Snapchat finally adds @ mention tagging | TechCrunch
Snapchat now lets you @-tag someone in your Story, creating a swipe up “more” option that shows the tagged person’s name, handle, Bitmoji, and an Add button so you can follow them too. The feature could let friends call each other out in Stories, or promote their favorite influencers by making it easy for people to follow them.
Snapchat now confirms to TechCrunch that “We’re testing this” but refused to give more details. It’s a case of Snapchat copying Instagram back after the Facebook-owned app added @ mentions to Stories back in November 2016, just a few months after Instagram cloned Snapchat’s whole Stories feature. Not all users appear to have access to tagging right now, but it seems like a sensible thing to roll out.
TechCrunch learned of the feature from Matt Rappaport after Dana Glidden spotted it. The news comes just after Cheddar reported Snapchat is laying of 120 employees in its engineering department in what appears to be a cost-cutting move as it attempts to reduce its quarterly losses.
Here’s how Snapchat @ mention tagging works. After you shoot a photo or video with the Snapchat camera, you can add text to it. While there’s no type-ahead drop-down menu like on some social networks, you can “@[someone’s username]” to mention them. When someone views your Snap, they’ll see a “More” option beckoning them to swipe up. This reveals tiles showing people’s profile info and an Add button. The tags don’t appear to trigger notifications for people mentioned, which could help prevent them from being used for spam or bullying.
Virginia Salas Kastilio aka @GiniCanBreathe, one of the world’s top Snapchatters who formerly ran the BBC’s account, tells me “I couldn’t have grown on Snapchat without the support of my followers and other influencers shouting me out in their story. From just one shoutout, I could get as much as 25% of someones audience on Snapchat to follow me. This was with manual username entry or Snapcodes. Being able to now click on the username and add directly? Game-freakin-changer. ”
Tagging could help Snapchat better intertwine Stories and messaging, which now live in the same tab after the big redesign. Story tags could spark conversations that lead to the back-and-forth visual communication that Snapchat pioneered. With Instagram having cloned and refined Stories, Snapchat needs to promote its best-in-class ephemeral messaging feature to stay differentiated.
The Beginner’s Guide to Snapchat Insights – Fanbooster
6-minute read No intro, let me jump right into tips on using Snapchat for business.
Snapchat, as most know it, is a messaging app where users can share self-erasing photos and videos with fun filters. With time and a few feature updates, it has become a fully-fledged social media app, loved by millions worldwide.
What’s more, marketers and brands use Snapchat to create more personal connections with their customers. It’s a social media network second to none at giving a unique, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of your brand, products or service.
Snapchat has 166 million daily active users (DAU) as of Q1 2017, this is halfway to Twitter’s 328 million DAU.
It ranks as the most important social network for teens in the United States.
Video content disappears quickly which gives video streaming amateurs a chance to shine.
Snapchat’s daily video views reached 10 billion in 2017, up from six billion in November 2016.
Snapchat was first to introduce “Stories” between 2012-2014, Instagram added this feature in 2016.
Before jumping straight into creating a profile or worrying about how to grow your account, let’s talk about the basics: Snapchat’s main features and how to use them.
Make sure to understand the nuances of this platform and you’ll quickly see if it can work for your business and/or marketing campaign you’re planning.
Snapchat is named as *the* place where millennials and young adults hang out.
At first try, Snapchat can seem quite confusing, but it becomes clearer once you spend a bit of time on it. This platform is primarily fun and is ideal for sharing quick insights, live product launches, special promotions as well as day-to-day moments of your life and business.
Snapchat has also gained a lot of attention (we saw both Instagram and Facebook incorporate very Snapchat-esque features to their platforms called Stories). It remains to be one of the most talked about social media platforms after growing its user base by 50 million daily active users in 2016.
Data suggests that more than 50% of Snapchat’s users are aged between 18-34.
If you go onto Snapchat purely to sell, it’s not going to work. Snapchat is all about storytelling and creating compelling content that people will go out of their way to watch and keep going back to each day.
Your guide to using Snapchat for business
Snapchat’s main features
What’s a Snap?
This is what Snapchat is famous for. Snaps are photos and videos (up to 10 seconds long) you capture with your camera and can send to other users (friends). Snaps disappear automatically after being seen.
What are Stories?
The idea of photos and videos displaying in a collage for 24 hours and then disappearing was first coined by Snapchat. Stories allow you to add up to 10 posts that will play in a chronological order until the time runs out.
How does Chat work?
Similar to Snaps, chat messages sent between friends disappear as soon as you’ve seen them. You can chat with users and save chat messages that are most important to you, like an address or a promotional code sent from a brand.
What are Memories?
Snapchat recently launched Memories – a feature that allows you to publish photos and videos taken outside of the mobile app and create posts that don’t disappear. Memories encourage you to get creative with telling your brand’s story and help reuse the best of your Snaps and Stories.
What are Filters?
In essence, Filters are overlays and stickers you can add to an image or video that has already been taken. You can also create your own geofilters for Snapchat to promote your brand, location or event for a small sum.
How to use Lenses?
Some say Snapchat wouldn’t be as fun without them. Lenses add fun real-time special effects and sounds to a person’s face, all you have to do is find a face and point the camera into their direction.
Tip: To activate Lenses simply hold the thumb on a face after launching the camera and the selection will become available to you.
What’s SnapMap?
SnapMap is the newest feature brought by Snapchat that allows you to track the location of your friends in real-time. Designed to help users find “stuff to do” and engage in offline activities, but it has instead caused serious privacy concerns. Time will tell if Snapchat will make this work.
If you decide to get into Snapchat, you’ll want to find an audience who will actually be looking at and engaging with your Snaps, in other words – grow your account.
How to grow your Snapchat account
1. Host a Snapchat takeover
Finding an influencer to take over your Snapchat account is an opportunity to grow your presence and reach a much wider audience. For example, Snapchat consultancy and agency, Ginicanbreathe did a takeover for SoulPancake, a media production company.
The process was simple – Gini mentioned that she was taking over the brand’s account on her own Snapchat, then shared their Snapcode and invited people to follow her journey there. I personally ended up following SoulPancake and can only imagine how many people they acquired from this takeover.
One of the brightest influencers on Snapchat, Sarah Peretz hosted a takeover of the CollegeHumor account. The process was similar to Gini’s – she first told her own audience about it and shared the College Humor Snapcode to then bring her audience over to their account. On the day of the takeover, she introduced herself on CollegeHumor’s account which saw a significant increase in engagement and viewers.
If you decide to try an influencer takeover, make sure to find someone that has a large and engaged audience that takes action. You also want to remember that once the takeover is over, it’s up to you to keep creating engaging content consistently to keep those new followers coming back to your account.
2. Intrigue your viewers
This piece of advice is something I heard from the digital marketing guru, Gary Vee and he certainly knows how to do social. If you haven’t heard about Gary or need a quick lesson on Snapchat’s history, read this blog.
He encourages businesses to use other social media networks to share a piece of their Snapchat story to compel people to add you as a friend, contrary to only doing contests. This is how you do it:
Share a post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram Stories that you’re traveling somewhere and ask to follow you on Snapchat to watch the whole thing.
Give one amazing, valuable tip and tell people they can get more for free on your Snapchat.
Do an exclusive interview on Snapchat, but mention on all of your other networks.
Always give details about new product launches or promotions first on Snapchat.
Once people get used to the fact that you put out your most interesting, fun and useful content on Snapchat, they’ll start to automatically go there to get it.
Shonduras, also known as Shaun McBride, gained a huge following on Snapchat thanks to his complex Snapchat art. The brands started to take notice and it took off from there. He shares fun content that includes his community in games and stories, plus he’s amazing at interacting with his audience and gets them engaged.
Other ways to grow your Snapchat account:
Make sure to incorporate your Snapchat code into your social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Mention Snapchat when you create videos, and add your Snapchat code so people can easily screenshot and add you.
Use Ghostcodes to find people to follow and to get more followers.
Add your account to Snapdex.
Once you start growing your account, it’s imperative you stay consistent so that people keep seeing your content and hopefully, share it with their friends.
3. Run promotions and contests
People love free giveaways and taking part in contests. If you do decide to run promotions on Snapchat, there are many fun ways to roll them out. These ideas should engage Snapchat users and encourage them to take action:
Create a special coupon only for your Snapchat audience*
Exclusive giveaways and photo contests
Behind-the-scene previews and teasers (Q&As)
Special limited time offers
Flash sales
*Ask people take a screenshot of your coupon and share it on another platform to get the deal. You can also ask people to message you directly for their coupon code.
Whichever promotion you’re running, you need to create a sense of urgency which Snapchat is perfect for. People respond quickly when the offer is compelling and they know it’s only available for a limited time (especially if they’re in the market to buy).
4. Track your success and growth
You’ll need to measure your success after investing time in Snapchat marketing. If you want to understand how well you’re doing, you can use Snaplytics that allows you to:
Monitor the number of your views, screenshots, open and completion rates
Track follower growth daily
Benchmark against other accounts
Gain key competitor insights
The best way to track your success is by keeping in mind the engagement with your audience and if you’re reaching your goals, e. g. the number of people using a coupon.
As with any social media strategy or platform, having a clear goal in mind will help you understand if Snapchat is working for you whether it’s brand awareness or a specific number of sign ups that you’re after. You’ll need to give time for your account to grow as building a loyal, engaged following won’t happen overnight.
Are you using Snapchat for your business? Connect with me there and let me know if you learned something.
Editorial credits: Dean Drobot / | Ink Drop /
How to Make Money on Snapchat in 2021: Your Ultimate Guide
Snapchat is a messaging app, with over 200 million users daily. When you can reach so many people in one place, there are many opportunities. Below, you will discover how to make money on Snapchat in 2021 and grow your account.
What Is Snapchat?
It was founded in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. It is an app that you can download on your smartphone, create an account, and start connecting with other people.
The focus of the app was on sharing images or snaps. For this reason, it has created many filters and options when you take images or make videos. The best part is that users can’t save or share the images they receive. Once you see them, the app deletes them.
This is a great way to make sure you will have complete privacy. It gives freedom to try different things, and many members share weird or funny images. It is the only popular messaging app that offers this feature. You can easily take a snap, which is the word used for the images, share it with one or more persons, and the app will delete the image.
Compared to other social apps, it does not have a feed or posts like Instagram. It looks more like Messenger with extra features when it comes to images and better privacy. Snapchat is not available on a desktop or your laptop. If you decide to use it for fun or making money, your activity depends on the hours you use your phone.
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Why Is Snapchat A Great Place To Make Money
Snapchat does not include any ads that use to earn money like YouTube, so you need to promote a product or service. Even if you decide to become a Snapchat influencer, you need to grow your following around a niche. Snapchat is the right place to promote a product for the following reasons:
1. Fun Way To Engage With Other People
Most social networks allow you to follow other people. You must then create content, engage with likes or comments, and figure out ways to do a better job than a competitor in your niche. This process is not always fun. It can be difficult and boring when you create a new account and growing an audience on other platforms.
Snapchat allows you to send snaps in a few clicks and encourage to share their images as well. It is a more interesting way to reach your followers and requires more creativity than other alternatives.
2. Attract New Followers
You can quickly grow your following if you target young audiences. Most users are between 13 and 29 years old. You need snaps that are interesting for these age groups. Of course, you must add value to these people like any other platform.
3. Show Them You Are A Real Person
Many business accounts use automation tools and social media managers to run their accounts. In many cases, the content or their messages are not natural. Snapchat needs engagement between real persons. You have to bring your personality into the app if you want other users to relate with you.
4. Share Images With Tips and Insights
If you have created an account to make money, you probably focus on a niche or a product. When people follow you, they expect to learn more. It’s a great opportunity to send snaps with tips or insights to build trust with the followers.
It is not spam because people expect to receive these types of messages. On the other hand, sending personal messages with promotions on platforms like Facebook and Twitter is spam.
5. Follow The Trends
Snapchat is a popular app for young teenagers and young adults. However, they don’t have many users of older ages, and most businesses avoid it. Only 5% of businesses and marketers are already on Snapchat.
If you create an account to make money, you will not have many competitors. You will prove that you are not scared of the new marketing types and can follow the trends.
3 Ways To Make Money On Snapchat
There are three ways to make money on Snapchat. While these ways have many subcategories, you don’t have the range of other platforms. However, they are enough for most Instagram users that want to earn money:
1. Sell Your Snaps
If you are an influencer on Snapchat or have a big audience, some companies will want to advertise their products to your followers. The value of your snaps depends on the Fanbytes Score and your followers. The Fanbytes score is from 0 to 100, depending on your engagement with the target audience.
This method is quite simple, but it can take time. You need to start getting followers and engagement. You will read suggestions on how to grow your account in this post.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can work with any audience and platform. When you promote other people’s products, you can earn a commission per sale. It is quite different than sponsored snaps because you get paid only for the results. Also, you can join affiliate programs and promote products even if you have a few followers. For example, Clickbank is free to join and has no requirements for beginners.
The main benefits are that you can start right away and earn more money than other methods because of the big commissions. However, you don’t get paid when you don’t make sales.
It is important to promote the right products. This process is easy when you have a niche-focused following. For example, your niche can be fitness, photography, movies, food, personal development, etc. Then, you promote products relevant to this niche.
You can post affiliate links or send traffic to a website that includes your links. The second option tends to be more effective because you can mention a few benefits before sending them to a sales page. If you don’t have a website, you can use Jimdo that includes simple templates to promote your product.
3. Sell Your Products Or Services
If you have an online store, a product, or a service that you can sell to make money, you can find buyers on Snapchat. It needs a similar strategy to affiliate marketing.
You need to send traffic to an external page where they can complete a purchase. If you are a beginner, you can create a dropshipping store on Jimdo. You will add other people’s physical products, and when you make a sale, they will ship them for you.
You can follow the same process with services. If you have a gig on a freelance platform or want to find clients directly, you can send messages with your offers.
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How To Get Traffic With Snapchat
If you follow the last two methods to make money, you will need to send traffic to another page. The good news is that there are four ways to achieve that.
1. Snap Ads
It is one of the advertising methods of Snapchat. You can set short video ads that appear on the screen of your target audience. You can target Snapchatters based on their demographics, interests, and behaviors. The ads are similar to other social media ads, but Snap Ads has not many competitors like Facebook and Twitter.
You can add a call to action on each ad that motivates the user to watch a longer video, visit a website, download an app, or read an article. The goal of Snap Ads is to get traffic on a website or increase engagement.
2. Geofilters
This is a free way to promote a brand name. For example, you can use it to promote your website, online store, or offline business. You can create a free geofilter for a public place that is important for your business. It can be a park in your area, your neighbor, or an event. In every case, you can add a logo but not links or contact details.
People love geofilters and use them to take snaps. If they like your geofilter, they can use it in many images and share it with their friends. It is not a direct way to get traffic like Snap Ads, but you can test it and check the results.
3. Sponsored Lenses and Posts
It is another fun way to promote your brand on Snapchat. Branded lenses include your logo or the product you want to promote. When users share sponsored lenses, they look like brand suggestions from their friends.
Many big brands use sponsored lenses to increase brand awareness and get more sales. In some cases, it is not the best option if you want to get sales fast.
4. Send Snaps To Your Followers
The only way to get free traffic from Snapchat is to engage with your followers and create conversations. You can send images and videos that present your products, text messages, or your links.
The goal is to make them click your affiliate link or the link of your website. You can also add it to your image or video instead of posting it directly. However, it is important to add some value before making an offer.
You can make a video with tips and mention the product. For example, if you mention ten ways to lose weight, one of these ways will be your product. It is ok to be creative and figure out different ways to get clicks on your links.
How To Grow Your Snapchat Following
You need to grow your following if you want to make serious money on Snapchat. There is not a minimum number, but we need to gain as many followers as possible. Here are ten effective ways to get followers.
1. Add Friends With The Adress Book
The first suggested step by Snapchat is to add your contacts via the address book. It is an easy way to get followers fast. Snapchat will use their phone numbers to find them on the app. If they are on the app, it will add as your Snapchatters. Then, they will get a notification to follow you back.
This is a good idea because most people tend to follow back people they already know. Many new users start with hundreds of followers by using their contacts alone.
If you want to go one step further, you can add any phone numbers from other sources. For example, you can find your Facebook friends or small businesses can add phone numbers of their leads and customers on the address book.
2. Add Your Email Subscribers
Snapchat does not have a feature to add email subscribers to your following, but it is an excellent idea to let your subscribers know you have created a new account. Affiliate marketers and store owners tend to have email lists. If you don’t have a list and don’t want to create one, you can skip this step.
If you have a big list, you can send it only to subscribers of younger age. You can offer rewards to those who will follow you, like free content or coupons about a product.
3. Add Snapchat To Your Website
The same applies if you have a website. You can add a link to Snapchat on the sidebar or below the content. Some visitors will be interested in following you on Snapchat and other platforms. Of course, we assume that you promote this website on your Snapchat as well. If you promote a different website later, it would be confusing for your followers.
4. Send Direct Messages With Your Snapchat Link
When you use other social networks, you can request from your followers to check your Snapchat account. Many of them will decide to follow you because they want to get your updates. Followers from other social apps like TikTok and Instagram have even more chances to follow you again.
You can write something simple to invite them. For example, explain that you have created a new account, the content they will receive, and any other benefits of your Snapchat followers.
5. Post Your Snapcode on Social Media
You can promote your new Snapchat account on other social networks. It is free and easy to write a few short posts and share your Snapcode. Some followers or friends will decide to follow you on Snapchat, which may motivate them to create a new account.
You can plan to write multiple posts with different calls to action. Multiple posts can reach more people. The right number depends on the platforms. For example, you need more posts on Twitter than Facebook to reach the same number of followers.
6. Connect With Influencers
One of the best investments in the online world is to connect with influencers. They can send tons of traffic to your website or help smaller accounts grow their following fast.
You can search for influencers in your area or your niche. Then, you can figure out ways to contact them. The easiest way is to send them a message and ask for more information.
7. Ask For Suggestions
Some platforms have features that allow other people to suggest an account. For example, Facebook users can invite friends to pages even if they have not created them.
Snapchat includes the same feature. Other people can suggest your account to their followers. So, you can encourage them to do it. It takes less than one minute to do this process.
If you have a new account on Snapchat with a few followers, you can request followers’ suggestions on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They can write a simple tweet or a simple post with your Snapcode or share your posts that mention it.
8. Run Contests On Social Media
You can run contests that offer a reward. The participants must follow you on Snapchat to be eligible for the contest, and then you can add more required actions if you want.
Contests are a great way to get the attention of other social media users and help you grow your following. You can use software for the contest and choose the winners from a random draw.
9. Use Paid Ads
You can target people that follow the official page of Snapchat on Facebook. There are other groups and pages from Snapchat fans as well. It will take a few dollars to start putting your Snapcode in front of their eyes and ask for a follow.
Conclusion
Snapchat is a unique messaging app. The users feel comfortable to send photos and videos because of privacy protection. If you want to make money on Snapchat, you need to become a part of their app and have fun. If you plan to promote a product, figure out creative ways to do it with your snaps and stories.
The biggest advantage, compared to other methods and platforms, is the lack of competition. Most internet marketers and businesses are not on Snapchat yet. We can assume that they don’t know how to use it for marketing because the potential of the app is huge.
If you keep building your following and engage with them, your efforts will get results sooner or later. The USA alone has over 100 million users, and you can get your share in this audience.
Frequently Asked Questions about how to do shoutouts on snapchat
What is shoutout for shoutout in Snapchat?
SFS on Snapchat means “Shoutout for Shoutout”. Basically, it means a Snapchat user is looking for a little shoutout on your Snap. The same acronym is used on Instagram too, and it’s used to promote posts on other pages. [May 29, 2021
How do you get Snapchat Insights 2021?
Accessing Snapchat Insights is simple: just click your account’s Bitmoji at the upper left-hand corner of the screen, and tap the insights button at the bottom of the screen. Do note, however, that not all Snapchat accounts will see this option.
How do you shoutout a private story on Snapchat?
3 Ways To Make Money On SnapchatSell Your Snaps. If you are an influencer on Snapchat or have a big audience, some companies will want to advertise their products to your followers. … Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate marketing can work with any audience and platform. … Sell Your Products Or Services.