This article originally appeared in Huffington Post Business, you can find the original article here.
It's 2015, so I think we've all heard the phrase, "Keep calm and keep Snapchatting," right? If not, then you must not work in recruiting or employer branding.
I spoke at a conference last week on Being Authentic on Social Media with Your Company's Employer Brand and explained how Horizon Media uses Snapchat. The crowd perked up and the flutter of tweets increased, because people were truly curious how this unique social platform could help them amplify their brand. And, there I was, holding the secret sauce. The truth is, there's no big secret when it comes to using Snapchat to build out your employer brand. But, I do have five tips to share that anyone with an account can quickly start implementing to rev things up!
1. You must love social! Or at least like it a lot. It can't be a forced "like", like the "like" you give your crazy aunt's picture of her cat dressed in this week's Kim Kardashian fashion that she posts on Facebook. The person running your Snapchat account has to understand how it works and genuinely like it. Consistency is a key factor in building your audience. To me, if you're passionate about something, you're going to want to do it over and over again.
2. Have cool things to show. I admit that when I first started my own Snapchat account, I was posting random snaps: a photo of my puppy, a video of my mailman walking down the street, a picture of my mailman holding my puppy. Yeah, boring. Let me spare you all of these first-timer mistakes, especially if you're snapping from your company's account.
Instead, piece together a story that's fun, energetic and even sometimes wacky. That's the great thing about Snapchat, it's more forgiving than any other platform because it vanishes within 24 hours. You can even direct people to another platform, like Instagram or Twitter and ask your users to follow you there.
3. Work in snapblasts. Remember the boring snaps I used to post? Well, not only was I posting "snorechats", I was posting them at various times throughout the day. The first photo at 9 AM, then a video at 2 PM and I'd end things at 5 PM. The damage was done: no one viewed all of my snaps at the same completion rate. My first post had 45 views while my second had 20 and my last one only had three. What was going on?
The fact is, people rarely come back to see your snaps, especially if you're boring! So it's no wonder my drop-off rate was high and my completion views were low.
Now I post in what's called "snapblasts", where you tell and post your story within a small amount of time (a combo of photos & videos) and all of your snaps are posted at once, as opposed to being spread out throughout the day, in order for your audience to view all of your snaps through completion. Suggestion: "snapblast" 11 snaps of your employees getting cotton candy and taffy at the unavailing of the new 15th floor office space or the interns being photographed for a billboard in Times Square -- both of these situations make for a fun and interesting story that give an insider viewpoint.
4. Tell, tell and then tell some more! Now that you know what and when to snap, who's going to see your story? How do you build your audience? Pro Tip: advertise your Snapchat account on all of your other social networks. Start small and then grow your audience little by little. Give yourself the opportunity to tell your stories in a fun way that engages people and represents your brand. I advertise our Snapchat account on our LinkedIn Career's page and I've noticed that our audience keeps growing because of it. We also send a reminder out to employees before company events so employees can enjoy all the snapping fun. We even have a few campaigns we are about to launch that will be Snapchat-focused. Stay tuned!
5. Measure and pivot. To be honest, I haven't found a real way to measure Snapchat analytics. But, if I'm posting content that's not working, my views will decrease. I've been lucky this summer and had a design intern who also loves Snapchat and we brainstormed various pieces of content that she created so I could post using the app SnapUp. I personally track data (including views and followers) because I want to see what's resonating with my audience.
You, as a brand, must figure out if your target audience is on Snapchat and whether or not they'll engage with your content. For us, they are engaging and it's working. We've actually received emails from candidates who said they saw all of our snaps and now, more than ever, they truly want to work for Horizon Media and they couldn't wait for their interview. That, to me, is a snapping success.
