Should you use Snapchat at your business?

Do you know what the #1 fastest growing social media platform is? Snapchat. It’s got over 100 million daily active users…and it’s growing. It’s the second most-used social network after Facebook. Surprised? I was, too.

In researching a blog last week, I came across these stats and had to dive in further. Because, as any good marketer is aware, marketing should be done where the people are. If it is so popular of a social media platform, should businesses be on it, too?

We set out to answer this question: our final conclusion is below. 

Should you use Snapchat at your business?

Whenever a business sets out to incorporate a new platform into its social media toolbox, there’s a series of questions that should first be answered. These questions include:

1. Is my audience on this platform?

2. What are my end goals for this platform?

3. What kind of content will we produce on this platform?

4. What kind of advertising options are available?

5. How will I track my results?

6. Are the results measurable?

Therefore, to answer the question of whether you should use Snapchat at your business, answer the above questions with your own business in mind.

Here’s a couple extra statistics about Snapchat to assist you in making a decision:

• The user base skews young—of Snapchat’s monthly U.S. users, 18 to 24-year-olds are the largest user base at 37 percent. They’re followed by 25 to 34-year-olds (26 percent) and 13 to 17-year-olds (23 percent).
• More than half of new users signing up to Snapchat are over the age of 25.
• More than 60 percent of U.S. 13 to 34-year-old smartphone users are Snapchatters.

(Information is courtesy of Hootsuite.)

Is your target demographic 18-24 years old? Or maybe in the 25-34 age group? If so, perhaps Snapchat would be a good platform for your business.

Let’s move on to some of the additional questions, shall we? Numbers 2 and 3 will have to be answered by you, analyzing how your own company will utilize the platform and create fresh, meaningful content on it. It’s numbers 4-6 that become a bit more problematic. Currently, Snapchat does not offer a viable advertising option for businesses. To me, that’s an issue, but it’s not that big of an issue. After all, businesses didn’t start out on Facebook with advertising until later. No, the biggest issue lies in tracking the results.

You can’t. There’s no way to tell if your efforts are working. Until this is not the case, it’s not worth it for your business to use Snapchat. (Or, at least, to put very many marketing dollars into the platform. If your target audience is on Snapchat and you’d like to play around with creating content and connecting with followers, go ahead.) As marketers, we’re very concerned with measurable results, trends that are able to be tracked, follower growth and the like. Since Snapchat doesn’t offer analytics, don’t spend time and money and resources using Snapchat at your business. There’s plenty of other platforms to focus on first.

And that’s the bottom line.