I’ve been on snapchat for just over a month now. I think… and whilst I am most definitely no snapchat expert I thought it would be fun to give you some thoughts and then maybe you might decide to join me.

 

This is not a “how to use snapchat” blog post. For that, check these out:

> How to use Snapchat in under ten minutes (this is a video by me)

> snapschool.me

> catherinejones.mysnapsecrets.com

 

Here’s my thoughts on what I love and what I don’t love about Snapchat!

 

1. Travelling the world.

Yes, you can do this on ALL social media platforms. I know. Photographs, people in different countries, videos – I KNOW. But trust me it’s not the same. On Snapchat you can be everywhere and it’s just more… raw… it’s hard to explain. You need to get on there and see. It’s not quite so far for me, but I love seeing Cammysutra showing clips of buskers in Glasgow, I love the view from Hillel Fulds house, I love when people show me where they are on their way to their meeting or the streets on the way to their next sandwich. In the past month I’ve been to Paris – including Disneyland – many many places in America, including Social Media Marketing World in San Diego (thank you to all the people who shared bits of that!), Israel, Edinburgh, London, Canada, Australia – and I can’t think where else. It’s great. I love it.

 

2. Interesting people!

There are some really fun/ interesting people on Snapchat. Here are some of my favourites:

Joel Comm – he’s an author, he creates iphone apps and he encourages people to “do good stuff.”

Hillel Fuld – he’s interesting, he’s funny, he talks about tech, the views are great and he likes meat.

Everlane – Fashion with transparency (as in values, not see through clothes). It’s like a show with two presenters providing sneak peeks, meeting the staff, showing behind the scenes.

Mandy Charlton – photography, travel, Holly the Beagle and great shoes.

Joe Wilson TV – Mike the cat, interestingness and great musical interludes. Also check out this link and buy a T-shirt.

Chris Strub – the first person to Snap in all 50 States – in just 100 days, volunteering for youth organisations at the same time.

Cammysutra – buskers in Glasgow and bits of advice about social media and marketing.

*if you’re not on here and think you should be … I’m sorry! I didn’t want to make this the longest blog post EVER.

 

3. Overwhelming. 

There are also some really boring people on Snapchat. The hard thing about this is that you can’t see someones story until you follow them. In fact, you can’t find out anything about them at all! So I’m pretty much following everyone back and then unfollowing if I’ve decided that I’m not interested in their content. Nothing personal here, but snapchat can be just a bit overwhelming. With no way to filter down all those messages I’m finding that I’m having to be really selective about who I follow as it can take a long time to watch through everyone’s stories. If your story is too long and it’s going to take me a while to get through it, then it will have to be REEEEEEALLY interesting or I won’t make time to watch ’til the end.

 

4. Creating content. 

Being interesting – sometimes this is hard. Some days you just go to work, go home, make dinner and sleep you know? Sometimes it’s not that exciting – so you have to think creatively about how to make your day interesting for other people to watch. For me, I find this easier on days I’m at work as finding ten seconds to speak in without a child shouting in the background can be a challenge – and I don’t like saying where I am until I get back (although if you want to cheat you can add snaps whilst you’re in airport mode so they’ll fail and then you can add them later 😉 ) Not being able to create an image to use on Snapchat in advance is really a pretty good thing because it means that if it’s on Snapchat it’s new, it’s the first place it’s been and it keeps Snapchat from being just like all the other social media places you hang out in.

 

5. Messing about

I LOVE that I can write and use emojis and draw pictures etc… on top of a photograph or video. There are also geofilters which are like an overlay with an image to do with your location. Snapchat is full of filters. It’s fun!

 

6. Repurposing.

Snapchat is a place where you make instant content. You can’t make graphics to schedule out for later. You can’t design something that will fit in the space – well I suppose you could and then you could photograph it – but that wouldn’t really be in the spirit of Snapchat so you wouldn’t really do that… however, you can save your snaps or your story and reuse those elsewhere. I do this by posting some of them on other platforms so people can see the kind of content I share on Snapchat – and I also post them on Pinterest in a special album. Not everything – you have to follow me on Snapchat for that – but the shape of a Snap is perfect for Pinterest and it’s a great way to add new content to Pinterest and show people that you’re someone else too.

 

7. Finding friends.

This is not easy. Personally, I don’t love this. Well – I don’t mind that it’s hard to find people, but I struggle with not knowing if they’re worth adding. Not having a tiny bit of a bio or a url to click on – so I can see if I actually WANT to add them. The best thing to do is just to add people you discover and then you can always remove them if they don’t float your boat. You can try Yellw and Ghostcodes – both ways to connect with people and find a little more info on them. You could follow the #chatsnap hashtag on Twitter to find snappers chatting about … well… Snapchat! Other things you can do are search for Snapchat in The Facebook groups you’re in to see if anyone has shared their link. Keep your eyes peeled for Snapcodes. Everywhere. Look out for blog posts (like this one) with links to some interesting people. Also read this post by Gary Vaynerchuck, these tips will definitely help you to build your Snapchat.

 

If you’re on Snapchat, pop your link below (www.snapchat.com/add/YOURUSERNAME) and tell us what you snap about.

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