What Should You Promote on Instagram or Snapchat?

By Jack Monson, Director of Digital Strategy, QiigoJust when brands got their arms wrapped around posting good content on Facebook and Twitter, some of their audience emigrated to Instagram and Snapchat. If your customer base fits the demographic of either of these social media channels, ignoring them is as irresponsible as not moving your brand into Facebook five years ago.Although Instagram is looking more and more like Facebook, and Facebook is looking more and more like Snapchat, these channels are used very differently by consumers than Facebook.Earned & OrganicDepending on your brand and strategy, you should explore spending on some Instagram ads. I’m less bullish on paid opportunities in Snapchat for most brands so far. So, let’s focus organic / earned content.The good news is that 60% of 13 to 34 year-olds in the US use Snapchat. That’s approximately 50 million consumers. The better news is they are not passive; they’re engaged! The bad news is they’re engaged only with their friends and probably don’t want to engage with your brand. So, let’s build on that.Get your current customers to post for you – in other words, be Snapworthy!Be SnapworthyEven the most prolific and obnoxious social sharers only have so many snaps or posts they can do in an hour. You have a limited opportunity for them to take a picture of something in your store or say something about your brand. This goes well beyond social media marketing. This is a challenge for all store managers, franchisees / owners and especially local staff. You must do something to make that customer feel compelled to pull out their phone and tell a story. This won’t be due to an offer, a discount or a coupon. It will be due to the way you made them feel.Using this tactic on Facebook, tooIf the customer posts a pic to Facebook, it’s even better. Even younger demos still have a much larger friend community there than anywhere else. And, with the algorithm changes Facebook made last June, a user’s friends’ posts now claim higher positions in his or her newsfeed than anything else — even from news publishers. That’s bad news for traditional media, but great news for you if your customers find you interesting enough to share something that includes you![author]About the Author: Jack Monson is the Director of Digital Strategy at Qiigo. He has been helping global brands, enterprises, and franchise systems with Digital Marketing for nearly two decades. He blogs at Social Media Workbench and is the co-host of the weekly Social Geek Radio program and podcast. Reach him on Twitter at @jackmonson.[/author]