Let us hit you with some realness. And numbers - the realness is mainly in the numbers.
Almost 500 million per day.
That’s 20 million every hour.
Over 300,000 every minute.
That’s how many people are using Snapchat and Instagram Stories, every single day. Since you’ve been reading this, hundreds of thousands of Snapchats alone have been sent. This may sound a little over-exaggerate-y, like we’ve got drunk on the power of all the data. Which is possible. But we’re also not kidding: around 40,000 Snaps every second are flying through the Snaposphere.
What. A. Visual.
There’s an evolution of brand storytelling that’s happened because of this: it’s gone vertical. Hundreds of millions of people are on these channels, engaging. And if brands want to engage with them, they’ve got to play in their playground. Fish where the fish are, as it were. With the right bait.
Here’s some stuff that might help you catch some whales in the new world of brand storytelling.
(Oh, also - this kid just got a free cruise in exchange for his Snapchat name. What a time to be alive.)
How the top brands are owning vertical video - and how you can, too
Stuff that’s better vertical:
Trees
Buildings
Tents
Brand Stories.
That’s because the age of vertical storytelling is here, and as long as people stay glued to their phones, it’s gonna stick. It means you’ve gotta tell the stories a little differently, and that takes some adjusting.
Head to Forbes to see how the top brands are winning on vertical video - and how you can, too.
Domain names are so 2000, get a spicy Snapchat handle instead
At least that’s what we can learn from this teen in Prospect, Virginia, who had the Snapchat handle @CarnivalCruise, which cruise company Carnival Cruise obviously really wanted. Like reeeally wanted.
Enough to put up out-of-home signage that said ‘Hey Prospect, does anyone know Darian?’ to track the kid down, then give him a free cruise to give up the ghost - literally.
Now, we laugh - because this is genuinely a hoot. But what can we learn from this?
Get guerilla marketing going however you can, because instead of just contacting the seemingly elusive Darian, Carnival Cruise launched a whole missing persons-type campaign, instead, and got national headlines - all for the price of a free cruise.
Who’s laughing now, Snap fam.
Still us. This is an absolute gas. Full credit to the Washington Post for this stellar reporting.
Snapchat’s Testing Connected Apps - But Why is It Such a Biggie?
Because Zuckerberg has not had a good run with keeping people’s stuff private. Facebook has got some serious shade thrown lately after a third party app connected to the social network leaked the Facebook data of millions in 2014. And it all just came out in the wash.
So, Snapchat is now reportedly testing connected apps, and the reasons why are still unknown - maybe it’s because people no longer trust Facebook to login to third party apps. Or maybe it’s because, like Shazaam and Bitmoji, Snapchat are planning a lot more very cool stuff to be integrated into the app.
Watch this space, but also watch this Zuckerberg gif a bunch more times, and however your day is going, be glad you didn’t just lose $14 billion. Jump to Mashable for the full story.
Snap Maps Now Updates You About Friend’s Locations, and Breaking News
The Snap Map was wild because it reminded us of this scene from Harry Potter. But it’s potential hasn’t really yet been harnessed properly - especially for telling brand stories. Map Explore, just released, has opened that wide up. People will now get updates on friend’s movements if they’ve allowed location tracking, and on Our Story updates from events and breaking news around the world.
That means that it’ll become easier for users to discover the amazing events the community is capturing - meaning more time in the app, watching content. Check out The Verge for a full deep dive.
#MischiefManaged
