playful creativity run riot with the filters, which can be employed to enhance content.
Snap has its own vocabulary for some of the features, and some find the app layout isn't as intuitive as any other social media platform.
- Chat – This is the main messaging feature on the app. As with WhatsApp, you can chat with friends and colleagues singly or in groups. Chats are deleted 10 seconds after the receiver opens them.
- Stories – This feature is often used to post a collection of photos or videos, which will remain available for 24 hours before being deleted. Stories is comparable to similar features on Facebook and Instagram.
- Lenses – Add fun effects to your selfies, which can be sent to your friends or posted to Stories. The Snap Lens feature applies animated filter effects to your image when holding a front-facing camera to take a selfie.
- Filters – Similar to lenses, but filters are static photo overlays instead of augmented reality.
- Lenses – Lenses are used to transform the way you look and everything around you. You can add fun effects to your selfies or use stickers, which can be seen or sent to your family or friends through stories.
- Snap Spotlight – This feature promotes short-form, viral videos from businesses, creators, and everyday users. Spotlight snaps aim to provide the best video content to Snapchat users. The potential reach of a Spotlight isn't just limited to your own followers or your location, so it has much more potential to go viral.
To Make Money on Snap, You First Need to Grow Your Audience.
The tried and tested and most original way of selling to customers is to create an audience of followers online. Once established, this audience can be tempted with your own deals and promotions or directed to your other platforms.
From your own research, you will have quickly established the market strength for your products and the likely customers. However, it would be best to put in some strategic work to ensure your products are exposed to customers who can make a purchase.
It's often been quoted that Snap provides access to more than 712 million people worldwide. The largest group is made up of 18 to 24-year-olds, which equates to 39% having a Snapchat account. The following age groups, ages 25 to 34 and ages 13 to 17, are the most enthusiastic users.
So, if you plan to promote your business venture, it is always best to fully research and prepare before committing your hard-earned dollars to an advertising campaign. Throwing money at advertising is very easy, but if the advertising messages aren't targeted to your ideal customers, it'll unfortunately be money down the drain.
Grow Your Audience Checklist
If you haven't already, you can open a Snapchat app account on iOS or Android.
Here are some things you can do to grow your Snapchat audience:
- Always ensure you create engaging content and creative content in your snaps. Create content that makes your writing come alive to attract new followers and avoid clichés and tired expressions.
- Take time to edit any images you use on Snap, so they look as professional as possible. Your words and images are other people's first impression—so make them look good.
- Make the best use of your snapcode. A snapcode is an image similar to a QR code. You can scan it with Snapchat to create different functions, such as adding new friends, linking to websites, and unlocking filters and lenses.
- Chat with your existing Snapchat users and contacts on other social media message boards and ask them to follow you on Snap.
- Use your Snapchat link on your website and other social media platforms to widen your account coverage.
- At the end of any blog posts on your website, add your Snap link or a call to action (CTA).
- Network with existing Snapchat users. Choose more influential, experienced ones and ask to collaborate with them on promotions that will work for both of you.
- When you next order a batch of business cards, add your snapcode to it.
How to Make Money on Snapchat
Create viral videos
With such a large worldwide audience on Snap, even modest interest in your video can result in thousands of views, which in some circumstances can lead you to make good money. However, creating a video that has the potential to go viral takes skill and expertise. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix that can make anyone an instant expert; understandably, if there were, everyone would be doing it.
You can bet those creators that host successful videos have made plenty of them already, where they have cut their teeth on the medium and learned from their mistakes. So, help yourself by narrowing down the field.
Research subjects that are currently on trend, and try to think of a new way of presenting the material. Choose subject matter that you know and understand; you are much more likely to make a memorable video if you do.
It's important not to give up; you must make numerous videos before you create something worthwhile. Keep practicing and trying out new ideas.
Snap's Spotlight feature
If you want to aim for the stars and make money on Snapchat, it is worth checking out the new Spotlight feature. The potential reach of a Spotlight isn't just limited to your own followers or your location, so it has much more potential to go viral.
Spotlight creates a level playing field where the best influencers and even newbie video creators have the same chance of their videos going viral to make money on Snapchat. Videos or snaps can be submitted to Spotlight even if you have a private account. A few regulations include a maximum video length of 60 secs, and snaps must be suitable for a 13+ audience.
Spotlight works with an algorithm that monitors which videos have been played and how often they have been skipped, shared, watched, and liked. Popular videos are promoted, so viewings rapidly increase, leading to viral interest.
Which content works well on Spotlight?
As the success of Snapchat Spotlight has played out, a few clever and lucky video creators have quickly made money on Snapchat as their productions have gone viral. The themes or creative elements of content on Spotlight have been narrowed down to include the following:
Educational: Short-form educational snaps that last no longer than 60 seconds. It offers interesting and original content more succinctly than YouTube's longer videos.
Action: Any short snaps where people can be seen carrying out amazing stunts or inspiring sports are particularly popular. Often dancing and skateboarding videos rank highly.
Jokes: Prank videos are continual favorites. Especially when some thought has gone into creating the joke to provide a strong finish.
Trends and Memes: Trends come and go incredibly fast, but catching a new trend at the outset and creating a new twist can often be an excellent way to make money on Snapchat. Memes can hang around longer, so it’s worth creating a library you can use along with new trends.
When thinking about how to make money on Snapchat, a constant theme of content that is repeated over and over is the inclusion of energy and excitement in content and videos. The demographic of Snapchat users means they are thrill seekers looking for exciting and new experiences they can enjoy and then share with their friends and family.
Become an influencer and progress to sponsorship deals
If you are lucky enough to have a talent or specialized knowledge, you can share with your target audience, it's a great way to engage with them. You might even have the potential to become an influencer and earn some money on Snapchat.
The emphasis here is on genuine skills and experience that people need and want. Snapchat content needs to entertain and inform, but it also needs to come across as personal so followers feel they are engaging at a personal level. It must be worthwhile so followers return for more, enabling you to build a larger following gradually. Generally, content on Snap is more authentic and personal, which allows you to connect with your followers at a deeper level.
This creates a virtuous cycle where new visitors notice how many followers you have, which gives them confidence that you are offering something interesting and novel. With each step, you are building your profile with content targeted at your ideal audience.
When you have established a reasonable Snap following, you can start looking to spread your wings with marketing. Cross-selling on other social media sites with affiliate deals is another effective way of widening your appeal. You may get approached by a sponsorship company looking to set up an agreement with your products or services. Or you can take the initiative and approach appropriate companies for sponsorship yourself.
Employ a social media manager
Depending on your budget, it might be worth employing a social media manager with the experience and contacts to establish sponsorship deals. They can generate an income stream from sponsorship for you much quicker than you can. However, you must weigh this against how much you pay them for the service.
Sponsorship is an effective form of marketing and is often rewarded with a higher income level, but the relationship is built on trust. That's trust between you and the sponsor and between you and your followers. Keeping followers relies on honesty, where your audience comes to you because they trust what you have to say.
Get to the point quickly
Snapchat ads are different from those on other social media outlets. They are only on screen for 10 seconds, so to hook customers, you need to be very clear and concise with your message and use the first two seconds to grab users' attention. The younger age range of Snapchat followers wants clear and concise information about products.
As an advertiser, you have to create ads that explain who you are and what your ad is about, and justify why the viewer should click on your ad. That's a lot of information to convey in a few seconds, so it's vital to keep the images and wording brief without losing any meaning.
Active Snapchat users often create Snap ads using promotions such as discounts to tempt users to buy. With such a short timeframe to hook customers, a discount can mean the difference between a purchase and swiping away to the next Snap ad.
Snap Ads
If you already successfully sell products and services on other social media accounts, it is undoubtedly worth trying Snap Ads as a way to make money on Snapchat. However, you need to be sure your products or services appeal to the demographic of Snap users. Snap has an enviable record with advertising, where ads on Snapchat have a click-through rate which is five times higher than other social media accounts.
Setting up an advertising campaign is reasonably straightforward, and there is no commitment to advertise for a set period. Consequently, it's possible to try out different advertising campaigns to test the water without committing a significant advertising spend.
How Many Followers Do You Need to Make Money on Snapchat?
The barrier to earning money as an active Snapchat user is set quite low at 100 followers, and your profile needs to have been active for at least one week. However, from the statistics of other users, you need to build your followers intensively to start making money.
A user with 25,000 followers can expect to earn about $2000 per month, while a user with more than 150,000 followers can expect to earn about $8500 monthly.
The Indy App and Social Media
Indy is an all-in-one solution for freelancers, offering an arsenal of tools that streamline the process of managing Snapchat brand partnerships. By reducing the complexity and fragmentation of administrative tasks, Indy allows creatives to focus on cultivating their brand relationships and maximizing their social media impact.
- Proposals and Contracts: Indy's clean, professional templates can help you create compelling proposals and solid contracts that clearly define the scope and terms of your Snapchat collaborations.
- Invoices: Build and send invoices swiftly with Indy, allowing for efficient payment processing via major platforms like Stripe and PayPal. This ensures timely compensation for your partnership efforts.
- Tasks and Calendar: Stay on top of your deadlines, partnership agreements, and post schedules with Indy's integrated task management and calendar features. Keep track of all your deliverables in one place and never miss a beat in your Snapchat campaigns.
Indy is more than just a tool—it's a partner in your freelancing journey. It consolidates all the elements of your freelance business under one hood, making it a veritable command center for your projects. From drafting your first proposal to managing your tasks and receiving payments, Indy offers a streamlined, professional solution for all your business needs. The cherry on top? Indy's commitment to your success means you get access to essential tools for free, along with the opportunity to upgrade for even more empowerment. Indy is not just about making freelancing simpler—it's about helping you own your craft, no matter what "it" is.
Conclusion
Snapchat, with its swift rise to prominence in the social media world, has carved a niche for itself with its unique content style and audience engagement. This platform is not just about sharing fleeting moments but has evolved into a vibrant marketplace where creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship thrive. Whether you're aiming to create viral videos, become an influential voice, or promote your products effectively, Snapchat provides the perfect stage for your endeavors.
As you explore this digital landscape, remember that managing your followers and customers requires a tool that's as innovative and efficient as Snapchat itself. That's where Indy comes into the picture. As an app designed specifically for freelancers, Indy can help streamline your business processes, keeping track of customer communications, contracts, and invoices. Why not explore Indy as a complement to your Snapchat journey?
