As Snapchat shows it isn’t going anywhere fast, other social media giants are seen admitting defeat and jumping on the self-destructing photo band wagon too!
In July this year Instagram revealed its own temporary photo messaging service; Bolt which in Snapchat style, allows you to send a photo or video to a friend which then disappears as it is viewed.
Facebook themselves also launched its own version too, Slingshot, earlier this year. Some may say this is true Facebook form – to follow directly in its competitor’s footsteps in a bid to provide a better solution, albeit being a little late to the party!
Nevertheless, Slingshot has a number of unique features which are not synonymous with Bolt or Snapchat. It has a ‘select all’ function which allows you to send a photo to everyone in your contacts list at the same time and a novelty unlock feature which requires users to ‘sling’ a photo to the original user in order to unlock a photo sent by them.
So, it seems that temporary photo apps are growing in popularity, especially as it has been revealed that over 400 million ‘snaps’ are sent a day via Snapchat. But how are brands making sure they are utilising this trend?
There are quite a few dos and don’ts for brands using these instant messaging applications. These channels are a fun and easy way to communicate with customers so brands need to ensure their messaging is in line with this.
Case Study
Brands are also using platforms such as Snapchat to offer promotional content. The Co-operative Electrical company ran a campaign known as ‘Snaptop’ in which students were offered £30 off laptops. All they had to do was add the Co-operative Electrical as a friend and the company would send them a promotional code which would disappear after a certain amount of time.Brands are also utilising these services by offering customers exclusive content. MTV UK used Snapchat to send users exclusive photographs of the Geordie Shore cast ahead of their upcoming sixth season.It would appear that brands are very much in the early stages of testing the waters when it comes to this particular form of social media, although it’s clear that there is a very engaged market to be tapped into. Although brands have only begun to explore with Snapchat, the introduction of Bolt and Slingshot among others shows that the form of messaging is here to stay and will only grow in popularity.
